Jill Hennessy, best known for her roles in Crossing Jordan and Law & Order, is starring in Hope Valley: 1874, the new prequel to Hallmark’s When Calls the Heart. But Hennessy, who’s also a singer-songwriter, has also been flying from the show’s Canadian set to New York City to play a concert series at City Winery, with the next one scheduled for Thursday.
The concert series, called Ghosts In My Head: Stories from Edmonton to New York, sees Hennessy performing her own music, plus songs from her musical influences, such as U2, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. The goal, she says, is to create an autobiographical theater piece similar to Springsteen on Broadway.
“This will eventually become a one-woman show. … And right now it’s intimate, I’m talking with the audience, I’m telling them my stories,” Hennessy tells ABC Audio. “So I’m gonna look back at all this, see what was the most potent, what was the most relevant and then condense it all into one show.”
Hennessy says that even during her Law & Order years, her music was always present.
“I was bringing the guitar to set and we’d play at lunch hour,” she recalls. “We had the whole squad room filled with a lot of the crew and whatever guest actor was [on] and we’d just be singing. … And then on Crossing Jordan, I would play my songs for the hair and makeup crew to see what they thought.”
Hennessy says she’s been doing the same while filming Hope Valley, which premieres March 21.
“Sometimes I try out my material on them, too. Like, ‘I’m thinking of introducing this song with this. Do you think that’s resonant?'” she explains. “So I have to thank the whole cast and crew of Hope Valley because they have been incredibly helpful.”
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