James Naughton performed recently at Broadway on Beachside, a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society.

Westonite James Naughton may be seen in many venues these days.

The two-time Tony Award winner is currently appearing on the silver screen in The Devil Wears Prada (playing Meryl Streep’s husband). He just completed a cabaret act at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York, and then there are all those television ads for Nexium, the “little purple pill.”

However, one might just as easily spy him judging a cookie contest at the Emmanuel Church Country Fair or giving lectures to the Y’s Women.

That’s because as busy as Mr. Naughton is professionally, he also devotes a substantial amount of time helping local causes and charity groups in the Weston area.

This year alone, Mr. Naughton has emceed a fund-raiser for the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk; attended the Weston Reads Week lecture featuring author Frank McCourt; helped Limos for Lives raise funds for a school for the blind; and on Sunday, July 9, he was the featured performer for the American Cancer Society at its Broadway on Beachside event in Westport.

In between those extracurricular activities, Mr. Naughton has just one goal: “I would like to try to work on my golf game this summer,” he said.

But will there be much time in the next few weeks for the popular actor/singer/director to canoodle with his niblick?

Native son James Naughton is as much a Connecticut Yankee as they come. He was born in Middletown, raised in West Hartford, and attended Brown and Yale universities.

However, his move to Weston wasn’t a natural progression. Mr. Naughton and his wife Pam were living in Los Angeles in the 70s when Arvin Brown, the artistic director of the Long Wharf Theater, asked him to visit him at his home in Weston.

Once in town, Mr. Naughton was smitten. “I told Pam, ‘we are moving to Weston,’” he said.

The Naughtons settled into the oldest house they could find - one built in 1797 and surrounded by sugar maples - and have called Weston home now for 29 years.

Their two grown children, Keira and Greg, both went through the Weston school system. Keira is an actress and Greg is a singer-songwriter. Rounding out the family are the Naughtons’ two schnoodles (schnauzer-poodle mixes), Mikey and Harry.

Pam Naughton is a psychiatric social worker and worked for a time as an aide for the special education program at the Weston Middle School.

“It’s funny,” Mr. Naughton said. “Pam and I are both students of human behavior. The terminology in Pam’s books is the same as the conversations actors have in rehearsals - about what motivates them.”

Weston’s proximity to New York has been convenient for Mr. Naughton to appear in cabaret shows and on Broadway. In 1990, he won a Tony for City of Angels, and in 1997 was honored for his performance in Chicago.

James Naughton sings a duet with 10-year-old Ben Goldberg. ‘Our Town’ In 1993, Mr. Naughton directed a successful version of Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town.

The play started its run at the Westport Country Playhouse and featured several actors from the area, including Westporters Paul Newman as the Stage Manager and Mia Dillon as Mrs. Soames, Westonites Frank Converse and Jayne Atkinson as Doc and Mrs. Gibbs, and Jane Curtin from Litchfield County as Mrs. Webb.

The idea to stage a revival came from actress Joanne Woodward, following the events of 9/11. She personally asked Mr. Naughton to direct it. The play is a celebration of life and finding the joy in the simple pleasures of day-to-day living.

The play is set in Grover’s Corners, N.H., but Mr. Naughton utilized actors from Connecticut to give the play a Weston/Westport feel.

Although Our Town is a staple of high school and college theaters, it is rarely performed outside of academia. “People told me it was the first time they ever saw the play with adults in it,” Mr. Naughton said.

The production was special to him for a couple reasons. First, it marked Mr. Newman’s return to Broadway after 38 years. Second, the play was filmed for PBS public television, but, unlike most Broadway productions, the play was shot like a movie.

“To my knowledge, I don’t think there’s been a television piece made from a play that is anything like this. We waited until the play closed to film it and made a soundstage out of the theater. So the play looks more like a film,” he said.

The strategy seems to have paid off, as the filmed version of Our Town received critical and viewer praise when it was televised, and is still available for purchase at book stores and on amazon.com.

Distractions

Although the golf course beckons, Mr. Naughton is continually distracted - in a good way. He just finished filming a movie in New York called The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, based on the best seller of the same name. The film also stars Sarah Michelle Gellar (best known as Buffy the vampire slayer) and Alec Baldwin as the older man she falls in love with. Mr. Naughton plays Ms. Gellar’s father.

“It’s a very good screenplay from the novel,” Mr. Naughton said, who really enjoyed the experience.

He is also awaiting the release of a movie he shot this past winter with Nicole Kidman called The Vanishing, which is a remake of the classic thriller Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Having worked with some of Hollywood’s top actresses, Mr. Naughton’s favorite is Meryl Streep, who plays his wife in The Devil Wears Prada. He has two scenes with Ms. Streep that he describes as deliberately “contentious and problematic” in tone.

Mr. Naughton was awed by Ms. Streep’s performance and professionalism throughout filming. “There’s been no better actress in a couple generations than Meryl Streep,” he said.

Looking a few months ahead, Mr. Naughton may revive the cabaret act he recently completed at Feinstein’s for a run at the Westport Country Playhouse this winter.

The act received raves from the New York Times, which said, “It takes an exceptional voice to even begin to pull off what Mr. Naughton accomplishes with such studied effortlessness.”

Asked if there is anything the multi-talented performer can’t do, Mr. Naughton thought for a second and said, “I don’t do windows anymore.”

That may be true now, but there was a time when Mr. Naughton extolled the virtues of manual labor. While attending graduate school at Yale, he drove trucks for the Allied Van Lines moving company and packed and unloaded furniture.

“It was good mindless work,” he said.