Linda Purl has had a rich career. She has TV and theater acting credits, as well as a jazz music career. 

She is bringing “Glamour & Jazz: Linda Purl’s Nightclub Legends” to the Musical Instrument Museum’s intimate theater on Friday, July 24. She will celebrate singers who helped define the swanky supper-club era of the 1940s and ’50s — women such as Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney and Polly Bergen.

“It’s the ‘Great American Songbook’ in a jazz ‘wash,’” Purl said via Zoom from Mexico, where she was staying with longtime partner Patrick Duffy, formerly of “Dallas.” “That’s what Tedd and I like to do together.”

“Tedd” is Tedd Firth, Purl’s music director and pianist. During their 18-year musical partnership, they have recorded multiple albums, including the forthcoming “From My Heart,” due in August. At MIM, Firth will lead a trio on piano, bass and drums.

“Anytime I get to work with Tedd Firth, my music director, it’s an adventure,” Purl said. “It’s like jumping off a cliff, but you know you’re going to be absolutely safe. He’s unparalleled.”

DEEPER DIVE: Read all the Ranking Arizona Top 10 lists here

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS: Want more news like this? Get our free newsletter here

Finding the story inside a song

Purl is known to TV audiences for roles on “Happy Days,” “Matlock,” “The Office,” “Hacks” and other series. She has also appeared in more than 40 made-for-television movies. 

She grew up performing in musicals and was a recording artist in Japan in her twenties. Television work quickly took over.

“I lost out on continuing opportunities to sing and very music missed having music in my life,” she said. “In the mid-1980s, I fell into the world of cabaret and loved it. Among other things, I found there was autonomy in it. You could build a show with your music director and book a club. I didn’t have to wait for the phone to ring.” 

For Purl, the Great American Songbook offers a natural bridge between acting and singing. She sees the songs as compact dramas, full of character, conflict and emotional turns.

“They’re like one-act plays,” she said. “There’s a lot of storytelling, of character journeying in the arc of a song, and so as an actress that very much appeals to my sensibility.”

Her MIM show centers on the women she admires for their artistry and fortitude. She described them as beautiful, talented working women who did not seem to accept limits.

“I’m a fan of these women and their music,” Purl said. “I admire the sophistication of the songs they chose and the fortitude they showed, especially considering the time in which they worked. They were pioneers.”

She specifically credits Bergen, who worked with Black music director Luther Henderson, as an example of artists who simply followed the music. She told Firth that she wanted to make “great music and put it out there.”

Purl also thinks about the composers and lyricists behind the standards — many of whom lived through war, immigration and upheaval — and hears resilience in their work.

“Their joy, their insistence on love, their resilience, their life lessons — without being preachy at all — all of those better qualities of humanity are celebrated in this music,” she said. “For me, it’s very joyful to do.”

A familiar face, a new room

Although Purl has friends who have performed at MIM, the Friday, July 24, concert will mark her first time on its stage. 

In addition to releasing “From My Heart,” she will take “Crazy Mama,’ a one-woman play written by Sharon Scott Williams and directed by her husband, “Happy Days’” Anson Williams, Off-Broadway in September for a five-week run at 59E59 Theaters.

Sharon Scott Williams’ mom had a massive psychotic break when the playwright was 8 years old. 

“It’s a one-woman show about the playwright’s mother. She wrote an extensive journal about it. I’m not the playwright,” Purl said.

“Anson directed it and very kindly roped me into the first product of it in Southern California. We’re taking it off-Broadway in September for a five-week run. It’s a 64-page monolog. I’m just talking to myself like a crazy girl.” 

The play has moved audience members, she said.

“Most times somebody would come backstage afterward and say, ‘My mother, my husband, my child,’” Purl said. “We’re aware that the play has the capacity to start a conversation.”

Joy that lasts

Purl’s career has carried her across stages, film sets and TV soundstages, but she speaks of the most enduring experiences in terms of joy and collaboration. She said “Happy Days” was as joyful as it looked. She played Richie Cunningham’s occasional girlfriend, Gloria, and Fonzie’s steady partner, Ashley.

“We were on Stage 19, and there’s something about — you open the door to that big soundstage, and everybody just left their earth weights outside,” she said. 

“We thought we were just bouncing along to work and having a nice time. What we didn’t know is that we were building relationships that are now 52 years old.”

Those relationships continue to ripple through her current work. Williams is directing “Crazy Mama.” Ron Howard is among the producers helping bring the play to New York. Jimmy Dunne, a writer and producer from “Happy Days,” partners with Purl on a duet her on her new album. 

She found a similar atmosphere when she joined “The Office” as Helene Beesly, Pam’s mother.

“There was such a family feeling about it,” Purl said about “The Office.” “I was nervous but thrilled to go to ‘The Office.’ I was nervous because they’d been enjoying success for so many years. I thought, ‘Oh God. Are they going to accept me?’

“Steve Carell came to work every day like it was his first day of school. He didn’t take a second of it for granted. He worked hard, played hard. He was such a team player. The atmosphere was familiar to me from ‘Happy Days.’ I thought, ‘I got this. I’m OK.’”

That same collaborative spirit is what she hopes to bring to MIM — a room she understands has cultivated careful listeners.

“You can tell when you go to a venue that has cultivated an audience,” Purl said. “It makes a difference, because that’s an audience who’s there to have a good time. They’re a sophisticated audience, so that’s always a treat. We’re just looking forward to suiting up and having a good time.”

What the world ‘kneads’ now

Five years ago, Duffy and Purl founded a bread company called Duffy’s Dough, which donates 100% of its profits go to hunger relief. The recipe comes from Duffy’s mom, who received a sourdough starter that had been passed down by Alaska Gold Rush miners. 

“Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, our friends said we should start a business,” she said. “We always wanted to start a company with the mission of giving all of our profits away. We’re a Newman’s Own wannabe.” 

Their take-and-bake sourdough bread line is available at Fry’s in Arizona, and 17 other states. While Duffy and Purl were in the Valley promoting the bread at Fry’s, they stopped at St. Mary’s Food Bank of Arizona. The nonprofit impressed the couple. 

“They’re just so wholistic with their work,” she said. “It was very, very moving. We all got back in the car and just cried. We were astonished at the humanity that they support.”

Duffy and Purl have been on the road for about a year, rolling out their products region by region. The bakery is in Maryland. 

“We just pray — keep our fingers crossed — that people are willing to try a new product,” she said. “All of the profits that come to us go right back out to food scarcity. That’s been a very huge learning curve. We had no idea how severe the problem is in Arizona. It’s massive — especially now — because the prices are what they are.

“That’s been very fulfilling.”