John O'Hurley, the actor best known for his role as J. Peterman on the hit sitcom Seinfeld, sat down for a one-on-one interview with CTV's J.C. Garden just hours before he takes the stage in "Chicago" at the Conexus Arts Centre.

"It's on my list of the five great musicals ever in the history of Broadway," said O'Hurley, who plays lawyer Billy Flynn.

"It does celebrate that kind of dark morality of the fact that we are addicted in our society to the notion of celebrity and we tend to forgive people who are celebrities for things that they otherwise probably not be forgiven for.

"But it's a beautiful comedy too, with the sense of the jazz environment that was so indicative of the ‘20s and ‘30s in Chicago."

O'Hurley was offered the role following a stint on the first season of TV's Dancing with the Stars.

"Since then, it's become the show that I embrace; it's kind of my show. I take this character and keep him very close to my heart," O'Hurley said.

And although Seinfeld ended 13 years ago, O'Hurley says his eccentric character J. Peterman is still a source of inspiration.

"I kind of feel like I've never stopped (playing Peterman)," he said.

"I've got 15 cartoons that I voice and every one of them has some element of J. Peterman to them. I'm King Neptune in Spongebob and if you listen very closely, it's Peterman.

"Commercially, not only for Coors Light, but for several other companies, I still keep that character alive. It's just kind of a fun, lunatic Mr. Magoo that always stays with me."

Another passion for O'Hurley is charity work. Since 1999, the group he helped found, Golfers Against Cancer, has raised $20 million for cancer research.

"We go to fund the initial idea of cancer therapy," O'Hurley explained.

"If I'm a cancer researcher and I've got a good idea; I need $50,000 to $100,000 to start a project, get it up off the ground, see if it's got some legs underneath it, in the U.S. you would have to go to the government and it would take two or three years. By the time I get there it's an obsolete idea or it's gone or it's died on the vine.

"Instead of that, we solve the bottleneck; we get them the money in two to three weeks."

Chicago runs tonight and Tuesday night at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina.