I have intentionally not pursued musical theater.
I really did start a whole way of thinking about musical theater.
As an actor, you generally don’t get to choose what projects you are part of, so I’ve been very fortunate that ‘The Book of Mormon’ was something I got to be part of. I don’t want to be lofty, but it was groundbreaking, in many ways, for musical theater, so that was really thrilling to be part of.
I don’t think theater is dying, and musicals are a great American art form. We’ve got apple pie, jazz and musical theater.
I did some musical theater and studied a little bit of acting as well.
Thinking back on it, I’ve been in this business since I was 3, and I grew up in musical theater, so I was raised and surrounded by gay men and gay women. I was hardly around anyone straight.
My love of musical theater was certainly not typical. I mean, it was considered to be very, very abnormal, in fact!
I love musical theater. That’s what I started off to do when I was 7, and my first show was ‘Peter Pan.’
I’ve got quite a low voice, so it’s not your typical musical theater voice, but I do love musicals; they’re a very different experience.
Sondheim’s work especially, and musical theater like that, just spoke to me so much and taught me so many lessons.
Musical theater is often seen as a lesser form of acting, although I don’t see it that way.
I didn’t know I was going to go into musical theater necessarily. It was never planned. I just kind of fell into it because I knew I wanted to act, and yet I had this opera training… I knew I had a voice.
From day one, musical theater was my bread and butter.
I was in musical theater when I first started, so there was always both acting and singing. But as far as getting a record deal, that took time. The majority of that time, I was acting.
My first love was singing. It was the first thing that really felt like it was a part of me. It’s just in my blood. And acting came sort of out of singing because I did a lot of musical theater.
I began thinking I would do musical theater because in high school that was really the only sort of curriculum they had as far as getting onstage and doing anything that anybody would see. So that’s what I did.
I started off in musical theater, yeah. It was one of my first jobs; it was in Spring Awakening in London, which was amazing.
I teach musical theater three days a week at the school that my wife and I graduated from.
I would love to be in musical theater and be on Broadway. If someone were to offer me a position to do something like that, I wouldnt pass it down. Im a huge fan of musicals and I really want to do that.
I have a lot of respect for the musical theater plays.
When you’re on stage, you’re playing to whoever is in the back of the room, and TV and film is so much more detailed and nuanced, but I think that’s what I always wanted to do. As much as I love theater and musical theater and would love to do it again, I really love the subtleties of film and theater acting.
When you are in the musical theater and you are someone who looks like me, you are constantly bending yourself, bending your voice to fit the job they’ve given you.
