In 2018 Aaron Tveit talked of his path to Boston and the premiere of Moulin Rouge

The Hollywood Reporter 11:00 AM PDT 6/30/2018 by Overture’s Patrick Hayward

Patrick Hayward of British based Overtures (The Bunnett-Muir Musical Theatre Archive Trust), linked with London’s Victoria And Albert Museum, charts the career of TV, Hollywood and Broadway star Aaron Tveit.

Aaron next month you open at the Colonial Theater in Boston in the brand new stage musical “Moulin Rouge”, the theater where so many of musical theater’s global hits have debuted; this must be an exciting time for you.
I’ve been involved with “Moulin Rouge” for some time now, it’s sort of taken over my life – but I’ve yet to perform it in front of a paying audience – so, yeah, it is exciting. I’m back in rehearsals on Monday and our first show is the 10th July. The role of Christian is so different from other roles I’ve played in
musicals – the story is set at the dawning of the twentieth century and Christian is a budding writer who travels to Paris for inspiration and meets Satine, the star courtesan, played by Karen Olivo – she is amazing – do you know she won a Tony for her portrayal of Anita in the revival of “West Side Story”? I first saw her in the original production of “In The Heights” and last year in “Hamilton” – there is chemistry between us that works and I hope the audience will feel that too. For anyone that hasn’t seen the original Baz Luhrmann film, the plot has an operatic quality to it, which I hope we are managing to recreate in this production. I think that this will be a “try-out” in the best Broadway tradition as for now there are no fixed plans for the next step.

How did you become associated with it?
Simple, really. I got a call from my manager to say that Baz Luhrmann had seen me in Graceland on tv and in a couple of movies and he would like to meet me. I knew who he was and that he was working on a stage production based on his film “Strictly Ballroom” for a London opening – thinking at the time, but I’m too old to play Scott – but what the hell, let’s see what he has in mind. At that first meeting he told me that he had no idea I could sing or dance until he saw “Grease – Live” and that he was working on a new project as he had handed over “Strictly Ballroom” to its British director (Drew McOnie). He told me about his ideas on bringing “Moulin Rouge” to the stage and thought it might be something I could be interested in. To be honest I don’t think I had ever seen the movie, so that became the priority. I
was knocked back by it and thought the part played by Ewan McGregor, Christian, could be the sort of challenge I was looking for. It was a movie with songs and not a musical, so a lot would depend on the team that Baz had pulled together in terms of becoming a successful stage musical. The next meeting (not sure if it was an audition) was with Baz and John Logan, who had written the book, also there was Sonya Tayeh, the choreographer and director Alex Timbers. There are no new songs, but lots of familiar chart
songs that move the story along. It was later that day I met Karen Olivio and we hit it off immediately. We both signed up for the workshop, which kicked off at the end of October last year and ran through mid-December. It was in March that plans were finalised for the opening of the show in Boston and both Karen and me were offered the lead roles for the initial 6 week run.

What happens after Boston?
To be frank I don’t know. There’s a lot of talk about Broadway but it’s difficult to see when that might happen – there are no commitments that I’m aware of. What’s nice about opening in Boston is that the theater has been dark for some time; it is undergoing a lot of restoration work and ATG have stepped in to book a number of shows with a long term view of creating a home for Lyric Opera. I guess a lot depends on the reaction of the Boston audiences and the success of “Strictly Ballroom” in London. Global Creatures, the production company are behind both and they already have a big show slated for Broadway, King Kong, in October. One option might be to open the show in London and then bring it to Broadway; but none of this is figured into my plans.

It’s interesting that Baz knew you from tv and films but not from your musical theater work. It’s like you have multiple careers, tv, film, theater and I guess with the concerts you do, music. How do you choose and handle such a diverse programme?
With great difficulty. I hate sitting around with time on my hands. In theater, there can be long spells between jobs, with tv series you can be tied up for 4 or 5 months at a time. Typically, with films the overall time is not that great but there always seem so many conflicting schedules, delays and then very
intense periods of activity. My first love is the stage and musical theater is all I have ever wanted to do, films are fun and you’re always working with different people, tv series are great for what I call ‘my time’, giving me opportunity to do concerts and play golf.

Aaron Tveit in his first professional role – in Footloose

So musical theater comes first, how did you start out?
I guess it goes back to when I was a kid, people said that I was a bit of an exhibitionist, any chance to perform and I was there, right from primary school. Somehow I got a part, the role of Garvin, one of the friends of Ren, the lead character in “Footloose”. Well that was it, the bug had bitten. I just loved performing every night and the camaraderie of the team, it was awesome, we moved around that summer like one big family. Desperate to continue and not have to return to college I began scanning all the audition notices and that kicked off a crazy period where I was going all over doing auditions, not getting despondent with the continual stream of NOs, and over excited every time there was a call back. But it was all for nothing, or at least that was what I thought. I returned to College in mid-August to resume my musical theater course with the confidence that I had been a paid performer in a professional musical and with the determination that I needed to get something sorted. It wasn’t until I was back in college that the opportunity came up. The casting director for the national tour of “Rent” had held a mock audition the previous term at college. Two months later, Dad drove me to New York for a callback; the day we drove back, I received an offer to tour the country as part of the “Rent” cast. That mock audition ended up landing me a gig in the tour. The caveat was that I would need to be
available from Christmas (2003) through the whole of 2004, if that was ok I would be joining the first national tour of “Rent”. The college were more than happy to release me whilst keeping the door open should I wish to return, which I did. So for a full year I played a minor role, that of Steve, one of the Life Support members. However, I also understudied as Mark Cohen and Roger Davis and as fate would have it I played both roles numerous times. Fancy, a college kid playing the lead in a professional musical in some of the country’s most famous theaters in front of sell-out audiences, I really didn’t think life could get better than this.

On the downside, my golf was beginning to suffer because of the grueling schedule. All through High School I was sport mad but in college, time was limited for anything other than core activities and so I began to focus more on golf, something my Dad had got me interested in from an early age. So, from spring through fall I managed to play at least twice a week. So, gradually my game improved. But, being on the road has a grueling schedule and on your non-show days it’s either travelling on to the next City or technicals and press calls. No time for golf even though in the winter months we visited some pretty balmy spots.

The Broadway production of Hairspray

Settling back into college at the beginning of 2005 was difficult. I finished the school year determined to get back on the stage. After numerous auditions and call-backs I was contacted by the team of a new touring production asking me back to audition for a specific role and that is how I came to be Link Larkin joining the first national tour of “Hairspray”. So in August 2005, instead of returning to college I set out on what was to become the beginnings of my career, playing the same role that Matthew Morrison played on Broadway, alongside the incredible J.P. Dougherty as Edna. I had a 12-month contract and even before I had thought about looking for my next opportunity, it came to me. I had a phone call early one morning asking if I would be interested in continuing in the role, but making the move to the Neil Simon Theater and the Broadway production. The Broadway production of “Hairspray” – It didn’t take a lot of thinking time and so that was the next big break. So there I was a 23 year old that should be finishing college now stepping out onto a Broadway stage for the very first time and for a six-month stint. I actually returned for a another four weeks in 2008.

That seems like a whirlwind introduction to musical theater. So at 24 and with “Hairspray” behind you what were your thoughts on the future?
My immediate decision was not to race into something, but to give myself some focused time, to think out what I wanted to do. It was an ideal opportunity to relax, play golf and explore the world that lay ahead. Several parts were offered but which I turned down, I was also approached by casting directors from the world of film and tv; to be honest this was something that I had never considered but which sounded quite interesting, so that is one idea that I parked to be revisited. I’d quite enjoyed my summer break playing in Footloose at Auburn and thought that something similar would be fun and so I started looking to see what might be appropriate for me in the summer of 2007. Two projects materialised, the first at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield which is in Massachusetts – the show was “Calvin Berger” a musical that had premiered the year before and is based on the story of Cyrano De Bergerac and I signed up for the two week run in July 2007. It tells the story of a high school senior, who is smitten by Rosanna but because of his appearance, particularly the size of his nose, he feels insecure and eventually how he discovers real love. It’s one of those shows that seemed to be liked but never ventured further than New England. Then keeping the French theme I agreed to play d’Artagnan at the North Shore Music Theater in Beverley, Massachusetts, which would play for 3 weeks from mid-August. It was the East Coast premiere of the musical “The Three Musketeers” penned by Brit, George Stiles and followed a Chicago run. It got reasonable 3 star reviews but to my knowledge it never re-appeared. It was around this time that I was approached about a small role in an upcoming movie; no singing, no dancing, just acting – I was shown the script, thought it wacky, but just knowing I could do it; a whole series of meetings and screen tests followed and eventually I signed to play an anesthetist in the movie “Ghost Town”.

Aaron making his movie debut in “Ghost Town”

Being part of the cast gave me my first insight into the strange world of British humour – but I’ve been told that I have learnt from one of the best – Ricky Gervais. It wasn’t an auspicious break into movies but it was a start. The other thing, for the first time I achieved a reasonable golf handicap.

Is “Ghost Town” what led you into more dramatic and comedy roles?
Eventually, yes; but in 2008 my mind was still firmly fixed in musical theater and so when I was offered the part of Gabe in the off-Broadway rock musical “Next To Normal” I jumped at it. It ran for two months at Second Stage and we all learnt a lot from it, in terms of how to refine productions for a bigger stage and a wider audience. The creative team went away and made significant changes to both the book and the score. I moved on and took part in the premiere of “Saved” a new musical by Michael Friedman, which premiered at New York’s Playwrights Horizons and ran through June of that year. That was a tricky one for me as my character was struggling with his sexual orientation, not something I’ve ever had a problem with. At the end of June I moved down the road to the Gershwin where I joined the cast of “Wicked” playing Fiyero; they wanted me for 6 months but I had a 3 month commitment to return to “Next To Normal” which would play the Arena Stage at its temporary home in Virginia from Mid-November through mid-January 2009, so they agreed that I could take a 3 month break and return in January to continue in “Wicked” until March. Which is when I returned to “Next To Normal” in time for its Broadway previews at the Booth Theater on 27th March 2009.

Scene from the Broadway production of “Next To Normal”

By this time your first movie had been released and I guess you were getting offers from a variety of studios. I had been contacted by a couple of producers but my Broadway commitments meant that I couldn’t even consider them. I’d originally signed up to “Next To Normal” for 4 months but I had already agreed to join a try-out of a new musical based on a movie, “Catch Me If You Can” playing the role, Frank Abagnale Jr, created in the film by Leonardo Di Caprio, to be staged in Seattle in July and August. So I took a break from “Next To Normal” and returned to it at the beginning of September and stayed until it closed in January 2010. But during that time I was coaxed into agreeing to appear in a few episodes of a tv series to be shot in New York whose schedule would not interfere with my stage work and so as Tripp van der Bilt I became a member of the cast of the highly successful “Gossip Girl” and appeared in seven episodes that year. I made single episode returns in subsequent series.

“Next To Normal” got you recognised in a big way and you received a number of awards and nominations. How did that make you feel?
Incredible, especially the Broadway.com Audience Award for ‘Favourite Featured Actor In A Musical’. It’s one thing to be recognised by your peers and the critics but the recognition from the paying audience is something special; especially in a show that has such a serious subject, bipolar disorder, at its core. I think it was this show, more than any other, which enabled me to demonstrate my craft and capabilities.

So as you entered 2010 you must have been overwhelmed with offers.
I was, but not from the theater; it was Hollywood that beckoned. I guess they liked my performances in “Gossip Girl”. During the year I made guest appearances on tv in “Ugly Betty” and “Law And Order. But for me the big one was the release of a movie I had made for Rob Epstein “Howl” an experimental movie which explores both the Six Gallery debut and the 1957 obscenity trial of 20th-century American poet Allen Ginsberg played by James Franco. I played Ginsberg’s lifelong partner, Peter Orlovsky and this was a total step away from anything I have ever done before. If anyone tells you that work in the movie industry is like a holiday compared to the
theater, they really don’t know what they’re talking about. It really does test your patience and stamina. During the year I also appeared in another experimental film, “A Girl Walks Into A Bar” whichwas released in 2011 on YouTube. The 80 minute film was shot in eleven days using hand held cameras. Unfortunately, the film could only be seen in the US because of copyright issues. I don’t know if that’s the same today. I also made an action-thriller “Premium Rush” which didn’t get released until the summer of 2012, which probably tells you something about it. A particular highlight for me was being asked to participate in a concert performance of “Rent” at the
Hollywood Bowl. I found the experience totally exhilarating and whenever possible now take the opportunity to take part in concert performances, whether it’s as formal as the Hollywood Bowl or just with friends in the intimacy of bars and clubs. It was 2011 and I’d just completed an episode of tv crime drama “Body Of Proof”, one of “The Good Wife” and a second for “Law And Order” before I got back to Broadway.

“Catch Me If You Can” on Broadway

The show I was part of, on try-out in Seattle, had secured a home at the Neil Simon Theater, where I had made my Broadway debut. After weeks of previews “Catch Me If You Can” opened on April 10th. The show ran for over 200 performances, closing in September. A shorter run than we’d all hoped for, but we did get a number of Tony nominations and we picked up one.

So September in New York with no pressures, or were there?
My first priority was to get back into golf, so a trip home to my parents and out with Dad on the course was top of the agenda. It is a great way of clearing the head, but it’s amazing how long it takes to get back into the game and regain the confidence to do well. So, more practice, more games and then I started to think that maybe it was time to start focusing on getting a role. I had a call asking if I had ever seen the show “Les Miserables”, I’d seen it when I was in tenth grade with my high school chorus. I didn’t think I knew the show, and then I was sitting in the theater and I was like, ‘How do I know all these songs?’ That’s the cool thing about it. It’s part of American pop culture, in a way. And I just loved it. I’d only seen a couple shows before that and you know—all the war, and the story—it got me. I loved it. So this call telling me there was to be a movie made of the musical and that I might like to try for a part in it was like, brilliant. Principal shooting would be in England in the spring of 2012 and that screen tests would be held in the coming couple of weeks. Thoughts of a big scale movie, a musical one at that and England was a big enough draw to lure me away from the golf course. I sent in a tape for Marius. I put “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” and “In My Life” on tape. When I went in, they wanted me to prepare all the Enjolras material and read for Enjolras. It was actually, I have to say, my naïveté.

It’s funny, once I got more and more familiar with the material and when I read the novel, I was like, “Wow this is a really, really great role,” and I felt very much better suited for it.” I was successful and cast in the role of Enjolras, the leader of the student revolutionaries. We had six weeks of rehearsal for this film and before that, I read the unabridged version [of the novel]. Victor Hugo has so much description about his characters and about the time period. I mean, there’s a two page description of Enjolras in the novel, and it’s like acting gold. He talks about how this guy is in love with liberty and he’s fighting for the ideals of revolution, and that he’s this very kind person, but he’s capable of this ferocity. And there’s another line that any time he was approached by a female, Enjolras would “chastely” lower his eyes. And that’s where I started from.

I understand that Tod Hooper had a very different set of techniques that he brought to the making of Les Mis. This was my first movie musical, so I didn’t know that singing live was not something done in this world. The movie actors struggled as there is no longer that moment where you can actually sense that the track clicks in and they lip-synch which can all of a sudden pull you right out of the story. Here, because you’re singing live, you go on the same emotional ride that you would if you were in the theater watching a play. Of course, it’s not the easiest trick in the world to pull off, and it’s something that practiced stage people can handle with ease. However it’s very draining because you might do 15 takes of a song in a given day. You’re doing it over and over and over again. Luckily, because I’m used to an eight-show week and what it takes to keep that kind of stamina on stage, I think I was able to prepare myself for that. I knew that the grind was going to be very hard. In essence, I treated it as I would treat any new musical that I was working on. I like to show off [on] the first day of rehearsal, having done all the work already. I know it musically, so, as soon as I got this job, about three or four months before we started filming, I got to work. I always want to make sure when I get there that I am focused on telling the story and what I’m doing as an actor, and I don’t have to worry about the singing. I try to get to the point where I’ve done all the technical singing work to protect myself and I’ve learned how to sing it before I get there, so I treated it in the same way.

By the time I got there, I didn’t have to think about the singing anymore. I arrived in London in March looking forward to exploring the City and the history of the country I’d heard so much about, but I’d forgotten about the rigours of movie making and this one had a very tight schedule; so basically, no time to explore, besides we were filming at Pinewood Studios which seemed to me to be in the middle of nowhere. But, on the plus side I made a number of very good friends, I was hanging out with all these West End actors. The revolutionaries were such a great group of guys and we
had so much fun. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much as I did with those guys. Killian [Donnelly], Fra [Fee] and Alistair [Brammer] are three of the funniest people I’ve ever met. And it’s unintentional comedy, you know what I mean? It’s not like they’re telling jokes or anything. They’re just hilarious.
There were times, though, that we’d musical-theater-nerd-out a little bit. We would just break into song, or break into harmony with a show tune, and the film actors were definitely looking at us like “What is wrong with you people?”

At the time of the premiere there were a lots of eyebrows raised as you weren’t on the international red-carpet premieres of the picture save for one — New York City.
Well sometimes work just gets in the way. I’d got back from Britain and went straight into another movie, shooting in New York, a small part in an action-thriller film “Premium Rush”. After, I spent a week working with Angela Lansbury, Kelly Barrett and Aaron Lazar on a reading of “Anastasia” a musical with music and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty – it took a long while to reach Broadway.

The 2013 Oscars Performance

Then it was the Academy Awards and just to be part of the Oscars was amazing, but to perform on that stage in front of such a distinguished audience made me proud to be part of the “Les Miserables” team. And then straight to the preparation for “Graceland” which started shooting in October and continued through to spring of 2013. “Graceland” was a beach house in Southern California — and, true to curious Hollywood logic, it has been replicated in Fort Lauderdale, FL, for the crime series. I played an
undercover FBI agent, and basically it’s a true story set In the 1990s; the FBI seized the mansion of a former cartel head who was so Elvis-obsessed he decorated his home like Graceland — and the law actually used this place in Southern California as a safe house for undercover FBI/DEA/Customs agents up until right after 9/11.”

This was a much bigger tv role than others that you’d been involved with, had you spent a lot of time in Los Angeles auditioning and preparing?
I hadn’t because I was in development for so many years with “Catch Me If You Can” and “Next to Normal” in New York that it took me out of being able to audition for a serious role on television. So I’d spend a lot of time doing guest parts. This was the first time I was available for a complete season, and I read the Graceland script very early on — I got it in October 2011 and tested for it in November, so I was very lucky that I got this without even doing the whole pilot season thing. Filming was in Florida over the winter of 2012/13 and so my golf handicap improved tremendously but I have to admit that I did miss singing. After we finished shooting “Graceland” I went back home to New York. The show debuted on the USA Network in May 2013. However, it was such a success I was signed up for the following two series, again shot in Florida over the winters of 2013/14 and 2014/15. I also accepted a role in an experimental short film “A Dream Of Flying”, which was an absolute joy, although I don’t think anyone has actually seen it. Meanwhile the opportunity arose for me to take the lead in sports comedy-drama movie “Undrafted” based on the true story of John Mazzello who missed out on the Major League Baseball draft. Filming took place in California during September although the film didn’t get a release until July 2016. Later in 2013, at around the time that work on the second series of Graceland started I began working on a new movie “Big Sky” which was shooting in New Mexico. I spent a few weeks flying between Fort Lauderdale and Albuquerque and survived.

Weren’t you concerned that your musical theater mantle might be lost?
Definitely I was; Y’know, I worked in development on “Next to Normal” for two or three years before we got to Broadway, and I first auditioned for “Catch Me If You Can” five years before we opened on Broadway, so the shows that I have worked on have been a part of my life for a long time. After the last couple of years shooting films and tv dramas, it was the first time I was not working on a new musical. Although in January 2014 I did take part in a studio cast recording of “An American Victory: A New Musical” along with Ashley Brown, Adam Jacobs, John Owen-Jones, Ramin Karimloo, Hugh Panaro and, the album features 21 songs from the musical written by composer Louis R. Bucalo, but it didn’t get released until April 2016. Around that time I put together a concert that was conceptualised as a one-man show. There are a couple of venues in New York that really support people going in with a band to perform a one-person show, we, that’s myself and my musical director Bryan Perri, got the gig at 54 Below. It’s a very small and intimate room where you can really connect with the audience. Bryan and
I have built on that and now when time allows we like to put on concerts, big and small, across the States. It really keeps me fresh and busy, but it’s no substitute for a musical. I’d had numerous discussions with my manager who knew that take-overs were not what I wanted and that I needed parts that I could get my teeth into. Some come, most go; but one that did come up that
grabbed my attention was for a Sondheim musical that was to have a short run in London, “Assassins”.

Aaron Tveit as John Wilkes Booth in Assassins

I’d been dying to do a Stephen Sondheim show, but I never thought that my first one would be “Assassins”, nor to be playing John Wilkes Booth in the cult-favourite musical about the various men and women who have attempted, sometimes successfully, to kill Presidents of the United States over the decades. When I was in college listening to the original cast album, in my head, I always sang the Balladeer. When the Chocolate Factory asked if I was interested in playing Booth, I was like, ‘Oh, wow. Well, yeah!’ I’ve played a lot of younger men, kind of kids, onstage, so I was excited at the chance to actually play more of a man. I thought Booth, the possibly misunderstood Shakespeare actor turned Abraham Lincoln shooter, was right in my wheelhouse. Just like “Musketeers” and “Les Mis”, I relished researching the era having been fascinated by the Civil War, but looking at the time period from the Confederate side was new territory for me. You start to kind of empathise with Booth in a way, and then you have to step back and say, Wait a minute, yes, he was fighting against these things, but he did a stupid, terrible thing. The lure of the piece and the production is that it makes you think about the other side of history. I’d never had a proper beard I didn’t even know I could grow a moustache. It was an eye-opening experience in that way.

It had been three years since I’d been onstage, so I really enjoyed stretching my stage muscles again — even the dancing ones, explaining that all the actors remain onstage throughout the entire performance in director Jamie Lloyd’s stripped-down concept for the show. There was even a little bit of dancing, which sounds crazy for Assassins, but the fact that my character is an actor and would have been able to move onstage, it actually gave me that freedom. I found the London theater community similar to Broadway, and many of my Les Mis co-stars, like Hadley Fraser, Killian Donnelly, Fra Fee and Alistair Brammer, are West End actors, so it gave me time to catch up with them. However, this time around was not like being on set. Then we were working six-day weeks and had one day off, and on the one day off, I
was just wrecked and needed to just recover. So this was a very different experience with more time to explore the city where there’s a sense that there’s theater happening all over. A lot of pubs and stuff will have readings and open mics. It just seems to be there’s theater in the London air in a great way. I can’t explain it. London’s a great place to be for a while, but I always say one of the best things about leaving New York is you get to come back. But I had reaffirmed my infinity with musical theater and thoroughly
enjoyed it.

When did you get back to New York?
It was February 2015 and the holiday period was over and I had to be back in work on “Graceland” down in Florida. Back in the summer of 2014 I had been contracted for the lead role in a new movie “Stereotypically You” which shot through the early summer of 2015. I attended its premiere at the Santa Barbara Film festival in February the following year; it underwent a title change before its summer release to “Better Off Single”, no matter, it didn’t help its box-office. While I had been in London I had been contacted by the producers of a new American political satire science fiction comedy-drama television series called “Braindead”. After my return, I signed for all 13 episodes, to play one of the main roles, Gareth Ritter, a staffer for a key senator. The show aired in the US from June 2016.

So, basically, you were back in front of the cameras and not a live audience?
That is true, but mainly because the right theater parts weren’t coming up and I’m not the type that can just sit around and wait for work. So after “Braindead” finished shooting I did take a couple of months out and played golf with my Dad, having already signed a one episode deal to appear in a new tv drama, “The Good Fight”. My manager told me to sit tight, as back in 2014 Paramount Television had sealed a deal to produce a tv special of “Grease” and he had positioned me with the producers; okay it wasn’t the stage musical, but it was a musical and it would be live. The first casting notices were posted in late summer, the first casting announcements were made in January 2015, and not until June was I told, after numerous auditions and screen tests, that I was being offered the role of Danny Zuko.
“Grease – Live!” was scheduled for broadcast on 31st January 2016 and rehearsals started at the end of November.
A mammoth feat as there was a cast of over 100, more than Broadway has seen for over 70 years. When we moved to the studios you realised the scale of the production, I thought “Les Miserables” was big – but here the cast and crew must have numbered well over 600. For the cast the great thing was that this show was not only screened live across the US, but in the following days it was shown on mainstream tv around the world and went on to win ‘Best Musical Moment’ for the number ‘You’re The One That I Want’ at the MTV Movie and TV Awards. It was just after “Grease” aired in 2016 that I landed the lead in a legal drama movie “Created Live” where I played an attorney that represents a woman who is attempting to become a priest but is rebuffed and sets out to sue the Archdiocese for sexual discrimination; a very topical theme. It opened in the US at the beginning of 2018 to critical acclaim and I’m proud to be seen as standing up for equal rights and even prouder that I was awarded ‘Best Actor’ at the Sunscreem Film Festival Awards. 2017 brought me another career highlight when I was asked to be a presenter at that year’s Tony Awards at the Beacon Theater.

But what about the stage?
I was lucky enough to take part in a concert performance of “West Side Story” at the Lincoln Center and then, early in 2017 I signed up for another Sondheim. You can’t say I’m not up for a challenge.

This time it would be back at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and the Stephen Sondheim-George Furth musical “Company”. I took on the central role of Bobby and we ran for just over a month – longer than planned from August 10 and into September. It was good to be back doing summer theater.

I read a review that said the success of the production was down to you being a truly charismatic, sexy and all around fabulous Bobby who charmingly hovers on the cusp of maturity. How do reviews like that impact the company?
Do you mean in a jealous way? No, it’s great for the production and the ticket sales. We all work as a tightly knit team and any reviews, good and bad are for the whole company.

The “Star Spangled Banner”

A great personal experience and honour for me was when I was asked by the Yankees to sing the National Anthem at the Yankee Stadium in New York at the start of their game against the Minnesota Twins in early October – as a lifelong supporter that was a very proud moment. Then it was down to New Orleans where I was to feature in another movie, this one based on the 1997
Martin Amis neo-noir detective story “Night Train”. We did principal photography in October, and the film now titled “Out Of Blue” having undergone post-production in the UK will be released in late 2018. It was a very professional cast and I felt privileged to be working alongside British actor Toby Jones and established American stars like James Caan and Patricia Clarkson. But back to the stage – in 2016, it was announced that a stage musical was being developed by Global Creatures, with direction by Alex Timbers, of Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge”. I was approached
by the producers just before going up to Pittsfield about participating in a workshop to take place from the end of October until mid-December. Being part of something new is exactly what I wanted and it takes us right back to the beginning of our conversation. While all this preparation has been taking place I’ve been working on a larger scale concert programme which I will launch at The Smith Center in Las Vegas, on September 29. I’m looking forward to this one.

Wow a man with one, two, three, maybe four careers and as our followers will see, a master at them all. Aaron thank you, and every good wish to you and the company for the delayed opening of Moulin Rouge on 10th July in Boston. Oh and your golf handicap still looks pretty good; guess Boston is working for you too.

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