We didn't do our usual Stage Door column this past Monday (on account of no theater trips this week) so let's talk Aaron Tveit since we're focusing on male actors for a change this month. While he originally made his mark in stage musicals (including in the DiCaprio role in Catch Me If You Can) the small screen seems to have eaten up his time since. Nevertheless this week's "Miscast" benefit concert reminded us of his inarguable charisma. (More on that concert in a minute)
He hasn't done enough movies given how perfect he was as Enjolras in Les Misérables (2012) but at least we got to see him do Grease Live early this year. Unfortunately he's highly vulnerable right now at falling into the trap that many stage stars do where they end up wasted in TV genres like political, hospital, lawyer, or cop shows that actors with far less broad-ranging gifts could play just as well as they do. Their musical gifts end up completely invisible/wasted. See most of Mandy Patinkin's & Audra McDonald's TV careers. (Obviously Patinkin is excellent on Homeland but his TV career has been... strange)
The gold standard for current stage stars trying to make it on TV is arguably Sutton Foster...
Sutton is brilliant on Younger (with TV boyfriend Nico Tortorella)
While neither of Foster's two headliner series gigs, the short-lived but totally beloved Bunheads and the more successful sitcom Younger (which is now heading for a third season), were "musicals" per se they both seem to have been modelled around her specific musical comedy genius; they're often as endearing and funny and physically exuberant as the actress herself. Bunheads even let her sing once and dance a few times. No such luck on Younger (yet) but she's sensational on it anyway and it's a good show so all is truly well.
Tveit hasn't been as lucky but male Broadway musical stars have a tough time transferring. Cheyenne Jackson and Laura Benanti work often but in projects up to his actual potential? Probably not! (Benanti in particular is so funny it's a shame no one has built a sitcom around her). Sutton super fan Jonathan Groff lucked out with a high quality show that was, like Sutton's projects, perfect for him but most male musical stars who manage successful transfers to TV seem to end up more like Steven Pasquale (probably a good Tveit comparison) where people who've seen them on various mid level shows don't have a single clue how rich their vocal instrument is. (One assumes fans of Pasquale shows like American Crime, The Good Wife, Bloodline, and Rescue Me would be absolutely shocked to know that he has one of the most beautiful male singing voices you can possibly imagine.)
Tveit on GracelandTveit spent two seasons on the FBI show Graceland and next up is a political comedy called "BrainDead" in which he'll play a top Republican operative opposite Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the show's lead). Here's the good news though: the series sounds superweird and potentially funny as it involves aliens eating Congressmen's brains so perhaps Tveit and Winstead won't be wasted on it as by its very nature it can't be a generic political drama.
The solution to all of this career building dilemma for Broadway stars is obvious: Hollywood just needs to make more big and small screen musicals. (In a more perfect world, alas.)
Anyway... Here is Aaron Tveit at Broadway's annual MISCAST Benefit Concert wherein celebs get to sing numbers from famous roles they'd never be allowed to play. This concert is the best. This is also the event that previously gave us the insanely rewatchable Jonathan Groff Sutton Foster tribute (now implanted permanently on my retinas given the constant replays). In this video Gavin Creel and Aaron Tveit do the saucy lesbian duet "Take Me or Leave Me" from Rent (Beware. this performance causes virtual pregnancy or gay blue balls)
P.S. Tveit also did the Nancy the hooker torchsong from Oliver! "As Long As He Needs Me". Alas you have to click over for that one because of that STUPID thing where some sites manage a no embed policy despite not owning the material posted. Argh.