Esparza was originally scheduled to play Zangara in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins before the show's 2001 run was canceled after the events of Sept. 11. The Roundabout Theatre Company will now mount the musical at Studio 54 — home of the current Cabaret revival — in March 2004. Take Me Out's Tony Award-winning director, Joe Mantello, will helm the Roundabout Assassins. At the recent press preview for Taboo, Esparza told Playbill On Line, "I spoke to Todd Haimes . . . over at Roundabout. I spoke to Joe Mantello. I told him to keep me in the loop. We'll see what happens with Taboo. It would be so heartbreaking to not be able to do [Assassins] after two years of waiting to do it. I don't know if they're going to be able to hold [the originally planned] cast together though — Denis O'Hare, Douglas Sills, John Dossett, myself. I think Becky Ann Baker's doing something. She might be available. Mario [Cantone]. Everybody's working." Denis O'Hare currently stars in Take Me Out; John Dossett plays opposite Bernadette Peters in Gypsy, and Mario Cantone will star in the upcoming Richard Greenberg play The Violet Hour.

Esparza continued, "Joe said that they were surprised that Steve [Sondheim] managed to raise more money than they had anticipated. Maybe they won't turn the theatre around quickly enough. I don't know. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I want to [do the show]. I will do anything for Steve, anything, anywhere, anytime. And for Todd, so it's like a double thing, for Roundabout and for Steve, I'll do anything and go anywhere."

Esparza, whose Taboo contract is for "six, seven months" added, "Maybe everything happens for a reason in life."