Broadway's latest hunk Cavenaugh was traveling with a tour of Strike Up the Band when he was spotted by one of the show's composers, Jeff Blumenkrantz. "It was just little show, I wasn't that great in it, but he thought he saw something!" Cavenaugh told Playbill On-Line at a recent press event. "And so he knew they were still looking for a Bud and so he got my contact."

Of the very revealing image which dons the Broadhurst marquee and ads circulating to promote the show, — depicting the actor with his shirt unbuttoned atop a mechanical bull — he said: "I get calls just about every day from friends going 'Oh my God! I'm walking down 44th Street, what the Hell is this!'"

Does Cavenaugh feel the need to work out more? "A little bit," he said. "A tanning bed definitely couldn't hurt either, I'm pasty white. Casper the cowboy." Urban Cowboy marks the actor's Broadway debut.

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Lonny Price (A Class Act) directs Urban Cowboy with choreography by Melinda Roy. Aaron Latham, who co-wrote the original screenplay for the movie that starred John Travolta and Debra Winger, shares credit for the book of Urban Cowboy with the late Phillip Oesterman. Chase Mishkin and Leonard Soloway produce. The new musical features an eclectic collection of old and new music. Popular country music by Shania Twain, Clint Black and Brooks & Dunn will be interpolated among songs from the movie — including the signature "Lookin' For Love" — as well as original works by Jeff Blumenkrantz, Bob Stillman and the production's musical director-conductor Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years.)

The show stars newcomer Matt Cavenaugh as Bud, who gets seduced by the barflies in and around a honky-tonk Texas bar named Gilley's, where a mechanical bull is the center of attention. Jenn Colella is Sissy, his love interest. The cast also features Leo Burmester, Marcus Chait, Sally Mayes, Rozz Morehead and Jodi Stevens along with Michael Balderrama, Mark Bove, Gerrard Carter, Nicole Foret, Justin Greer, Sarah Jayne Jensen, Michelle Kittrell, Brian Letendre, Barrett Martin, Kimberly Dawn Neumann, Tera-Lee Pollin, Chad L. Schiro, Kelleia Sheerin and Paula Wise.

Tickets to Urban Cowboy at Broadway's Broadhurst, 234 West 44 St., can be purchased by calling (212) 239-6200 or online at www.telecharge.com.