By Michael Buckley
05 Apr 2009

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	Steven Pasquale

Perhaps he should be called "the ubiquitous" Steven Pasquale (Pas-QWAHL). He's just opened on Broadway in Neil LaBute's reasons to be pretty, his FX-TV series "Rescue Me" (on which he plays the not-too-bright Sean Garrity) is starting a fifth season, his first solo CD "Somethin' Like Love" was recently released by PS Classics, and this week he's playing Prince Sirki/Death in a reading, directed by Doug Hughes, of the new musical Death Takes a Holiday by Maury Yeston, Thomas Meehan and Peter Stone.

LaBute's play marks Pasquale's Broadway debut ("I have my own dressing room, for the first time"), while wife Laura Benanti (a Tony winner for Gypsy) is Off-Broadway ("and sharing a dressing room, for the first time").

Benanti's at the Public, in Chris Durang's Why Torture is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them. They met in a 2005 World AIDS Day concert performance of A Secret Garden (he was Archibald; she, Lily).

Pasquale's worked previously with Terry Kinney, who directed pretty, and the playwright — a combination that the actor terms "just the best." Kinney directed him in Nicky Silver's Beautiful Child, in which Pasquale played a pedophile teacher involved with an eight-year-old male student, and in LaBute's Fat Pig, he succeeded Jeremy Piven. "That was the first time he quit. He's embarrassed all of us by his behavior. I hope he never sets foot on a New York stage again. He's not welcome."

Kent, Pasquale's pretty character, he says, is "sort of the classic LaBute asshole-friend. He's shallow, beauty-obsessed, and has bullied Greg [Thomas Sadoski] his whole life. I was struggling with it, and Neil said, 'This is it in a nutshell: more Kowalski, less Pasquale-ski.'" The play co-stars Marin Ireland (Steph) and Piper Perabo (Carly).

Tours of West Side Story and Miss Saigon preceded Pasquale's arrival in New York, where he was "jobless and miserable for almost a year." He stood by for Brian d'Arcy James ("a great friend") in The Wild Party, and other shows followed, including Spinning Into Butter, The Spitfire Grill, A Man of No Importance (for which he earned Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations), and A Soldier's Play.

"Somethin' Like Love," Pasquale's first solo CD, features several numbers from years gone by. "I'm a big fan of the American Songbook." Among them: "Laura" (for guess who), some Frank Loesser songs ("If I Were a Bell," "I Wish I Didn't Love You So," "The Lady's in Love with You," the last with music by Burton Lane), "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," and "My Funny Valentine."

	Steven Pasquale with Celia Keenan-Bolger in The Light in the Piazza
	photo by Chris Bennion

Though TV is lucrative, the downside of being in a series is that one can't commit to a theatre run that conflicts with the production schedule. It cost Pasquale the chance to open on Broadway in The Light in the Piazza, after having created the role of Fabrizio in the 2003 Seattle world premiere of the Adam Guettel-Craig Lucas musical. Confides Pasquale, "Professionally, that was the most heartbreaking thing that I've ever experienced."

To date, Fabrizio was Pasquale's "most rewarding onstage experience. Everyone knows how special Adam Guettel's music is. It was magical — with incredibly talented people. Celia Keenan-Bolger is one of my closest friends, one of my favorite human beings. [In Seattle, she played Victoria Clark's daughter, Fabrizio's love interest.]

"There's a ton of roles I haven't done that I'd love to do — like Billy Bigelow [Carousel] and Georges in Sunday in the Park with George. They're just two of the great roles I've been listening to my whole life, and I'm finally getting old enough to play them." Meanwhile, Pasquale is enjoying highs privately (as a husband) and professionally (on Broadway, TV, and CD). He has a number of reasons to be happy.

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Various and Sundry

Nathan Lane, who plays Estragon in the revival of the Samuel Beckett absurdist comedy Waiting for Godot (in previews, opening April 30, at Studio 54), has connections with some of his predecessors.

Bert Lahr, Broadway's first Estragon (1956), played the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz", while Lane portrayed the fearful feline in 1995's "The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True".

Zero Mostel, who played Estragon in a 1961 PBS-TV version of "Godot," originated roles (Pseudolus, Max Bialystock) later played by Lane. Robin Williams, Lane's co-star in "The Birdcage", was Estragon in the 1988 Lincoln Center production, in which Bill Irwin, currently Lane's co-star as Vladimir, had the part of Lucky.

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Back in '88, Bill Irwin's Lucky understudy was David Hyde Pierce, who's won four Emmys (as Niles Crane, brother to Kelsey Grammer's "Frasier") and a Tony (for Curtains).

Pierce is back on Broadway in a revival of Accent on Youth (previews April 7, opens April 29, at the Samuel J. Friedman). On screen, his role's been played by Herbert Marshall ("Accent on Youth," 1935), Bing Crosby ("Mr. Music," 1950) and Clark Gable ("But Not for Me," 1959).

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Brian Dennehy, Carla Gugino, Pablo Schreiber star in a Broadway revival of Desire Under the Elms (previews April 14, opens April 27, at the St. James), by Eugene O'Neill. In addition, two-time Tony winner (Death of a Salesman, Long Day's Journey into Night) Dennehy and Gugino co-star with (Pablo's brother) Liev Schreiber in the upcoming film "Every Day".

Dennehy's role in Elms was previously played on Broadway by two Oscar winners: the 1924 original starred Walter Huston ("The Treasure of the Sierra Madre"); and the '52 revival, Karl Malden ("A Streetcar Named Desire"). The 1958 film version starred Oscar winners Burl Ives ("The Big Country"), Sophia Loren ("Two Women"), and Anthony Perkins.

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An upcoming HBO movie about Bill and Hillary Clinton is entitled "The Special Relationship" (not "Desire Under the Realms"). Playing the dynamic duo are Dennis Quaid and Julianne Moore. Written by Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon"), who also directs (for the first time). Michael Sheen co-stars as former Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he's played in Morgan's "The Deal" and "The Queen.

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Hello, Dolly: 9 to 5 (previews April 7, opens April 30, at the Marquis) welcomes Dolly Parton to the ranks of Broadway composer-lyricists, joining Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser — and Mel Brooks. The musical's based on the 1980 movie "Nine to Five", for which Parton wrote the Oscar-nominated title song, and in which she co-starred with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin.

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Bobby Cannavale, who played Will's policeman partner on "Will & Grace" (and was a "Third Watch" regular) and Sarah Paulson (The Glass Menagerie, "Studio 60") are appearing Off-Broadway and on TV.

They're in The Gingerbread House (previews April 11, opens April 18, at the Rattlestick), and on "Cupid" (ABC, Tuesdays, 10 PM ET). Cannavale plays the title role, a god of love (exiled in Manhattan) with Paulson as his shrink. It's a rare remake of a TV series, the short-lived (1998-99) "Cupid," which starred Jeremy Piven.

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Mary Stuart marks the second Broadway turn for three British fair ladies: director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!, onstage and screen), Janet McTeer (A Doll's House Tony winner), and Harriet Walter (All's Well That Ends Well). In previews, it opens April 19, at the Broadhurst.

Since Broadway: McTeer has played Gertrude Lawrence in the British TV-drama "Daphne" (on DVD), and portrays Clemmie (Mrs. Winston) Churchill in the upcoming "Into the Storm". Walter was mother to Keira Knightley ("Atonement", now on DVD), and stars in the new British-TV series "Law & Order: UK". (The "Law & Order" franchise has now acquired a British accent. Crimes are the same, but discussing them sounds more refined.)

Stage to Screens is Playbill.com's monthly column that connects the dots between theatre, film and television projects and people. Contact Michael Buckley at stagetoscreens@aol.com.