By Harry Haun
08 Dec 2006

"It's one of those roles where you're dying to do it, then you're doing it and thinking, 'Man, this is really hard!' But to have that contact with the audience every night is great."

Blonde and beautiful Jenn Colella, late of Urban Cowboy, has gotten back on the mechanical bull to play the role of Chase's unchastened and elusive true love. "It's a strong female role, I think," she said. "They worked hard to beef her up a little bit and make her that way. I feel connected to this character. I'm kinda growing up and doing a bit more mature roles, and she is moving from just being a legal aide lawyer to a corporate lawyer. And we're both in the process of discovering what we really want out of life."

As the New Age-y mystic luring Colella into his den of sin, Jeb Brown enjoys the role on stage and off: "My wife is having a baby in about a week so it's a lively time in my life, and this guy is a great character to be playing right now because he's very soothing. He's soothing to me, he's soothing to my wife, he's soothing to everybody around me. It's a great way to spend the evening — in a vague state of bliss, hopefully comic bliss."

It's his first child, and it will be a girl. "It's going to be a High Fidelity baby," he crowed, "and I would like to say that, after the show is fully dilated, my wife can start dilating."

Chief among the record-clerk misfits is Christian Anderson as the tentative timid soul who's allowed a little love story once he overcomes the enormous artistic barrier of her being a John Tesh fan. "He's so sweet and soulful," said Anderson, "and I love that he get a chance to sing and have a little romantic story. He finally gets to come out of his shell and be involved in life. He makes people go 'Ahhhh.'" Making the character even sweeter to him is the fact this is the first time he originated his own role on Broadway. "I took over from Anthony Rapp in Rent, and I replaced Rick Lyon in Avenue Q," he said.

It falls to Broadway-bowing Jay Klaitz to fill Jack Black's XXX role of the overbearing and opinionated clerk. "Oh, man, I love him," admitted Klaitz. "He's inappropriate and bawdy and crazy and never stops saying what's on his mind. It's great being this guy."

Some viewers might accuse Klaitz of channeling Black, but the actor claimed that he skipped the movie. "I saw it, of course, when it first came out and loved it, but I didn't want to see it after I got the role. I didn't want to, consciously or subconsciously, be mimicking what was going on in the film. I wanted to make sure that I was giving my own performance. I didn't want to be a complete caricature of somebody else."

Perhaps the neatest trick of the night was the schizophrenic skills of Jon Patrick Walker, who spends three-quarters of the evening as a nerdy customer known by his initials, T.M.P.M.I.T.W. (for The Most Pathetic Man In The World), and then in a flash of fantasy, he turns into The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, to do a duet with Chase.

"As an actor, to go from the most pathetic guy to the coolest is a gift, and I feel very grateful to get to do that," admitted Walker. Which is the most fun for him? He smiles. "Well, look, if you knew the amount of time I spent as a kid air guitaring in the mirror and fantasizing about being a rock 'n' roll star, you'd know playing Bruce Springsteen in that scene is sort of a dream come true. But you know what? I have a real affection for the other character as well because, ultimately, I feel like a music geek myself — someone who loves the trivia and music of rock 'n' roll. So there's a piece of me in both of those roles."

Anne Warren plays one of five old girlfriends of Chase's character who come back in clusters throughout the show — a geek chorus designed to hurt and haunt him. "This is the first time I've originated a part on Broadway," she said, conceding she'd been around the block before or at least across the street from Roseland at the Neil Simon. "My Broadway debut was a year ago — today — in Hairspray, replacing Lorraine in the ensemble."

One of the lead producers, Kevin McCollum, was born in Hawaii and had no qualms about opening the show on Dec. 7, the 65th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombings.

He and Jeffrey Seller and Robyn Goodman showered the opening with stars and creators from Avenue Q — composer Robert Lopez, book writer Jeff Whitty, director Jason Moore — and the Drowsy Chaperone contingent (Bob Martin, Lenny Wolfe, Danny Burstein) joined the party after their regular performance, as did Rent players.

Ann Harada, Avenue Q's original Christmas Eve, was very much in season and back from London where she opened the Tony-winning musical there. She was flashing baby pictures around of her two-year-old, Elvis. Yes, she sighed helplessly, "I'm a believer."

The two people Bobbie directed to Tonys 10 years ago — James Naughton and Bebe Neuwirth — were in attendance, supporting him. Neuwirth said she was going to do Chicago one mo' time, for three months starting Jan. 3 — but this time as Roxie Hart. "I was rehearsing a dance yesterday that I had done as Velma with Roxie — and I kept seeing me coming in from the other side. It was a pretty weird experience." Chita Rivera is another Roxie who started out a Velma — but then Neuwirth owes her two Tonys to roles that were previously played by Rivera — on stage (Chicago) and screen ("Sweet Charity").

In Lindsay-Abaire's camp was his Fuddy Meers star, Marylouise Burke, back from a Philadelphia gig (Jeffrey Hatcher's play, Murderers, directed by Michael Bush), and there for Walker — for the third time — was his wife, Hope Davis, busy actress and mother. And Colella had her Urban Cowboy (Matt Cavanagh) come over after his Grey Gardens performance.

Also attending: Mark Hampton, Ruthie Henshall and hubby Tom Howard of Rent, Alec Baldwin and Joseph Cross (both of "Running with Scissors"), Victoria Tennant, NY Mets' Ron Darling, "Ring of Fire"'s Lari White, directors Sidney Lumet and Daisy Prince, Mary Poppins' Gavin Lee, Anne Runolfsson, playwrights John Guare and Terrence McNally, Dana Delany of TV's "Kidnapped," Karen Ziemba (bound for Curtains and, before that, the Rosemary Clooney salute at 92nd St. Y), Constantine Maroulis (finished with The Wedding Singer, now brushing up on his Jacques Brel), composers Stephen Flaherty and David Yazbek, Legally Blonde director-choreographer Jerry Mitchell, Brel helmsman Gordon Greenberg (bracing me for "big news" about his incoming Pirates), Kurt Vonnegut, Jason Danieley, Greg Naughton with Kelli O'Hara (L.A.-bound for the Sunday in the Park with George Reprise! with Manoel Felciano and Nancy Dussault), The Del Fuegos' Dan Zanes, John Lloyd Young (fresh from his Jersey Boys next door to Roseland), Saturday Night Fever's Paige Price and Orfeh (the latter with hubby Andy Karl, Wicked's producer (David Stone) and composer (Stephen Schwartz).

The company of High Fidelity takes its opening night bow.
photo by Ben Strothmann

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