In a rehearsal studio off Times Square last week, Darren Criss — a breakout star of the Fox high school musical series “Glee” — was performing a bit too perfectly.
Preparing for his Broadway debut on Tuesday night as the corporate climber J. Pierrepont Finch in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” Mr. Criss was leaping into the air during the number “Grand Old Ivy” and tucking in his feet as a dancer would. This drew a correction from the director, Rob Ashford, who wanted Mr. Criss’s feet to be flat and extend sideways like those of an outstretched marionette, because his character should lack finesse.
“What you’re doing is almost too good,” Mr. Ashford told Mr. Criss, who stood panting slightly in dress slacks and a blue T-shirt from his alma mater, the University of Michigan. A moment later Mr. Criss nailed the leap with precise imprecision.
There are few higher compliments on Broadway than being called a triple threat: a performer who can act, sing and dance to extraordinary effect. (Think of Hugh Jackman.) Mr. Criss is the latest to strive for this status, and the producers of “How to Succeed” are betting on him to an unusual extent. They are spending tens of thousands of dollars to rehearse and pay Mr. Criss for just three weeks of performances this month, before he returns to “Glee,” in hopes of molding him into a theater star they might build a Broadway musical around someday. (Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers will play Finch, the role held by Daniel Radcliffe of “Harry Potter” fame, from Jan. 24 through July 1.)
For Mr. Criss, this detour from Hollywood has been a moment to savor rather than a ticket to an ego trip. At 24, he exudes a perceptive maturity — “I was nobody a year ago,” he said, “so I want to make smart choices to keep the good things going” — with enviable self-confidence. You might almost consider him cocky if not for his strong tendency to poke fun at himself as he mentions his detailed knowledge of “Star Wars” minutiae or refers to himself (with his small, lean frame in mind) as a “dainty dude.”
“I always shoot for the moon in my work, so that I’m happy when I land on the roof,” Mr. Criss said, a phrase he used twice during an interview at an Upper West Side diner. “I’m very specific and ambitious in plotting out my goals and never take no for an answer — so it’s not like things just fall in my lap.”
This three-week offer to play Finch, relatively rare for a newcomer to Broadway, is the latest height in a dizzying rise for Mr. Criss, who became a literal overnight sensation after his first appearance on “Glee” in November 2010.
In that episode Mr. Criss — playing a gay member of a high school choir being eyed by a series regular — sang vocals covering “Teenage Dream,” a pop hit by Katy Perry. Other “Glee” cast recordings had been released to success on Billboard charts, but “Teenage Dream” became a meteoric seller.
Soon the curly-haired, dark-eyed Mr. Criss was an idol, appearing solo in GQ (under the headline “King of the High School Musical”) and on People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive list. This season he became a main character on “Glee,” a promotion he said he had no reason to expect a year ago.
READ THE REST HERE: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/theater/darren-criss-of-glee-fills-daniel-radcliffes-shoes.html
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