WASHINGTON — He originated Broadway roles in “Next to Normal” and “Catch Me If You Can,” starred on such TV hits as “Gossip Girl” and “Graceland,” graced the silver screen in the movie musical “Les Misérables,” and played the role of Danny Zuko in FOX’s “Grease: Live.”
This weekend, Aaron Tveit brings his varied songbook to Wolf Trap’s indoor venue The Barns, combining an array of show tunes and pop hits for concerts on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
“This is a new piano voice show,” Tveit told WTOP. “I realize a lot of people know me from certain things, so I try to pay respect to that. If they’re coming to hear specific things from shows I’ve been in, I try to make sure I put those songs in there — maybe in a new way.”
Growing up in upstate New York, Tveit enrolled at Ithaca College to study classical literature, classical voice and opera, but quickly switched to musical theater during his sophomore year.
“It just so happened that the musical director of the national tour of ‘Rent’ had gone to Ithaca,” Tveit said. “He came and did a workshop and we all did a mock ‘Rent’ audition. He pulled me aside and said, ‘You’re perfect for the show. If anything opens up, can I give you a call?’ … A couple of months later, he called me up saying, ‘Do you want to come to this final callback in New York?’ I went down and somehow got the job and dropped out of school that day.”
Thus, Tveit left college to star in the 2004 U.S. national tour of “Rent.” This was followed by another national tour as Link Larkin in “Hairspray,” a role he continued on Broadway in 2006.
“My first two jobs I got to go on tour with ‘Rent’ for a year and then on tour with ‘Hairspray’ for a year,” Tveit said. “I mean, as a 20-year-old kid, I couldn’t have imagined anything better.”
Still, nothing could have prepared him for the success of his next production, originating the role of Gabe in Broadway’s “Next to Normal” (2008). The Tony-winning rock musical by Brian Yorkey (music/lyrics) and Tom Kitt (music) explored a mother struggling with bipolar disorder.
“They really are just brilliant, brilliant songwriters and storytellers,” Tveit said. “It was a surprising mix of this rock music with this very difficult subject matter of bipolar schizophrenia. … I think the juxtaposition of those two things together was ultimately the success of that — how we presented very tough subject matter in such a straightforward way.”
After playing Fiyero in Broadway’s “Wicked” (2008), Tveit landed the lead role in the Broadway musical “Catch Me If You Can” (2009), playing infamous con artist Frank Abagnale Jr., who Leonardo DiCaprio made famous across Tom Hanks in the 2002 film by Steven Spielberg.
“I worked on that for a long time before it got to Broadway,” Tveit said. “I was obviously a big fan of the movie. We went for six months on Broadway and it was one of those things where we wish it went longer, but it was a great experience and we were all so close. I got to know Frank, who was very much a part of that. … He’d always talk about how he is the embodiment of the ‘American dream’ because he got a second chance. That always resonated with me.”
Soon, Tveit pivoted into TV as Tripp van der Bilt on The CW’s “Gossip Girl” (2009-2012).
“There was a six-to-eight-week stretch where I was doing ‘Next to Normal’ at night and on the weekends, then shooting ‘Gossip Girl’ during the day,” Tveit said. “I was on a television show and starring on Broadway! I didn’t have a day off for eight weeks, but I was 25 and had all the energy in the world. It was the greatest thing — I was working on this awesome TV show.”
From there, he landed another TV role as Mike Warren in USA’s “Graceland” (2013-2015).
“‘Graceland’ was such an incredible experience,” Tveit said. “Our cast, we absolutely loved each other. We shot the pilot in California, then had to all move to South Florida together to shoot the show, so we all banded together even closer. … Working in television, even though there’s very long hours, it’s the closest to a regular job you can find as an actor. It’s Monday to Friday [and] you have Saturday and Sunday off, which you don’t get in the theater.”
Next, he jumped to the silver screen as Enjolras in the movie musical “Les Misérables” (2012), starring alongside Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway, who won an Oscar.
“It was a very strange culmination of all the work I’d been doing, taking the on-camera work on movies and television, then combining that with the live element where I was very comfortable from years on stage,” Tveit said. “Hugh had the most work to do — a herculean mountain to climb — but he was the nicest and set such an example for us. … The shot of [Anne] singing that song that does not cut away is one of the most incredible things I’ve seen.”
More recently, Tveit starred as the iconic Danny Zuko in FOX’s live broadcast of “Grease: Live.”
“We had run it with all technical elements live with an audience four or five times, so we were rehearsed,” Tveit said. “That being said, anything could have gone wrong that night. Thank goodness it didn’t. It was quite an event, quite a three-hour sprint. What you didn’t see [on TV] was us sprinting between stages and scenes and changing between commercial breaks.”
One moment was so hectic that he had to sprint faster than “Greased Lightning.”
“After ‘Greased Lightning,’ we had a three-and-a-half-minute commercial break where I was supposed to get in a golf cart, ride to the next stage, get the sweat off me, underdress the whole change, then put my Danny Zuko outfit over top,” Tveit said. “I didn’t have time to wait for the cart, so I sprinted to the other stage, wiped the sweat off, did my change and walked into the diner.”
How was it working across Julianne Hough as Sandy and Vanessa Hudgens as Rizzo?
“In my experience, the higher I’ve gone with working with those kind of people, the nicer they are,” Tveit said. “That’s exactly what happened with Jules and Vanessa. Vanessa and I actually did ‘Rent’ together at the Hollywood Bowl back in 2010, so I’ve known her for a long time.”
While Hudgens hit D.C. for “Gigi” at the Kennedy Center in 2015, Tveit brought “Next to Normal” to Arena Stage, winning the Helen Hayes Award for supporting actor in 2009.
“I love Washington,” Tveit said. “I have such great experiences there from ‘Next to Normal,’ and I had such a blast last year at Wolf Trap. Every time I’m in D.C., it’s one of the only American cities that feels reverential in a way. It feels grand like an old European city, which I know it was kind of designed to feel like. Every time I’m there, I feel a sense of pride in our country.”
This weekend, he gets to fall in love with Washington all over again at Wolf Trap.
“I’ve learned that a successful evening oftentimes comes from me having as much fun as possible and the audience having as much fun as possible,” Tveit said. “So I really try to not take myself too seriously and I try to find some things that are completely unexpected.”
Click here for more on the Wolf Trap concerts. Hear our full conversation with Aaron Tveit below:
