Thirty-seven-year-old Darren Criss is a Broadway star and frequenter of piano bars. “Maintain the music taking part in, ?” He stated. “I believe the expression goes: ‘Life is a cabaret!’
When he is in Los Angeles, it is Tramp Stamp Granny’s, the place he and his spouse Mia personal. “It is sort of a pleasant little Hollywood story,” he stated. “She drinks, I play tunes.”
One rule on the piano bar? Play strokes. Chris received his first success on the College of Michigan. He starred as Harry Potter in an unauthorized pupil present based mostly on the books that turned a YouTube sensation in 2009.
“This was a really attention-grabbing second in time” for “A Very Potter Musical,” he stated. “That sort of modified my life. That set me on the trail to the place I’m now.”
From 2009: The unofficial parody present “A Very Potter Musical”:
I requested if “A Very Potter Musical” was the primary musical to go viral. “I do not know; I suppose we’ll let YouTube historians determine how true that’s,” Chris stated.
However Chris took a detour on his option to Broadway, changing into a TV star. “Glee was taking place on the time,” he stated. “And I got here out for it, like a whole lot of 1000’s of different individuals who had been in the identical scenario as me on the time. And I booked it by chance.”
He performed Blaine Anderson, and shortly turned a fan favourite. “I owe my tenure on this present to the subcultural fan base we have amassed from the Potter materials,” he stated.
Watch Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) carry out Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” on “Glee”:
Chris gained an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his function as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
Now he performs an anachronistic robotic named Oliver in a brand new musical known as Possibly a Joyful Ending, probably the most standard exhibits at present on Broadway. The New York Instances calls it “Joyful,” “heartbreaking,” and “miraculous.”
“This present begins with a track and it is the query the present asks: Why love? Why can we do it? If we all know that loving one thing will get you right into a contract that has an inexorable again finish — which is dropping one thing — why can we do it, if we all know that That can occur?
In line with Chris, this supply got here at simply the suitable time. He and his spouse, Mia, have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and earlier this 12 months they welcomed a child boy.
“Does this appear to be the very best 12 months of your life?” I requested.
“Properly, that is definitely a blessed thought,” Chris laughed. “I’ve had some extraordinary years in my life, and I believe this has definitely been an thrilling time.”
He is had some powerful years, too. In 2020, his father, Invoice, died on the age of 78 from coronary heart illness. In 2022, his brother Chuck died by suicide on the age of 36.
“I am not essentially fascinated about my very own expertise with these those who I’ve misplaced in my life particularly. However I am fascinated about the sensation of loss and disappointment and vacancy and loneliness that comes from that, as a result of all of us really feel that,” Chris stated. However the issues that transfer me, in life and in (“Possibly a Joyful Ending”), are usually not the darkness of loss, however the highly effective grace it takes to be steadfast within the inevitable actuality of it.
When he thinks about it, Darren Criss can not help however sing.
“I depend my fortunate stars day by day,” he laughed. “I am out of inventory – there’s so many! They maintain displaying up. I am on the CBS Sunday Morning present!”
You possibly can stream the vacation album “A Very Darren Crissmas” by clicking the embed under (free Spotify registration required to listen to your entire observe):
For extra data:
The story was produced by Marie Ravalli. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
See additionally:
Watch these vacation music specials from Darren Criss for “Sunday Morning”:
(tags for translation) Broadway