Darren Criss on counting his fortunate stars
Thirty-seven-year-old Darren Criss is a star on Broadway, and an everyday at piano bars. “Preserve the music going, you already know?” he mentioned. “I feel 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, are the homeowners. “It is sort of a wonderful little Hollywood story,” he mentioned. “She slings the drinks, and I sling the tunes.”
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One rule in a piano bar? Play the hits. Criss had his first hit on the College of Michigan. He starred as Harry Potter in an unauthorized scholar present primarily based on the books that turned a YouTube sensation in 2009.
“This was a really fascinating second in time,” he mentioned, of “A Very Potter Musical.” “That actually did sort of change my life. That might sort of 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 assume we’ll let the YouTube historians form of determine the validity of that,” Criss mentioned.
However Criss took a detour on his strategy to Broadway, by turning into a TV star. “‘Glee’ was taking place on the time,” he mentioned. “And I went out for it, like a whole bunch of 1000’s of different folks in my state of affairs at the moment. And I occurred to guide it.”
He performed Blaine Anderson, and rapidly turned a fan favourite. “I owe my tenure on that present to the sub-cultural fan base military that we had gathered from the Potter stuff,” he mentioned.
Watch Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) carry out Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” on “Glee”:
Criss went on to win an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of serial killer Andrew Cunanan in “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.”
Now he performs an out of date robotic named Oliver in a brand new musical, “Perhaps Pleased Ending,” one of the crucial acclaimed exhibits presently on Broadway. The New York Instances calls it “joyful,” “heartbreaking,” and “supersmart.”
Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman/”Perhaps Pleased Ending”
Criss mentioned, “This present begins with a track which is the query the present posits: Why love? Why will we do it? If we all know that loving one thing enters you in a contract that has an inexorable again finish – which is the lack of one thing – why will we try this, if we all know that that is gonna occur?”
Based on Criss, this present got here alongside on the excellent time. He and his spouse, Mia, have a two-and-a-half year-old daughter, and earlier this yr they welcomed a child son.
I requested, “Does this really feel like one of the best yr of your life?”
“Effectively, it actually is a blessed one,” Criss laughed. “I’ve had some extraordinary years of my life, and I feel this has been a actually thrilling time.”
He is had some onerous years, too. In 2020, his father, Invoice, died at 78 from a coronary heart situation. In 2022, his brother, Chuck, died at 36 by suicide.
Criss mentioned, “I do not essentially consider my very own expertise with these folks particularly in my life that I’ve misplaced. However I do take into consideration the sensation of loss, the unhappiness and vacancy and loneliness that that yields, as a result of all of us really feel it. However the issues that transfer me, in life and in [“Maybe Happy Ending”], usually are not the darkness of the loss, however the Herculean grace that it takes to be resilient within the inevitable reality of that.”
When he thinks about that, Darren Criss can not help however sing.
“I depend my fortunate stars each day,” he laughed. “I am runnin’ out of – there’s too many! They’re nonetheless exhibiting up. I am doing ‘CBS Sunday Morning’!”
You’ll be able to stream the vacation album “A Very Darren Crissmas” by clicking on the embed under (Free Spotify registration required to listen to the tracks in full):
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Story produced by Mary Raffalli. Editor: Lauren Barnello.
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Watch these particular performances of vacation music by Darren Criss for “Sunday Morning”:
