Aaron Tveit
Aaron Tveit is an actor, born 1983.
Broadway had Aaron Tveit first, and it still hands him the parts that matter most. He originated Gabe Goodman in Next to Normal and Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can, played Fiyero in Wicked and Freddie Trumper in Chess, took the title role in Sweeney Todd, and won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for originating Christian in the stage version of Moulin Rouge!, a performance that also brought a Grammy nomination. He played John Wilkes Booth in an Off West End production of Assassins.
Screen work has mostly wanted him for the same reason. He is Enjolras in the 2012 Les Misérables, the student leader on the barricade, and Danny Zuko in Grease Live, which is a specific and underrated skill: holding a note in a wide shot while hitting a mark, with an audience watching and no second take. Very few people who can act can also do that, and it has shaped his casting.
Television has tried to use him for other things. Graceland gave him his longest run as a lead, BrainDead put him in a short-lived Washington satire, and Gossip Girl used him early as one more wealthy New Yorker. The film list is scattered and often small: a supporting turn in Premium Rush, the poet Peter Orlovsky in Howl, a couple of scenes in Ghost Town, the seasonal romance One Royal Holiday. Recently he has been back on musical ground with Schmigadoon! and in the post-apocalyptic Earth Abides.
Movies (10)
TV (9)
Where to start with Aaron Tveit
Take Les Misérables first, and watch the barricade scenes in particular. Enjolras is a thankless assignment, a slogan with a haircut, and Tveit plays him as a genuine believer rather than a poster, which is the only reason the character survives the transfer to film.
Grease Live is the follow-up, for the opposite reason: it went out live from a moving set in front of cameras and rain, and watching him hold a performance together under those conditions tells you more about the craft than any studio recording could. From there, Schmigadoon! lets him gently mock the entire apparatus he came out of.
Away from songs, Graceland is the longest and most conventional run, BrainDead is the sharp political comedy that deserved more than one season, and Premium Rush is a quick, physical piece of work with no singing in it whatsoever. One Royal Holiday is for people who have specifically come to the seasonal shelf.