Huntington native Michael Ceveris has made it big on Broadway and beyond.
By Jack Houvouras & Katherine Reasons-Pyles
HQ 79 | AUTUMN 2012
Standing 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing a stealth 155 pounds, Huntington export Michael Cerveris may not be an imposing physical presence, but his name and reputation loom larger than life on the streets of Broadway. The talented singer, guitarist and actor has been honing his craft in New York City since 1983, the year he decided to pursue his dream of making it on the harsh and unforgiving streets of the city’s theater district. But against all odds, that’s exactly what he’s done. Twenty-nine years after arriving in the big city, Cerveris is a bona fide star, currently appearing with Ricky Martin in Broadway’s highly popular revival of the musical Evita. The story of this Tony-winning actor’s journey from the quiet streets of Huntington to the bustling avenues of America’s largest city is one defined by talent, hard work, perseverance and, as is often the case, a little luck.
Cerveris was born Nov. 6, 1960, in Bethesda, Md., but grew up in Huntington. He attended Gallaher Elementary and Beverly Hills Junior High and for two years was a student at Huntington East High School before finishing his high school career at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Having a dancer for a mother and a music professor for a father meant music and theater were a part of Cerveris’s life – and the lives of Marisa, his sister who was a professional ballerina before creating her own line of dancewear, and Todd, his brother, now an actor – since day one.
“I had a clear idea of what a musician was because of my dad,” Cerveris said. “He was a music professor who had trained his whole life, could read music and knew music theory. When we were young, he insisted that we study an instrument of our choosing for at least one year. I started on violin. But playing violin in the fourth grade was just not the cool thing to do, so I switched to guitar halfway through the year.”
Cerveris said his father’s extensive training and refined understanding of music left him unsure of his own abilities; he doubted whether he’d ever be a “true musician.” However, as he grew up, music stayed with him. At Beverly Hills Junior High, Cerveris and his classmates convinced school administrators to start a class rock band.
“It was like a school marching band, only we played rock music,” he said. “I guess they justified the expense by having us play at all the school dances, which was great for us but not so great for the people who had to listen. We didn’t know that many songs, so we’d play them all twice and make each one as long as possible. I remember playing Space Truckin’ by Deep Purple, and every band member took a solo. I don’t think any of us even knew how to do a solo.”
Cerveris’s father was active in community theater, which meant his young son was as well. Cerveris was involved in local productions with the Huntington Musical Arts Guild and the Huntington Community Players at a very young age. He was no stranger to the screen, either.
“I worked at the Keith-Albee as an usher, which meant I did everything from selling tickets to popping popcorn,” said Cerveris. “We popped popcorn on Wednesdays for the whole week; we would go to the basement with a cooler of beer and a popcorn popper and just make popcorn all day.”
As fate would have it, Cerveris would return to the Keith-Albee decades later to perform at the final event of the 2011 Marshall Artists Series. Cerveris was a headlining act of the Mountain Stage Salutes 75 Years of the Marshall Artists Series event, hosted by Larry Croce.
“I never imagined that I’d one day get to play the Keith-Albee stage,” Cerveris said. “It was an amazing experience. The Keith-Albee is even more gorgeous now than it was when I was growing up.”
Cerveris said his memories of Huntington are some of the best.
“I played Little League, ran track – I just kind of had the ideal childhood,” he said.
Cerveris’s decision to complete his high school education at Phillips Exeter Academy, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, was a difficult one.
“I remember sitting at our kitchen table in Garden Farms, thinking, ‘I could be perfectly happy living in Huntington the rest of my life.’ I had a sense that if I left, I wouldn’t really be able to come back, at least in the same way,” he recalled. “I wasn’t sure leaving was what I wanted to do, but something in me made me feel like I was supposed to at least try.”
At Exeter, Cerveris enrolled in the rigorous courses for which the school is known. He felt out of place among the other students, who all seemed to share an intense focus on Ivy League educations and high-powered careers – that is, until he stepped onto the school’s stage.
“I auditioned for the first school play, a Shakespeare play called The Comedy of Errors,” Cerveris said. “I only got a small part, but as soon as I walked into the theater, I felt comfortable for the first time in months. I felt at home.”
After graduating from Exeter in 1979, Cerveris enrolled as a freshman at Yale University. Yale turned out to be a perfect fit for the young man who never thought of himself as an Ivy League student. The best part about Yale, Cerveris said with a smile, was that the school “allowed room for oddness.” And because Yale offered a complete liberal arts education, unlike some of the acting conservatories Cerveris considered, it gave him time to ponder his goals and dreams.
“I knew they had a good theater department, but I wasn’t really going for that,” he said. “I spent my four years there exploring everything, including theater, and trying to find something that really fit me.”
Cerveris excelled in his studies, graduating cum laude in 1983 with a B.A. in Humanities. And by that time, his mind was made up – Cerveris moved to New York City, hoping to see if he had what it took to make it as an actor.
“I got work right away – in restaurants,” Cerveris laughed.
Truthfully, Cerveris’s stint as a struggling actor did not last long. He was cast as Malcolm in an Off-Broadway production of Macbeth the same year he arrived in the Big Apple and appeared in the Off-Broadway shows Total Eclipse, Abingdon Square and Blood Sports in subsequent years. He also spent time traveling the country with various repertory theater productions. In 1986, Cerveris tested his TV acumen when he was cast as British guitar student Ian Ware on the HBO series Fame. He said that role sparked a renewed passion for music.
“I loved playing music, but I just didn’t think I could put myself out there as a musician because I hadn’t earned it the way I thought I needed to,” he said. “But playing that part on Fame made me realize I should start taking myself a little more seriously. At that point I decided music would be something I would always do, even if just for me. I decided I’d try to make a living by acting, and then on the side I would write and record music.”
Cerveris continued to view his love for music and love for acting as two separate, but becoming increasingly equal, entities until he saw the Broadway musical Sweeney Todd for the first time. It was thanks to leading man Len Cariou’s performance as the title character, a murderous and vengeful barber, that Cerveris first realized the incredible impact of acting and singing combined. He was so moved by Cariou’s performance that he saw the musical seven times.
In 1993, Cerveris made his Broadway debut in The Who’s Tommy as 18-20-year-old Tommy, a breakout role that earned him a Tony nomination for “Best Featured Actor” and the Theatre World Award. The show also received a Grammy for “Best Original Cast Album.” Tommy was written by Pete Townshend, The Who’s song writer and guitarist, who was so impressed by Cerveris that he invited him to perform on his North American “Psychoderelict” tour.
Cerveris did not win the Tony that year, but he said he will always be grateful for the eye-opening awards ceremony experience.
“I think not winning was actually a great thing to happen,” Cerveris said. “I’m sitting there at the Tony Awards, where I never thought I’d be, and supposedly this most disappointing thing has just happened. But I still have this awesome job that I love, I’m still getting hired, my family still loves me and my friends still talk to me – so it’s really not so bad, not getting this award.'”
It was during his work with Tommy that Cerveris adopted his trademark shaved head. Shaving his head helped make the wig he had to wear more comfortable – and after 1,403 performances, including shows in Germany, the look stuck.
Despite lacking the cutthroat competitive spirit one might expect to find in the entertainment industry, Cerveris’s humble, hardworking demeanor has carried him far – even further than Broadway. His multi-industry, multi-city career has included TV appearances, movie roles, concerts and albums and of course a highly successful Broadway career. Over the years, the self-described “actor who can sing okay” has earned an extraordinarily diverse fan base.
Following his 24-episode stint on Fame, Cerveris’s TV career has included appearances on The Equalizer, 21 Jump Street, Quantum Leap, Dream On, CSI, The American Embassy and Person of Interest – among many others. His most notable TV role has been as September, often called “The Observer,” on the FOX series Fringe. Cerveris was first introduced as The Observer in 2008 during the first season.After just three episodes, and without uttering a single line, he became the show’s most talked about character. The Observer, an eyebrowless alien in a black suit with a black tie and a black fedora, appeared in the background of various scenes throughout the first few episodes. It became a game among fans to spot him. Although the show’s producers originally wanted to wait until the 12th or 13th episode to reveal his character, they decided to move up the reveal to the fourth episode. For the rest of the season, Cerveris continued to appear – sometimes speaking and sometimes silent.
To promote the show’s second season, FOX had Cerveris make real-life appearances as The Observer at various events.
“I was on the sidelines for the NFC Championship between the Giants and the Eagles, in Jimmy Johnson’s pit at a NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway and in the audience of American Idol,” recalled Cerveris, who also appeared in a commercial for Glee and at other events covered by FOX. “It was never explained – I would just be there for seemingly no reason. If you knew the show, you’d know what was happening, but if not, I guess you’d just think there was something really weird going on. Josh Jackson [who stars on Fringe as Peter] would complain, ‘I’m here working 12 hours a day, and Cerveris gets to go hang out at NASCAR and football games?’ But hey, it was my job – what could I do?”
When filming for the hit sci-fi series was moved from New York to Vancouver, it became less convenient for Cerveris to appear on set for just a few silent moments – so for the second, third and fourth seasons, he only appears on the show when he actually is part of a scene, which is still quite frequently.
Fans can also find Cerveris on the HBO drama series Treme. He appears as Mervin Frey, the music manager of Annie Talarico, a classically trained violinist who plays music on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The critically acclaimed series, which portrays life in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, premiered its third season on September 23.
Cerveris has appeared in numerous movies, including 1998’s Lulu on the Bridge; 2001’s The Mexican, starring Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini; 2009’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, a comedy written and directed by John Krasinski of The Office; Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, in which Cerveris worked closely with stars Salma Hayek, William Dafoe and John C. Reilly; and a 2010 sci-fi horror film called Stake Land.
Always making time for music, his long-time love, Cerveris has performed and recorded with bands Lame, Retriever, Cerveris and Loose Cattle. In 1998 he performed as Bob Mould’s guitarist on his world tour, “The Last Dog and Pony Show.”
But without a doubt, Cerveris is known best for his widely praised theater career. After Tommy, his next Broadway appearance was as Thomas Andrews in the musical Titanic in 1997. In 2004, he played the role of John Wilkes Booth in the Broadway musical Assassins, a role that earned him the Tony Award for “Best Featured Actor” and the Outer Critics Circle Award. The musical, called “glitteringly dark” by the New York Times, with “a cast that finds the magnetism in rage and resentment,” also won the Tony Award for “Best Revival of a Musical.”
“My sister came with me to the ceremony, and my parents were watching from home,” Cerveris said. “The coolest thing about winning was just the sense of being recognized for what I had been doing. It didn’t change the way I felt about myself, of course, but it was just a nice feeling of acknowledgement.”
In the 2005 revival of Sweeney Todd, the musical that had such an impact on Cerveris years earlier, he was chosen for the title role alongside Broadway legend Patti LuPone. Instead of having an orchestra in this production, the actors themselves played instruments, and Cerveris played lyric guitar. He was nominated for the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and Drama League Award.
He received those same nominations in 2007 for his role as Kurt Weill in the Broadway musical LoveMusik. That same year, he played Kent in an Off-Broadway production of King Lear, which earned him another Drama League Award nomination. Other theater performances include the Off-Broadway musical Road Show; Hedwig and the Angry Inch in the West End; the limited Roundabout Theatre Company production of Hedda Gabler, in which he starred opposite Mary-Louise Parker; and the Broadway comedy In the Next Room by Sarah Ruhl.
It’s no wonder Playbill.com calls him “the most versatile leading man on Broadway.”
“I love the fact that I’ll be performing on Broadway one day and then flying out to Vancouver the next day to play this freaky character on Fringe where I have no eyebrows,” Cerveris said. “I think probably my key to being ‘versatile’ is that I’m a character actor – I like to disappear and not be recognizable from one character to another. The best compliment I get from people is hearing them say they watched me for half an hour before realizing it was me.”
Today Cerveris can be seen in Broadway’s revival of Evita as Juan Perón, starring with Elena Roger as Eva Perón and superstar Ricky Martin as Che Guevara. Cerveris received his fifth Tony nomination for the role. USA Today raved about his performance, calling his character both “superb” and “endearing.” The USA Today review went on to say, “Though the robust-voiced actor makes a convincing dictatorial figure, what comes through most is Juan’s genuine affection and concern for his little Eva.”
Even less laudatory reviews of the musical by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times found nothing negative to say about Cerveris’s performance.
“Mr. Cerveris has more than enough [talent] to go around,” said the Wall Street Journal review. “To be sure, the part of Juan Perón is ungratefully small, but he plays it as though it were huge, and his stage presence is so electric that he steals the show from Ms. Roger in ‘You Must Love Me’ without saying a word or moving a muscle.”
“As Juan Perón, the man Evita made (in all ways), Mr. Cerveris is, as usual, just about perfect,” the New York Times review said. “Though the Colonel Perón of ‘Evita’ is mostly portrayed as an empty suit (or military uniform), Mr. Cerveris fills him out with a finely exaggerated mix of pomposity, uncertainty and raw appetite.”
Cerveris said his initial meeting with Evita director Michael Grandage was not originally intended to be about the role of Perón or even about the show.
“I thought his shows were great, and I just wanted to meet him,” Cerveris said, referring to Grandage’s productions of Red and Frost/Nixon. “We sat down and had an hour-long conversation, and he described how he saw the relationship between Juan Perón and Eva as being the real centerpiece of the Evita story, which it wasn’t really in the original production. By the end of our conversation, I thought, ‘This sounds like something that I would be interested in doing.'”
The laser focus and unparalleled work ethic that carried Cerveris from Huntington to Broadway and beyond have made finding time to return home difficult; however, in recent years he has made it a priority.
“I came back to Huntington about five or six years ago, and it was the first time I’d been back in probably 20 years. And a lot had changed, but fundamentally it was the same place I remembered growing up,” he said. “The great thing was getting there and suddenly realizing I still knew how to find everything. I could find Stewart’s Hot Dogs and Frostop Drive-In, and I knew how to get up on the hill at Ritter Park where the galleries are. I went around the campus at Marshall, reminiscing about the time I spent there with my dad when he taught there and all the Marshall football games I attended.”
He said his 2011 appearance with the Marshall Artists Series was “just the best.”
“They say you can’t ever really ‘go home,’ but that really felt like I was coming home in a big way,” he said. “It made me want to keep coming back as often as I can.”
Michael Cerveris is a true Huntingtonian. His quiet assiduousness, guileless modesty and unequivocal talent have carried him further than many, including himself, would have ever dreamed of going. His life is constantly changing, with new roles, new challenges and new choices at every turn. But for Cerveris, the thrills of big-city adventures only make him appreciate the familiarity of small-town Huntington even more.
“I loved pretty much everything about growing up in Huntington,” he said. “And as the years go by, I love and value it all even more.”
