Darren Criss, 37, is a Broadway star and a regular at the piano bar. “Keep the music on, okay?” he said. “I think the expression ‘life is a cabaret!’ applies.”
When he’s in Los Angeles, he frequents Trump Stamp Granny’s, which he and his wife, Mia, own. “It’s a beautiful little Hollywood story,” he said. “She serves the drinks and I serve the music.”
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Is there one rule for piano bars? Play hit songs. Chris had his first hit at the University of Michigan. He starred as Harry Potter in an unauthorized student show based on the 2009 YouTube sensation book.
“This was a very interesting moment,” he said of “A Very Potter Musical.” “It really changed my life. It set me on the path to where I am now.”
From 2009: Unofficial parody show “A Very Potter Musical”:
I asked if “A Very Potter Musical” was the first musical that was talked about. “I don’t know. I think we’ll let the YouTube historians decide on the validity of that,” Chris said.
But Chris took a detour on his way to Broadway, becoming a television star. “‘Glee’ was on the air at the time,” he said. “And like hundreds of thousands of other people in the same situation at the time, I went for it. And I happened to book it.”
He played Blaine Anderson and quickly became a fan favorite. “I was able to be on that show because of the subculture fan base that I gathered from the Potter films,” he said.
Watch Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) perform Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” on “Glee.”
Chris won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his role as serial killer Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.
He currently plays an antiquated robot named Oliver in the new musical “Maybe Happy Endings,” one of Broadway’s most acclaimed shows. The New York Times called it “fun,” “heartbreaking,” and “super smart.”
Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman/“Maybe A Happy Ending”
Chris says, “This show opens with a song that is the question the show poses: Why do you love it? Why do you do it? To love something is to enter into a contract with an unforgiving backend. If you know that, it’s a loss.” Something – why would you do something like that when you know it’s going to happen? ”
According to Chris, the show came at the perfect time. He and his wife, Mia, have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and welcomed a son earlier this year.
I asked them, “Do you feel like this is the best year of your life?”
“Well, it’s definitely a blessing,” Chris laughed. “I’ve had a special few years in my life, and I’m sure it’s been an exciting time.”
He, too, has had a rough time. In 2020, her father Bill passed away at the age of 78 due to heart disease. In 2022, his older brother Chuck died by suicide at the age of 36.
Chris says, “I don’t particularly think about my experiences with the people I’ve lost in my life, but I do think about the feelings of loss, sadness, emptiness, and loneliness that it brings, because everyone feels that way.” That’s because we have.” But in life and in (“Maybe Happy Endings”), what moves me is not the darkness of loss, but the superhuman grace it takes to bounce back in that inescapable truth. is. ”
Considering that, Darren Criss can’t help but sing.
“I count my lucky stars every day,” he laughed. “It’s gone – too much! It’s still on. It’s on ‘CBS Sunday Morning’!”
Stream the holiday album “A Very Darren Crissmas” by clicking on the embed below (free Spotify subscription required to listen to full track).
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Story produced by Mary Lafari. Editor: Lauren Burnero.
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Watch a special performance of holiday music from Darren Criss on Sunday Morning.
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