Today most Popular

In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s also perhaps perhaps maybe maybe not Jewish. (Joan Marcus)

In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s additionally perhaps maybe maybe not Jewish. ( )

Those that adored the sweetly nerdy lead of TV’s “Chuck” will likely to be thrilled to find its celebrity, Zachary Levi, on Broadway, doing exactly just what he does most readily useful: singing, dancing . . . cringing.

In “First Date,” opening in a few days, Levi plays Aaron — as awkwardly earnest as Chuck, but as bearded and bespectacled as a yeshiva child, as well. Cue the cringing when Aaron discovers that their date that is hot — the comely Krysta Rodriguez (“Smash”) — is not Jewish.

Then once more, neither is Levi.

“Nope, maybe perhaps not really a Jew!” he says having a grin. “But if individuals would you like to lump me personally in with God’s plumped for, I’ll go on it!”

Backstage during the Longacre Theatre — backpack by their part, their 6-foot-4 frame closing in black colored Converse sneakers — the set that is 32-year-old record right, their discussion peppered with all the words “journey,” “amazing” and “blessed.”

He had been created Zachary Levi Pugh — that Welsh surname’s pronounced “pewww!” — which resulted in no end of “brutal reviews” in boyhood and past. Their representative recommended the young star might only want to alter their title.

It wasn’t a simple choice.

“I’d made a guideline that i’dn’t alter or fold for Hollywood,” claims the star, whom was raised in Southern Ca, into the shadow of Disneyland. But about it long and hard,” he decided to simply lose the Pugh after he“prayed.

That, Levi claims, resulted in another trouble: “I’ve had casting directors call my representative and state, ‘Yeah, you know — he’s a tad too Jewish.’ ”

So far as the creators of “First Date” had been concerned, Levi had been perfectly.

“Zachary’s such as for instance a version that is better-looking of — the me I’ve always desired to be,” says Austin Winsberg, the show’s bespectacled book author. While composing for “Gossip woman,” which shared workplaces regarding the Warner Brothers lot with “Chuck,” Winsberg saw in Levi exactly what he calls “the sweet spot — an individual who could sing, party, become funny and have fun with the intimate main character, usually the one females desire to be https://datingrating.net/escort/fort-collins/ with plus the dudes root for. ”

Since it occurred, Levi had been free, and Broadway had been on his bucket list. He’d been singing and dancing in local movie movie theater since he had been 6 (“I happened to be a ham”), in which he and his “Tangled” co-star Mandy Moore sang a duet together during the Oscars.

Their only doubt: getting typecast as a nerd, also himself that way in real life if he sees. He and a close buddy operate a small business he describes as “Nike for Nerds” — the Nerd Machine, which creates duds and gizmos for sci-fi fans and gamers like Levi himself, whom place their supply through a light fixture whilst hitting an overhead smash during a Wii game of tennis.

“ we think in making use of the working platform you’ve got for good,” says Levi, whom calls their company transactions “conscientious capitalism — have a dollar, offer a buck.” He’s a devoted supporter of procedure Smile as well as other charities, and arranged for per week off at “First Date,” just after previews began, to honor their dedication to appear at Geek Central, a k a Comic-Con.

And their love life?

“That we won’t enter into,” he states, pleasantly. Despite a well-publicized breakup with singer Caitlin Crosby, he’s was able to keep their personal life from the down low.

“I’m maybe maybe not just a dater that is big actually,” he claims. “I’m a go-with-the-flow style of guy . . .

I’d rather hang down with somebody in an organization to check out then we’ll get on a night out together. when they check these different containers beside me before we venture out together — get acquainted with one another really casually and coolly, and when there’s chemistry,”

Judging through the ecstatic applause Levi’s drawing in “First Date,” lot of individuals is really very happy to understand him better.