Still youthful David Hyde Pierce

A belated happy birthday to Gratuitous Violins favorite David Hyde Pierce, who turned 50 on April 3.

Broadway.com has an interview with the very talented and gracious actor, whose play Accent on Youth opens Wednesday at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

I still remember jumping off the couch and cheering when he won the Tony award in 2007 as the singing and dancing detective in Curtains.

On winning the Tony:

"I had all those years in Frasier at awards ceremonies, where I’d gotten up because I’d won or stayed sitting because I didn’t. I’m used to all sides of that. But at the Tonys, there was just… Being back in the theater means so much to me, because Broadway means so much to me, because of the experience of doing that show and what we all had together. All that combined was overwhelming. And I was surprised to be overwhelmed because I thought I was an old hand at this stuff."

The difference between musicals and plays:

"Those [Curtains and Spamalot] were fairly large musicals, and you had a big orchestra underneath you, which is the engine that carries you and the audience along. In a play, the actors onstage are the engine, so I end up less physically tired, but slightly more brain fried."

Meeting fans of Frasier:

"People are really nice. They come up a lot on the streets of New York, and of course, more when there are tourists in town. But regardless, there’s such affection for the show. Now it’s in reruns, and people really appreciate it. So it’s not about screaming. More often, it’s a nice quiet conversation on the street. I’ve had a million of those, and I love it."

Theatrical comings and goings

I'm so sad that [title of show] will play its last performance on Oct. 12. Another one closes before I see it. I know a lot of people questioned whether it was too insidery to appeal to the Broadway tourist crowd. But from the clips I've watched, this little musical that could was a sweet story about chasing your dream, and it sounded like so much fun.

The Lyceum Theatre, where it's been playing, has 922 seats. I wonder if it would have had more of a chance for a longer run in a smaller theatre, like Circle in the Square, which only has 650 seats? Since it was only playing to 30 percent capacity, probably not.

Sigh. Why don't shows stay open until I have a chance to get to New York City? Is that too much to ask? Would it help if I had a couple million dollars to invest?

I watched an old episode of Theater Talk today with Patrick Stewart and Rupert Goold talking about last spring's production of Macbeth. A clip from the play confirmed how I felt about it: visually stunning but hard to figure out what was going on.

Listening to Goold, the play's director, and Stewart, who got a Tony nomination for the title role, actually made the play sound more interesting and accessible than watching it on stage. Maybe you have to be British and start reading Shakespeare in kindergarten to truly understand it?

More casting has been announced for the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of the comedy Accent on Youth, which begins previews on April 7. This is one I swear I will not miss. David Hyde Pierce, a Gratuitous Violins favorite, will portray a playwright who's about to abandon his latest script when his secretary offers him new inspiration.

He'll be joined by Charles Kimbrough - a Tony nominee for the original production of Company and an Emmy nominee for Murphy Brown - as the butler. I used to watch Murphy Brown all the time, but I have to admit, I don't remember Kimbrough from the show. Apparently he played stuffy anchorman Jim Dial. Maybe it's time for a little review?

Finally, thanks to The Homesteader for pointing me to this story from the Denver Post. The musical Little House on the Prairie, currently playing to packed audiences at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, will come to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts late next year, with Melissa Gilbert reprising her role as Caroline "Ma" Ingalls. The musical will stop in Denver from Dec. 22, 2009 to Jan. 3, 2010.

The producers had announced earlier that Little House would embark on a 40-city tour in the fall of 2009, but this is the first location I've read about. I'm a little surprised that Gilbert is touring, but good for her! She wasn't what I enjoyed most about the production, but it was nice to see her on stage.

He'll be back

While I'm sad about A Catered Affair closing, as Modern Fabulousity reassures us, Broadway has an infinite number of shiny, beautiful baubles asking for our love. So, I guess it's time to move on and look forward.

When I was in New York last month I had a chance to stop by the stage door of Curtains and say hello to its charming and talented star, David Hyde Pierce. It'd been a year since I'd seen him - when I saw Curtains, in April 2007, so we had some catching up to do. I congratulated him on winning a Tony, thanked him for being so gracious when we first met, told him how sorry I was that Curtains was closing, and said I hoped he'd be back on Broadway again soon.

Well, he is so gracious that even though he probably wanted to take a year off after 16 months of singing and dancing his heart out eight times a week, David Hyde Pierce apparently did not want to disappointment me. Next April, he'll be starring in the Manhattan Theatre Club's revival of the 1934 comedy Accent on Youth at Broadway's Biltmore Theatre.

I'm so excited about the prospect of seeing David Hyde Pierce on stage again. I absolutely love him and I hope this means that the Frasier star has decided to make his new home on stage, in New York. This is officially one of my most anticipated shows of the season - right up there with Billy Elliot. (Yeah I know, I'm excited about a play. What can I say? Sorry, Chris.)

Accent on Youth was written by Samson Raphaelson, a noted playwright and screenwriter. It opened on Broadway on Dec. 25, 1934, at the Plymouth Theatre (now the Schoenfeld) and ran for a total of 229 performances. There have been several movie versions, including one with Bing Crosby, in 1950, called Mr. Music, and But Not for Me, with Clark Gable, in 1959.

There's always the question of how well older comedies stand up, whether the jokes and the characters will seem dated. But the plot sounds promisingly funny. Hyde Pierce's last two Broadway shows, Curtains and Spamalot, have been musicals. His last Broadway play was The Heidi Chronicles, in 1990. In Accent on Youth, he'll portray a playwright who's inspired to write again by his young secretary. His new play makes it to Broadway and then he learns, to his dismay, that the secretary also has been inspiring the leading man.

Meanwhile, Curtains closes on June 29, so there's not much time to see this funny, wonderfully acted, tremendously entertaining show. I know I'd see it again if I could.