PASADENA, Calif. — Actor Christian Borle swung from the saddest time of his life to pure joy in a matter of weeks. It was daunting, he admits as he eases into a booth in the corner of a hotel lounge.
Borle is a jubilant participant in NBC's hit Smash. He plays Tom Levitt, the songwriting partner of Debra Messing, as they prepare a musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe.
"I got the show two weeks before my father died," Borle says. "I had just finished Angels in America. So as my father was slowly deteriorating, I was doing a play about grief, and fear of death and deterioration. And in a way, that is the great gift of being an actor, is I was able to go in and exorcise these feelings, all the fear, all the pain."
The experience changed him, he thinks. He's more appreciative of life but also more chastened.
Most of Borle's work has centered on Broadway. He was nominated for a Tony for Legally Blonde: The Musical (opposite Lexington native Laura Bell Bundy), co-starred in the musical version of Mary Poppins and boasted several roles in Spamalot.
Smash marks his first major television role. "Having this amazing good fortune of working toward something I love and having Smash happen, whatever happens with it, however it is received, however long it lasts, it's already been unbelievable," says Borle, 38.
Like many performers, he knew what he wanted to do early on. "I did a lot of plays in elementary school like everybody did. ... I had incredible teachers — in the sixth through 12th grade, in Pennsylvania, and they really encouraged me. My parents were very liberal, lovingly open-minded people who supported the arts. So I never got any of that 'You have to be a doctor' or any of that. So as soon as I got the bug, they just encouraged me. I was really lucky."
His passion bloomed in high school and "just continued. It never stopped. I went to school for it, and then I moved here and have been able to just do it."
There has never been a moment when Borle considered quitting. "There are times when you get survival jobs when you need to pay the rent," he says, "but it has never even passed through my pea brain" to quit.
A major turning point arrived with his divorce from Tony-winning actress Sutton Foster after three years of marriage. "We separated in '07 before Angels in America. I adore and respect my ex-wife; it was just a lesson in terms of what we think we are supposed to do growing up — part of the rite of passage. ... I got married because I loved her, but I didn't think about whether or not there are any other alternatives. Just in terms of — this is what adults do. That's a great lesson."
