This summer, Broadway audiences have been swooning over the latest TV star to make the leap onto the stage. Former Chuck headliner Zachary Levi is earning raves for his performance as a newbie blind dater (who gets set up with Krysta Rodriguez) in the new Broadway musical comedy First Date. There’s a lot to love about Levi, who sat down with Broadway.com to chat about his surprising history in musical theater, his tenure in Disney’s Tangled and his Huckleberry Finn dreams.

Broadway has long been on your mind. When did you first experience it?
I was probably 17 when I saw Annie Get Your Gun. That was the first time I had come to New York with my parents. As a kid, you hear about Broadway. If you live on the east coast, you have a good chance of going to see a Broadway show, but not if you grow up in Southern California. The closest I ever got was when my grandma brought me and my older sister to see Cats at the Pantages, but I was so young that I didn’t really remember the experience, per se. I remember liking it a lot, because there were people prancing around as cats. As a kid, you’re like, “That’s weird!”

Did seeing live shows inspire you to do theater?
I did a lot of theater because I loved doing theater. Not because of anything that I had necessarily seen, but as much as one can be fated or created to do something, I believed that that was my fate. Other kids were great at baseball or basketball or football; some kids were super brainiacs and understood calculus at 10 years old. I just loved entertaining people.

Take us back to your first time on stage.
When I was six, we did church summer camp skits and plays, which is when I first started memorizing lines and being on a stage. I remember I was so nervous that I puked before one of the shows and my mom had to bribe me onto the stage by promising she’d buy me a Nintendo game. I guess I have Nintendo to thank for my career.

When did you figure out you could sing?
I’m still figuring that out! I love singing and I’ve always loved singing. You only know you can do something based on people’s reactions to what you’re doing. I mean, I can think I’m a great chef, but if nobody hires me to cook their food, then I’m probably not a good chef.

You just recorded the cast album for First Date. That’s good validation, right?
I have yet to hear the put-together cast album, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m super stoked that we got to do it, because I know it doesn’t always happen, and especially out of the gate like this. We recorded it after our opening weekend, so it’s pretty fresh.

Your big singing debut was in the Disney movie Tangled. How do you feel about hearing those songs now?
I have a lot of friends with kids, so Pixar and Disney movies would constantly be put on, and Tangled was a favorite, so I’ve heard it many times. It’s awkward! Eventually I had to give in to it, because people really love the movie, and I do as well—I think it’s an excellent movie. [ Read More ]