Paper Magazine’s 10th Annual Beautiful People Issue

By, Whitney Spaner
April 2007

( Matt Cavenaugh, Sebastian La Cause & Tony Yazbeck )

With ticket prices on Broadway reaching triple digits, it’s nice to have boys who provide some bang for your buck. Not only are they pretty, but they can act, sing and dance—a quadruple threat. Matt Cavenaugh (right) stars in the hit musical Grey Gardens, based on the Maysles brother’s documentary about Jacqueline Kennedy’s reclusive cousins. His split role as Joe Kennedy Jr. and Jerry Torre is both stately and sensitive. Tony Yazbeck (center) shows off his strength and versatility in this season’s revival of A Chorus Line, and Sebastian La Cause (left) most recently turned tricks as the magician in the Kennedy Center’s production of Carnival, after starring in The Rocky Horror Show on Broadway. What is the secret to their sex appeal on stage? All three say: confidence. “Isn’t that what we always find sexy about people?” Cavenaugh asks in his smooth Arkansas drawl. “Whether we love ‘em or hate ‘em, there is something that draws us to [them]. I think that is a common denominator for people in theater.” Yazbeck, who grew up in Pennsylvania adds, “It’s the risk-taking and fearlessness that defines it.” But in La Cause’s case, it’s also a little bit of the risqué. “I did a production of Take Me Out, and it [involved] standing onstage taking a shower nude.” Yum! But the Ohio native quickly adds, “I wasn’t thinking sexy. You don’t want to be onstage naked, thinking sexy. That’s not a good equation.”

(l-r) Sebastian wears a suit by H&M, shirt by Hugo Boss, watch by Breil Milano. Tony wears a suit by Hugo Boss, sweater by H&M. Matt wears a suit by Burberry.

Head Over Heels in 'She Loves Me'

Stars of the Revival at Arena Stage Simply Adore the
Quirky Romantic Musical

By Jane Horwitz
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The leads in “She Loves Me” -- Kevin Kraft, Brynn O'Malley, Nancy Lemenager and Sebastian La Cause -- seem to be having a blissed-out professional experience doing Arena Stage's revival of the 1963 musical. It runs through the end of the month.

Recalling director Kyle Donnelly's “beautiful” speech to the cast at the first rehearsal and remarks by Artistic Director Molly Smith and the show's designers, O'Malley says she's “never worked in a theater, especially a regional theater . . . where you come in and everyone cares so much.”

O'Malley plays Amalia, the new shopgirl at a perfumery in 1930s Budapest. Amalia quickly forms a hatehate relationship with the senior salesclerk, Georg (Kraft). The two don't know it, but they're already in love -- via romantic lonely-hearts letters they've been exchanging anonymously, trying to muster the courage to meet.

(If that sounds familiar, it's because “She Loves Me,” based on Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play “Parfumerie,” has had several movie incarnations, including “You've Got Mail.” The musical's book is by Joe Masteroff, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.)

Amalia's big Act 2 number, “Vanilla Ice Cream,” was made famous by Barbara Cook in the original production, and she has been singing it in concert and cabaret every since. O'Malley refuses to be daunted by that.

“I know there's just no way anything I'm doing is going to be remotely like what she did,” says the actress, but she adds that she actually finds the song the easiest to sing. “It's such an exciting moment acting-wise that I don't have time to think about the singing,” she says.

The songs in “She Loves Me” are not written in typical verse-refrain form, which makes them less hummable but more fun to perform, observes Kraft, the singer-songwriter-actor who plays Georg. “These are little tiny soliloquies that are really musicalized monologues,” the Springfield native says; they “are wonderful for actors, but they do take a slightly sophisticated audience to appreciate them.”

Lemenager, as the unlucky-in-love shopgirl Ilona, sings the long number “A Trip to the Library,” recounting how she finally met a good man. “It's so delicious to do because it's written so well andit's set up so beautifully," she says. "It's so delicious as an actor to get to tell that story every night."

Lemenager views the musical's score as “a gift more than a challenge” and not unlike singing Sondheim in that “so much of the work is done for you. Oftentimes in a musical, the song feels random or sort of out of place. . . . You have to do a lot of work to fill in the blanks.” But “it feels like a treat” to do “She Loves Me.”

La Cause, who plays Kodaly, the womanizing clerk who toys with Ilona, echoes the enthusiasm: “It feels really good to be in that environment that Kyle and the other actors created. We have a lot of fun.” (La Cause will play another Lothario, the magician Marco the Magnificent, in the Kennedy Center's revival of “Carnival!” Feb. 17-March 11.)

Acting entirely in the round was new to some of the cast. Kraft says they were told to speak and sing as if they were not miked -- to “play this like outdoor Shakespeare.” He says he felt “bombastic” at first, especially speaking dialogue.

La Cause likes the truthfulness in-the-round requires. “It's three-dimensional. There's no place to hide. You have to be on, as it were, every moment, because even if you're not in the forefront of the scene, threequarters of the audience can see you,” he says. “You can't get away with anything.”

'Raisin' Redux

Jennifer L. Nelson had no intention of updating Lorraine Hansberry's “A Raisin in the Sun” for the African Continuum Theatre Company production, at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE through Jan. 7.

“I'm not making any attempts to modernize it in any way. In fact, one of the things I like most about it is it turns out it's kind of visionary,” Nelson says. Hansberry was a “brilliant intellectual” and “very much in touch with the social movements of the times,” the director says, “so in the play you see her kind of presaging what was to come in the years following her death” in 1965 at age 34.

Nelson, who will end her 10-year stint as the company's artistic director at the close of this season, says Hansberry showed particular foresight in her 1959 play by drawing a parallel between the civil rights movement in the United States and anti-colonial struggles in Africa, including “the violence and dissension that came out . . . because when you open a box and let loose the good things, there are maybe some other things as well.”

The now-classic, oft-performed play, set in the early 1950s, takes a close-up look at the Youngers, an African American family living in a tiny apartment on Chicago's South Side and striving to better their lives despite their fears, foibles and a hostile society intent on marginalizing them.

The voice of the future is Beneatha, the college student who intends to be a doctor and isn't sure she'll ever marry. Unlike her more traditional brother, mother and sister-in-law, she expresses then-newfangled views on civil rights and feminism. “For her to be writing that at the time she was writing that, especially for a young black woman to aspire for that, was a little radical in its way,” Nelson says of Hansberry.

Nelson does depart from tradition in the casting of the elegant, svelte Jewell Robinson as grandmother Lena. Ever since Claudia McNeil performed the role on Broadway and in the 1961 film, the character has been perceived as “this kind of bulwark matriarch who doesn't have a lot of emotional range,” Nelson says. With Robinson, “we're trying to play Lena with more dimension.”

Follow Spot

A radio-theater-style benefit performance of “It's a Wonderful Life,” directed by actress Susan Lynskey, will be presented by SoundIncentive on Dec. 11 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the H Street Playhouse, 1365 H St. NE. Donations will go to the N Street Village women's shelter. Stephen Schmidt will play George Bailey and Nancy Robinette will play the angel Clara. Visit http://www.soundincentive.org.

BROADWAY TAKES A BOW
By: Kelly Smith

Sebastian LaCause
Quick Hits

Would you like to have fun, fun, fun? How about a few laughs, laughs, laughs? He can show you a good time. He is Sebastian LaCause. And his amazingly buff 511", 190 pound physique can be seen eight times a week in Broadway's sexy, hit musical
Chicago. LaCause is part of an emerging new breed of rofessional dancer -- often, mistaken for a bodybuilder, yet able to move with catlike grace.

LaCause admits that. his body type is not the' norm for a Broadway dancer; most of them are more slight and sinewy. Although having worked on both coasts, he has noticed that the dancers in LA do tend to be a little beefier. "It's more about the look there, than it is in New York City because in LA there tends to be more of the "glamour jobs" such as dancing on television and in movies and videos." LaCause himself has worked with the
likes of Madonna, Prince, and Tina Turner and such high profile events as the VH I Fashion Awards, the Billboard Awards and the Brit Awards. At the age of 28, he's already managed to tap into both Hollywood and Broadway -- not bad for a kid from Akron.

In addition to the many demands of his performance schedule, LaCause. makes plenty of
time for his own fitness routine. He does no cardio -- that's provided courtesy of his job --
and he follows a weight training pattern of four days on and one day off. (Day One -- he,
works chest and triceps. Day Two -- back and biceps. Day Three -- shoulders. Day Four --
legs) I really like working out. It's another form of creativity to me -- shaping and sculpting
your own body. It's so gratifying to see the results." LaCause also makes sure to stretch every
day. "I have long muscles, so despite the extra time in the gym, I haven't lost flexibility."

LaCause says that he usually eats well-lots of chicken and fish and veggies. Every once in a
while he likes to have pizza, but his biggest nemesis goes by the name of Haagen-Dazs' truly
addictive dulce de leche ice cream. "I have decided that the pints are, in fact, individual servings."
You have to appreciate the way this man thinks.

LaCause freely admits that he's always been a ham -- even as a kid, and he loves his baby,
Mina, a four-year-old boxer/pitbull mix. Ironically, every time he thought of doing fitness
modeling -- modesty got the best of him, admitting "I didn't have the confidence."'

This thoughtful, focused, smoldering guy is quite happy in Chicago. "It's great that all the
dancers have a character and get an individual moment to shine." However, he has been
concentrating more on his acting. "I guess the dream gig would be anything where I can start
speaking."

Let's hear it for the (fine) boy.

STYLE & SUBSTANCE: SEBASTIAN LACAUSE
By: Farrah Weinstein

The title role in Broadway's "The Rocky Horror Show" may be a small one, but actor Sebastian LaCause's solid six-pack and bulky biceps should go a long way to making a strong impression on the audience."I go to Crunch gym five to six times a week, doing lots of weights and cardio," says the bleached-blond hunk, who has shared the stage as a backup dancer with the likes of Madonna, Prince, Toni Braxton and Tina Turner. "I'm high-maintenance. I have to wax the chest once a month, and that hurts like I can't even tell you."

As a kid growing up in Akron, Ohio, the half-black, half-Italian LaCause watched classic movie musicals on TV and dreamed of becoming a star. When he was 6, he started dancing at a "Dolly Dinkle tap-and-jazz kind of place," and then moved on to a ballet conservatory.

"From an early age, I had the bug. I had no other direction," says the 185-pound heartthrob who went on to major in dance at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and study acting in L.A.

The 6-foot stud - yes, girls, he's single, and he lives in Manhattan - has performed on Broadway in "Minnelli on Minnelli," "Chicago," "Once Upon a Mattress" and "Kiss of the Spiderwoman." He has also been seen in the films "Boogie Nights," "Scream II," "Showgirls" and "Sister Act II."

In "The Rocky Horror Show," which opens at the Circle in the Square Nov. 15, LaCause, 29, plays a character that will certainly add a new dimension to his body of work: the buff Rocky Horror, whom Dr. Frank-N-Furter creates to fulfill his carnal cravings.

Q: What's it like working on this show?

A: It's been a trip. The audiences have been insane. They throws in interjections. For example, if Frank is asking his minion what he thinks of me, the audience will shout, "Go ask Ken and Barbie."

Q: What's the funniest thing that has happened?

A: Well, the show is about butts and the anatomy of butts, and we have inside jokes about butts. It's a very ass-conscious show.

Q: What do you do to relax?

A: The gym relaxes me. Working out relieves tension and stress, and I can get away. And I love going to a spa, where you can do hydrotubs, massage and chiropractic adjustments.

Q: What can't you live without?

A: Haagen-Dazs' Dulce de Leche. They make it now in fat-free, and it's just as good.

Q: What's your diet?

A: I watch what I eat. Mostly chicken, rice, vegetables and beans. And Sunday is my day: I can have anything.

Q: How do you take care of yourself?

A: The older I get I realize its vital to take care of your skin. I went to Mario Bedescu and I had my first facial, which was pretty relaxing. I fell asleep twice.

Q: What are some of your favorite things?

A: Music, movies and my 6-year-old boxer that travels with me.

Q: Any favorite clothes?

A: I'm kind of more into a simple look. Jeans and T-shirts are a big part of my wardrobe, but I like to jazz it up with accessories. There's nothing like a great belt, sunglasses, hats or shoes. I've got my eye on a pair of Christian Dior sunglasses, and I just got a great Coach messenger bag. Gucci and Paul Smith are my favorite designers.

Q: What gives you substance?

A: My family and my friends. Also, my creative outlets, doing these shows, working and being able to do what I want to do, keeps me focused.

Q: What do you wear when relaxing?

A: Sweats. Abercrombie & Fitch clothes are great for bumming around.

Q: What do you wear for a big night out?

A: I have great Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana jackets I like to wear.

Q: What do you look for in a girl?

A: Confidence and definitely a sense of humor. Someone who has their own focus and direction. It's important for two people to have their own lives before they bring their lives together. And great eyes. And a smile.

BROADWAY MALE CALL
Song-and dance men take centerstage on the Great White Way
By: Bill Corsello

The Ethels, the Carols, the Lizas, the Gwen Verdons. Even If you've never seen Breoadway's classic musical-comedy divas perform, you know the names. Once upon a time, it was the female stars gossip columnists clamored for, critics adored and producers counted on to fill seats. Audiences traveled from near and far to catch these doyennes in distaff-driven vehicles like "Gypsy," "Hello, Dolly!," "Sweet Charity" … the list goes on and on. And today? Oh sure we still have our Bernadette Peterses and the occasional Patti Lupone, but over the past years, the Great White Way has seen a turning of the tide. Who are theatergoers buzzing about this season? The Nathans, the Matthews, the Patricks, the Sebastian LaCauses. Don't know to whom we're referring? You will.

This season's roster of new musicals features an unprecedented number of shows that share a common thread: They are all anchored by men. As a matter of fact, only one new musical, "Jane Eyre," offers a woman In the leading role

A VERY VIRILE SEASON
With the Tony awards fast approaching in June, the races for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in a Musical are guaranteed to be among the most fiercely contested and hardest to call in recent years. With so many men doing so much outstanding work in so many shows, this will, in fact, be a year when it is indeed, 'just a thrill to be nominated."

Leading the way through this andric avalanche are the guys from "The Full Monty," this season's first bona fide hit and a rowdy crowd-pleaser. The show centers around Jerrv Lukowski-played by Patrick Wilson, all scruffy charm and unkempt caprice-an out-of-work steel worker who convinces his gang of five cohorts that by baring it all, they'll rake in the dough. John Ellison Conlee, Jason Danieley, Romain Frugé, Marcus Neville and André De Shields provide rock-solid support rounding out the rag-tag crew of amateur strippers. Though audiences may have been initially titillated by the prospect of Broadway stars letting it all hang out, the show's launch to mega-hit status is due to a humorous and humane book, a modern score with gut-busting lyrics and, chiefly, the charisma of its superb sextet.

Also featuring men folk in various stages of undress-it's Broadway's mini-trend du jour-is the raucous and irreverent "The Rocky Horror Show." First in fishnets is Torn Hewitt as Frank 'N' Furter, "Rocky's" resident mad scientist/drag queen from outer space. Hewitt-a Montana native who has done everything from Shakespeare to Scar in "The Lion King"-faces the daunting task of stepping into the stiletto heels previously and indelibly filled by Tim Curry, who starred in the original stage production and the 1975 film version. As expected from an actor of his caliber, Hewitt straddles the role and makes it his own. When the plot comes to its inevitable climax (we won't spoil it for those who have never seen the movie-both of you), Hewitt eschews the urge to ham and plays it for real. All right, the emotion he stirs lasts for half a moment, but that's all this rollicking campfest can handle. "Rocky's" all-star cast also includes Jerrod Emick, Tony winner for "Damn Yankees" as Brad and chatterbox Dick Cavett (!) as a feisty narrator.
But of all Hewitt's costars, it is Sebastian LaCause who has proven to he "Rocky's" breakout star. At first, the hirsute, half African-American, half Sicilian dancer seemed an unlikely choice for the role of Rocky, the fabricated boy toy and object of Frank's obsession. But a little peroxide, a little depilatory and, voilà!, a blond is horn-and a star, to boot. The hunky dancer has become Broadway's poster boy for male physical prowess, the emblem of America's gym culture come to Tin Pan Ally. But don't let the buff bod fool you. This triple threat sings, dances and acts his G-string-adorned butt off in a role that could have just as easily gone the way of eye candy
Two other greatly anticipated tuners are counting on male star-power to propel their offerings to a high profile. "The Producers," Mel Brooks' adaptation of his beloved 1968 film comedy, boasts the one-two punch of Broadway stalwarts Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in its talent pool (see photo on page 8). The show garnered excellent reviews in its Chicago tryout, and New York audiences are chomping at the bit-and shelling out the dough-to catch this hit, to the tune of a $10-million box-office advance.
"Follies" has not been seen on Broadway since its initial incarnation 30 years ago, and audiences are losing their minds trying to procure tickets to the limited run of this revival of what many consider to be famed composer Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece. For the roles of Buddy and Ben, the beleaguered husbands of former chorus girls played by Judith Ivey and Blythe Danner, the Roundabout Theatre Company has recruited Treat Williams (the films "Hair" and "The Deep End of the Ocean") and Gregory Harrison (Broadway's "Steel Pier," TV's "Trapper John, M.D."). Expect these consummate actors to more than hold their own in roles that have, in past productions, been overshadowed by their showier female counterparts. The season's underdog, and surprise transfer from Off-Broadway, is "A Class Act." In this self-described musical about musicals, Lonny Price plays the late Edward Kleban, who is best know for having contributed the lyrics to "A Chorus Line." The score is derived from Kleban's trunk of goodies and is poised to posthumously deliver him his lifelong dream: a hit Broadway musical with both his lyrics and music.
Also guy-guided on the boards this season are "Seussical"-let by Kevin Chamberlin (Tony nominee for last season's "Dirty Blonde"), sweet and mellow as Dr. Seuss' beloved hero Horton the Elephant-and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," which features star-to-be Joshua Park as the eponymous rabble-rousing moppet. As mentioned before, "Jane Eyre" is this season's sole new musical that features a woman in the central role. But where would Jane Eyre be without her Rochester? James Barbour plays the surly, emotionally wounded lord of the manor in need of the love of a good governess. Barbour's youthful countenance and soulful, understanding eyes mask a commanding demeanor and a mature, sonorous singing voice.

FROM NORTH HILL TO THE GREAT WHITE WAY
By: Kerry Clawson

Area dancer LaCause switches to acting for title role in
Broadway's `Rocky Horror Show'

Akron native Sebastian LaCause has come a long way from North Hill, the Jean Shepherd Dance Studio and Swensons Galley Boy burgers.

Last night, he opened as a principal in the Broadway musical revival of the Rocky Horror Show at Circle in the Square. After some 10 years dancing in national tours, in Los Angeles and on Broadway, LaCause decided he wanted to get out of the
ensemble and pursue an acting career.

He grew up Billy LaCause, attending St. Martha's Elementary School and graduating from Cuyahoga Falls High School in 1989. He began studying tap and jazz at age 6, and at 13, studied ballet and modern dance at the Dance Institute at the
University of Akron. His mother, Jodie Gerber, now lives in Stow.

After high school graduation, LaCause headed straight for New York to study dance at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He landed his first job at 19, playing the understudy for Bernardo in the European tour of West Side Story. After numerous ``high-glamor'' dance jobs in Los Angeles and a number of Broadway appearances as a dancer, LaCause, 29, now plays the title character, Rocky, in his latest musical. In Rocky Horror Picture Show, Rocky was a blond Caucasian. LaCause, who is black and Italian, says directors originally were looking for a true blond who was younger.

But after a national search, it all came back to LaCause's acting. Plus the fact that he has the buff body required for the role. As Rocky, the man created by Dr. Frank N. Furter, LaCause has to wear a skimpy bikini bottom.

``Needless to say, I'm at the gym five days a week,'' the bleached blond says. ``There's no margin of error.''

In the original stage musical, Rocky speaks, unlike in the movie. He also has plenty of opportunity to sing.

``He's like a big toddler,'' LaCause says of Rocky. ``I've gone the route of a child in a man's body.''

This rock 'n' roll cult favorite features Joan Jett in her Broadway debut as Columbia, Tom Hewitt as Dr. Frank N. Furter, Daphne Rubin-Vegas as Magenta, Alice Ripley as Janet, Jarrod Emick as Brad, Raul Espanza as Riff Raff, Dick Cavett as the narrator, and Lea DeLaria as Eddie and Dr. Scott. Rubin-Vegas is well known
as Mimi in Rent. Ripley received a Tony nomination for Side Show and Jarrod Emick received a Tony in Damn Yankees. LaCause calls Jett, 40, a ``cool chick.''

``I'm surrounded by some really great actors. It really pushes you to do your best and it's really a good atmosphere to be creative and to explore,'' LaCause says.

The cast began playing previews to appreciative audiences, including plenty of hard-core Rocky fans, Oct. 20.

`We had a show on Halloween -- it kind of felt like opening night'' with an insane audience, LaCause says.

He says the show features body-conscious, revealing costumes and an amazing set design and lighting.

Over the years, LaCause has spent some time with other celebs. He played in Broadway's Once Upon a Mattress with Sarah Jessica Parker and with Liza Minnelli in Minnelli on Minnelli. He also toured with Chita Rivera in Kiss of the Spiderwoman. During his L.A. dancing days, he worked with Prince, Tina Turner,
Toni Braxton and Madonna.

``She was actually very cool, very down-to-earth, very easygoing and lots of fun,'' he says of Madonna. ``She was very put-together and very gracious.''

LaCause says most professional dancers work either in Los Angeles or in musicals in New York. He feels fortunate to be one of the few who has crossed over.

SEBASTIAN LACAUSE - ROCKY"S ROAD TO FITNESS
By: Mike Salinas

Of all the men appearing on Broadway these days in states of near or total undress-and there are many -only one merits a whole production number about his considerable muscular charms. That would be Sebastian LaCause in the title role of "The Rocky Horror Show."

LaCause, playing the part of a composite creature created by a mad scientist with a definite muscle fetish, wears nothing but a pair of white shiny briefs from shortly after his entrance (to the final strains of "The Charles Atlas Song") to the finale (when he adds a red corset, boa, and pumps to his brief outfit). Working as he does in a three-quarter-round theater with the audience literally at arm's reach, LaCause cannot afford to lose his physique. Fortunately, he tells Back Stage, he is genetically lucky, prone to a "fit and toned" body, and has stayed in good shape by dancing since he was five.

Only "over the past couple of years" has LaCause started working for bulk, while taking care not to overdo it. Again, he acknowledges his chromosomal luck, saying that he has long muscles and overextended arms that counteract the potential constrictions of weightlifting. He doesn't leave anything to luck, however, and uses plenty of limbering exercises to keep his flexibility. "I know people who have added muscle and I've seen how it can tighten them up-how they can't move as gracefully," he says. "Stretching is absolutely important to stay limber, some people work out and forget to stretch afterwards, and the pay for it later.

"I think staying flexible has to do with how you're putting the muscle on, and what kind of food you're eating. Changing your body is a combination of diet and exercise, not exercise alone," he reiterates. "Diet is such a key factor.

"I would suggest people eat in at home as much as possible and resist the temptation to have something delivered," he says, adding that cooking a meal provides nutrition of the mind as well as the body. "It's good discipline to prepare your 0own food," he notes, "Also, that way you know what really goes into it. When you order something from a restaurant, even something healthy-sounding, you don't know how they make it, what oils they use. Well, when I make something myself, I know."

So, what does make at home? "I'm really into stir fries," he says. "Vegetables and rice and chicken or beef," using cooking spray instead of oil, to make it that much healthier.

Still, he knows it can be tough for New Yorkers on the go to find time to cook for themselves. He ways that the city lags behind Los Angeles when it comes to restaurant specializing in healthful fast food, but even here patrons can frequently make healthy choice if they look for options on the menu. "Thos tie I have too have a burrito, I go to a place where I know they have tofu "sour cream' san soy cheese and whole wheat tortillas. Those things made a difference when you add them up."

Not that he's always a saint when it comes to eating, he gladly admits. "I love pizza," he says. "I love a lot of bad food. So I like to allow myself on day a week-Monday, our day off-to eat whatever I want. That way, I have something to look forward to at the end of the week. All my ice cream, burgers, Krispy Kremes, I cram 'em all into one day."

LaCause has an additional piece of advice to anyone just starting to build their bodies: "It's about working out with intensity, not just moving the weight around. When I was just starting out, I'd be at the gym for three hours at time, dong a million exercises, but as I matured I've learned that it's better to break it down and get more concentrated workouts.

"Now, although I like to allow myself an hour, I can get a really good workout in 45 minutes if I have to, by going in and working really hard on one muscle group: legs, arms, chest, back, or shoulders. That way you don't have to become a fanatic about it and spend all your time at the gym."

But if you do it right, as he demonstrates, you can certainly look as if you do.

Broadway's Rocky Horror Star Takes a Swing at Take Me Out in Florida, June 19-July 18

PLAYBILL
By Kenneth Jones
09 Jun 2004

Sebastian LaCause, remembered for playing hunky Rocky in Broadway's recent The Rocky Horror Show, will play cocky superstar ballplayer Darren Lemming in the Florida premiere of Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out.

The Caldwell Theatre Company staging in Boca Raton, FL, June 19-July 18 is one of the first regional productions of the 2003 Tony Award-winning Best Play. Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City is among companies also mounting the play this summer.

Take Me Out, about the event-packed season of a Yankees-like baseball team (the star player comes out of the closet, for starters) was expected to have a national tour, but that didn't materialize. More actors responded to Caldwell's open casting call — held over five days in New York and over three days in Florida — than any in the 29 year history of the troupe. More agents sent in bios and headshots than at any time before, and more actors auditioned for the 11 roles cast in Take Me Out than for any other roles in Caldwell's history, according to press notes.

Michael Hall (Caldwell co-founder its artistic and managing director) directs the provocative comic-tragic sports soap opera that explores race, class, elitism, friendship, celebrity, ego, sex and sexuality. The play is a love letter about baseball from a playwright who admitted his passion for ball is only recent. Greenberg's plays include The Violet Hour, Eastern Standard and Three Days of Rain.

The Florida production, as on Broadway, London and Off Broadway, includes nudity and mature subject matter.

The South Florida Caldwell cast also includes Paul Lasa as Martinez, Michael Polak as Shane Mungitt, Michael Shelton as Kippy, Danilo Anibaldi as Rodriguez, Gary Cowling as Mason Marzac, Lawrence Evans as Davey Battle, Ikuma Isaac Fryman as Takeshi Kawabata, Ian Hersey as Skipper/William R. Danziger, Haskell King as Jason Chenier, Charlie Kevin as Toddy Koovitz.

Designers are Tim Bennett (scenic), Thomas Salzman (lighting) and Steve Shapiro (sound).

Sights and Sounds

Root, Root, Root for the Home Team
Gay Baseball Player Comes Out in ‘Take Me Out,’ Premiering at the Caldwell Theatre
By Mary Damiano
Entertainment Editor - THE INDEPENDENT NEWS

When actor Sebastian La Cause saw the play Take Me Out on Broadway, he knew he wanted to play Darren Lemming, the gay, biracial baseball star who comes out of the closet at the height of his career. Now that the Tony Award-winning play is making its Florida premiere at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton, La Cause’s dream is coming true.

“I thought the play was awesome and I knew I had to play that part,” La Cause says.

Take Me Out, written by Richard Greenberg, has become one of the most talked about plays in recent years. Nominated both for a Pulitzer Prize for drama and a Tony Award for best play—it lost the Pulitzer but won the Tony—Take Me Out deals with a controversial subject: gay men in sports.

While gay men and lesbians have found acceptance in practically every other part of society, professional sports have been a stronghold of homophobia, where athletes remain closeted to protect their careers. The handful of major league athletes who have come out have done so after they’ve retired, which is what sets Take Me Out apart. In the play, baseball centerfielder Darren Lemming, a star of the same caliber as the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, comes out when he’s at the top of his game, not heading into retirement. Take Me Out examines what happens after Darren’s announcement.

Director Michael Hall believes that Take Me Out is well written enough that it may make people rethink the whole issue of gays in sports.

“We hear about the first black players, the Jackie Robinsons and so forth, and the racial mix is now very much a part of the team,” Hall says. “I’m sure that this play will maybe open some doors in sports.”

“It also helps to break stereotypes,” says La Cause. “Sports is the epitome of masculinity, or some people perceive them as that. When this is happening, it makes people stop and think that it’s not always just one way.”

“This play doesn’t spoonfeed you answers,” says Michael Shelton, who plays Darren’s best friend Kippy. “It raises questions and then asks you to think for yourself.”

Different aspects of the coming out issue are represented. There’s the new guy on the team, Shane, portrayed by Michael Polak, for whom, according to Hall, bigot would be a mild description. Hall is reluctant to call Shane the villain of the play.

“He’s an interesting character,” Hall says. “He does do something that’s quite shocking. Part of what makes this play so wonderful is where is the motivation for his outburst of hatred coming from?”

There’s also a gay accountant named Mason Marzac, played by Gary Cowling, who develops a crush on Darren but falls in love with the game of baseball. Actor Denis O’Hare won a Tony for the role, and the character is the one said to be most like author Greenberg, a man who discovered his love for the game later in life.

“I get to represent the fans,” says Cowling. “I think you really see what baseball means to people.”

“He has some of the most amazing monologues about baseball that have ever been written about baseball and why it is a great sport,” Hall says.

According to Hall, the opportunity for the Caldwell to produce Take Me Out fell right into place for June, when South Florida and gay communities around the country celebrate Pride. This is the second year that the Caldwell is presenting a gay-themed play for June; last year, their production of The Last Sunday in June was an enormous success, held over for several weeks.

“We do have a built in audience, and we certainly are making knowledge of this play to the gay community, but at the same time, it’s not fair to say it’s a gay play,” Hall says. “It has those subjects and gay characters but it’s also stories about people who are people, and consequently very timely and very contemporary.”

One of the features of Take Me Out is Tim Bennett’s set—part dugout, part locker room—is the working showers with real running water, which the actors will use onstage. Hall says that the nudity of the locker room and shower scenes is not exploitative, but integral to the heart of the play.

“It’s there because it shows you how it changes,” says Shelton. “Kippy has a great speech where he says that before, the locker room was like the Garden of Eden—they couldn’t see how naked they were until Darren comes out of the closet. It changes their sensibilities and they see each other in a different way.”

Hall says that out of any play he’s done at the Caldwell, he received more headshots and résumés for Take Me Out, about 800 in all for the 11 roles. He spent three days in New York and several days locally seeing actors, and he asked them all how they felt about the naked scenes.

“What several actors said was ‘I don’t mind it at all; the only time I’ll be nervous is when my mother comes,’” Hall recalls. “It’s a very interesting comment—naked to the world but not in front of Mama.”

THE A&E - Q&A

SEBASTIAN LA CAUSE ON SLUGGERS, STAGE ACTING AND TAKING A SHOWER IN FRONT OF 300 STRANGERS NIGHTLY

DATE: July 25, 2004
PUBLICATION: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
EDITION: FINAL
SECTION: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
PAGE: 1J

Sebastian La Cause, 33, is featured in the Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out, which has just been extended again at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca Raton through Aug. 15.

Like fictional slugger Darren Lemming, the role he plays, La Cause is biracial, the son of an Italian-American mother and an African-American father. Among his Broadway credits are Chicago, Once Upon a Mattress. Minnelli on Minnelli and the title role of Rocky in the revival of The Rocky Horror Show. On film, he can be seen dancing in Chicago, Boogie Nights and Showgirls, as well as in Batman and Robin and Eraser.

Recently, he spoke backstage with theater reviewer Hap Erstein about his new emphasis on non-musicals and about the controversial baseball play, with gay themes and full-frontal nudity, that has brought him to the area.

Erstein: You couldn't be more exposed than you are in 'Take Me Out.' According to (Caldwell director) Michael Hall, all the auditioning actors said they were eager to do the nude shower scenes. Is that true?
La Cause: That's his side of the story. I don't think we all felt like that, at all. We just knew that it's an amazing play and all the actors wanted to be a part of it. The nudity is there, so you just deal with it. It's not like, "Yeah, we want to do the nudity. Woo-woo, let's do it!" It was a little nerve-wracking at first. I had to really psyche myself up for it.

Erstein: You take a shower in front of 300 strangers nightly. Is that no big deal?
La Cause: Now it's not, no. The first couple of times, oh, yeah. I mean, hopefully you're concentrated enough in the scene that you're focused on what you're doing. Fortunately the main thing that's going on in your head is not, "Oh, I am naked." So you just forget about it.

Erstein: What about audience reactions? The night I was there, I heard an audible gasp at the beginning of the first nude scene.
La Cause: It doesn't happen nightly. Sometimes they're quiet, other times it's pretty funny how rambunctious they get. We actually have a sheet up here of audience comments. One was, "Hey, honey, you want your glasses?"

Erstein: When did you first encounter Take Me Out?
La Cause: I had heard about it, this baseball play that was at the Public (Theatre in New York). What I heard first was that the main character was biracial, half black and half white. Of course, that piqued my interest.

Erstein: Has being biracial ever been an impediment to your career?
La Cause: I experienced it a little bit with Rocky Horror. When they were casting Rocky, they wanted a white blond guy. They liked me, but that's not what I am. They auditioned forever, then months later they came back to me and they finally decided to go with me. That's kind of what's going to need to happen with me, I guess. I'm sure I'm going to run into more roadblocks like that in the future.

Erstein: But it was an advantage for Take Me Out, wasn't it?
La Cause: Probably, yeah.

Erstein: Have there been other examples?
La Cause: No, because there are very few roles written for biracial actors. So far. This is really the first one that I've found. Television, there's a little bit. They'll maybe write a character who has a multi-ethnic background, but as far as theater goes, no.

Erstein: Talk about your character, Darren Lemming, as you see him.
La Cause: He's very complicated. He's someone who is blessed with an incredible gift. He has been afforded a very privileged life. He never had to worry about anything. He's always been told "yes" all his life. "Yes, you can do it, yes, yes, yes." So he's someone with incredible confidence, which ends up being a little bit to his detriment.
He's in a seach for his true self, really. He goes about that by revealing his sexuality to the public. He ends up by going from this god-like being and he falls quite hard, because he didn't realize the effect (that announcing he was gay) would have on others. It changed everything, so his world starts to collapse around him and he's constantly on this quest to set things right and regain his control over his life.

Erstein: How would you say you are like and unlike Darren?
La Cause: Well, of course the ethnicity. He's a little bit of a smart a--. I was an only child, and the only grandson and the only nephew. Not that we had a lot of money growing up, but they spoiled me. My family calls me "The Messiah," actually. I was hearing a lot of "yes," as far as family goes. So that's like Darren. My family was always supportive. Whatever I wanted to do, they never questioned it, they were just always there for me. But he's definitely more confident than I am, in certain ways. He's very sure of himself. I don't have that.

Erstein: What speaks to you most strongly in the play?
La Cause: Tolerance and acceptance of who you are. I think the best that we can really hope for is that plays like this . . . can really open people's eyes to different ways of thinking.

Erstein: Are you a baseball fan?
La Cause: I enjoy baseball. I'm not like a huge fanatic. There's a gracefulness to it that I like. It's aggressive, but not in an in-your-face kind of way. It's not intellectual, but almost. There's a lot of strategy going on. And I do enjoy the Yankees.

Erstein: What got you started performing?
La Cause: I started dancing when I was 6 years old. I was in first grade and they were offering tap classes after school for a half an hour, or something like that. And I just went home and told my mother I wanted to do it. So she got an old pair of my dress shoes and put some taps on them. I don't know how or why it appealed to me. We didn't have cable television. So I don't know when I started watching those old MGM musicals, but I know that Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly were huge influences on me when I was a child.
At 13, I went to the Ohio Ballet School, a very intense, structured ballet school. Then I discovered community theater. But the ballet school wasn't keen on musical theater, and I don't like people telling me what to do, so fine, I quit the ballet. That was exactly the same thing that happened when I was in Little League and they told me that I could either dance or play ball, so I said, "OK, fine, I'm going to dance." Don't back me into a corner.

Erstein: Most of your experience has been as a dancer. Why are you concentrating now on acting?
La Cause: As far as the dancing thing went, I worked with some of the best people, from Broadway to film to television to recording artists. From Madonna to Liza Minnelli. It was just incredible. For me, it was how many more times could I be a back-up dancer. It wasn't about "Oh, my back is killing me," or "In the long run, I'm not going to be able to dance forever," it was just "What do I want to do now? What's the next step for me?" I just needed more, artistically.

Erstein: Has your dance resume been a handicap in making that transition?
La Cause: It can be, yeah. This show, this role, is going to hopefully - as much as I hate this word - to help legitimize me, so to speak. Because many producers and casting people like to pigeonhole you. They only see you at face value. Because I was good at what I did, they still wanted me to do that.

Erstein: Has being down in South Florida kept you from some work in New York this summer?
La Cause: I was going to do a play at the Fringe Festival in August, but now that we've extended, I can't do that. The play is called Eleanor Rigby is Waiting. It's a great piece with six actors playing a multitude of roles.

And I did a stint on One Life to Live and they called me back, but I was down here doing this, so I couldn't do it.
Erstein: What did you play on the soap opera? A goodie or a baddie?
La Cause: (embarassed laugh) A stripper. One of the main characters was doing undercover work in this strip joint and I was someone he came in contact with. Who knows what will happen with that.

Erstein: What is your career plan? Who are your role models?
La Cause: I wanted to come to New York to study and break into Broadway and use that as a catalyst into film and television, along the lines of Taye Diggs, Patrick Wilson, Jesse L. Martin, Michael Hall from Six Feet Under. I don't necessarily have to be extremely out there and totally famous, but I would love to have the career where I can do a play and do film and do something on television. Just do it all. I don't want to have any boundaries.

hap_erstein@pbpost.com

Loose Lips

Amanda Peet parks herself on Broadway. Plus: Mariette Hartley goes solo and Sebastian LaCause bares his soul.

DATE: February 7, 2006
BY: Brian Scott Lipton
PUBLICATION: TheaterMania.com

La Cause For Celebration

Having bared his beautiful body on Broadway in The Rocky Horror Show, Off-Broadway in Love! Valour! Compassion!, and in the acclaimed Florida production of Take Me Out, Sebastian LaCause wasn't completely surprised when the producers of the Emerging Artists Theatre's Triple Threat Festival asked him to audition for the role of "Hot Guy" in the play Edenvile. "Actually," he says, "they had me read for all three parts in the play. But I wanted to play the lead, Jules, even though I think they initially envisioned him as some mousy white guy."

LaCause got his wish, and he's happy playing a suddenly single man who's forced to reconsider his concept of Mr. Right. "I felt very strongly that I knew who Jules is and what the play is about, which is learning to give up a certain degree of control in order to appreciate the present moment," he says. "And it's been great to work in the kind of environment where the actors are crucial to developing their characters. It's been a lot of work, but it's worth it."

While LaCause has delighted audience in many musicals, including last summer's production of Pippin at the Bay Street Theatre, his focus now is on dramatic roles: "I'm really finding myself more attracted to the grittier, darker stuff, which doesn't happy in too many musicals. That said, I'd love to do the Emcee in Cabaret or Guido in Nine. But the part I most want to play in Eddie in Fool For Love." He's also working on developing a multi-character one-man show, and is anxious to move into the director's chair. While taking his clothes off onstage again isn't out of the question, his fans may have to wait longer for that than they'd like. "I've done my last Broadway Bares," says LaCause, referring to the annual strip-tease benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. "Three years in a row is enough. It's time for somebody else to disrobe!"

Boca Raton/Delray Beach News
Friday, June 18, 2004

MUCH MORE THAN A SIMPLE BALL GAME

By Skip Sheffield

Baseball: It’s much more than a simple ball game. “Take Me Out,” a 2003 Tony Award-winning Best Play by Richard Greenberg, opens Saturday and runs through July 18 in its Florida premiere at Caldwell Theatre Company, 7873 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton.

Sure, the guys wear baseball uniforms, engage in locker room bravado and talk about America’s favorite pastime, but it’s not simply three strikes and you’re out at this old ball game. “Take Me Out” takes a deep look at what constitutes team spirit in the face of unusual challenges, while rhapsodizing about the great American game of baseball.

“This is a play that breaks through stereotypes,” explains Sebastian La Cause, who plays Empires’ star player Darren Lemming. “It’s not always this way or that way. It doesn’t spoonfeed answers. It asks questions. Above all, it is a beautifully written play.”

The Empires are a New York baseball team that strongly resembles the New York Yankees. They’re a diverse, high-paid bunch, under the helm of Skipper (Ian Hersey), the team manager. Center fielder Darren Lemming (Sebastian La Cause) is the certified star of the team. He’s achieved such success in the game he has his own business manager, Mason (Gary Cowling). Mason is a nebbishy, secretly gay little numbers guy who learns to love the game of baseball as much as he instantly loves his hunky outfielder client. Mason also serves as a particularly eloquent narrator.

Other team members include Darren’s best friend, Kippy Sunderstrom (Michael Shelton); Toddy (Charlie Kevin) a fiery outfielder who sometime forgets the game isn’t over; Jason (Haskell King), a Southern boy with a certain lack of vacal finesse, and Shane Mungitt (Michael Polak), the bigoted, drawling new kid in town from Alabama – or is it Mississippi, Tennessee or some other place like that?

Kawabata (Ikuma Isaac Fryman) is the hotshot new pitcher from Japan, who may not have staying power.
Like Kawabata, the team’s two Hispanic players don’t even speak English, but they understand the language of baseball, and so does Davey Battle (Lawrence Evans), the African-American star player of the rival team.
The delicate balance of teamwork is rudely shaken when Darren suddenly reveals in a press conference that he is a gay man. The drama of the play hinges on how the new revelation is accepted.

“It really isn’t a gay play,” says director Michael Hall. “Obviously it’s a play about diversity, and teamwork. Darren’s revelation doesn’t really tear the team apart, until bigotry rears its ugly head.”

Director and cast say there are many funny moments in “Take Me Out,” and yes, there is a nude locker room shower scene with full frontal male nudity.

“Before Darren comes out of the closet, it’s like the Garden of Eden, in its sense of innocence,” says Michael Shelton. “Afterward everyone’s eyes are opened, and we see things differently.”

“My mom is coming to see me,” reveals Sebastian La Cause. “But it’s no big deal because she’s seen me nude many times before.”

“My mom already saw me when I was in the show in Indiana,” says Michael Shelton. “The nudity is not important. The play is so beautifully written. That’s the important part.”

Body of Work
Sexy actor Sebastian LaCause expands his resume with a dramatic turn as a gay major leaguer in ‘Take Me Out’

By LOANN HALDEN
Features Editor- TWN ONLINE

Within the first few minutes of watching the Broadway production of "Take Me Out," New York-based actor Sebastian LaCause knew that at some point in his life, he had to play Darren Lemming. The character, a superstar baseball player who comes out at the top of his game, provides the catalyst for Richard Greenberg’s sharply written dissection of race, class and homophobia as processed through our national pastime.
The play went on to win three Tony Awards in 2003, including Best Play, and on June 19, LaCause will get his wish when "Take Me Out" makes its Florida premiere at the Caldwell Theatre Company.

RAISING HIS AVERAGE: Sebastian LaCause swings for the fence with a lead role in Richard Greenberg’s Tony-winning drama "Take Me Out."

"It’s just such a great role and I thought that even before I’d finished seeing the whole play," says LaCause via phone from the Boca Raton theater, shortly after a rehearsal. "It’s really the first role that I have found that is actually my ethnic background. He’s half black, half white, which is what I am. That has never happened. I was instantly drawn for that fact, and then he’s just a really great character – really strong and complex and he goes on a very interesting journey in the play. I was drawn to all those things."

The role also offers the dancer-turned-actor an opportunity to flex his performance muscles in new ways. After studying dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, LaCause based himself in Los Angeles for seven years and went on to make his mark in movement. His dance prowess landed him jobs with major recording artists such as Madonna, Prince and Tina Turner, in film (Al Lipshitz in "Chicago," "Showgirls"), and back in NYC on Broadway ("Minnelli on Minnelli," "Chicago"). He even performed at the Academy Awards a couple of times.
"I had just done everything that I thought was available for a dancer. I always knew that I wanted to act at some point, so I said, ‘OK, I’m done,’ and I moved to New York to study because I thought New York was where I would want to be to get the best training possible," says LaCause, who returned to the Big Apple five years ago. "I wanted to be, and still strive to be, a very good actor. I came here and then I got into a couple of shows right away, so that was good.

"I was working on Broadway and studying and then eventually I just had to put that behind me because the industry won’t let you do a lot of things unless you’re a super megastar and then you can write your own ticket. But when you’re at the level that I am, still trying to make your mark, you are confined a little bit to the industry standards. I just decided to not do any chorus work anymore and really focus on acting, and then shortly after that I got ‘Rocky Horror.’ "

The 2000 Broadway revival of "The Rocky Horror Show" featured LaCause as Dr. Frank N Furter’s perfect creation. As Rocky – all shimmering muscles in a tiny ensemble – he served as object of lust for both the Sweet Transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania and unwitting castle visitor Janet Weiss.

He received good notices and had fun, but was also happy to move on from a role that showcased his good looks and ripped abs. First the dismissal was, "Oh, he’s just a dancer"; then with "The Rocky Horror Show," he heard "Oh, he’s just a body," he says.

Which brings LaCause to "Take Me Out," a play that illustrates the dangers of preconceived notions – and also requires full frontal nudity for its locker room scenes.

"You find that balance of trying to do your own thing but also playing the hand you’ve been dealt at the same time. People say ‘OK, you’re going to be a character actor’ or ‘You’re going to be a villain’ and sometimes people don’t want to do that, but sometimes you can really have a great career doing that or [using it] to get in the door first before you can start doing other things," LaCause says.

"This play, the nudity is just a part of it, it’s not a huge thing. Actually I was a little nervous about the nudity, because I’d never been nude in a show, so it was a little daunting and nerve-wracking. We’ll see what happens," he chuckles, adding that he’s back in the gym six days a week to gear up for "the unveiling" on June 19.
When asked if he showed signs of exhibitionist tendencies in his past, LaCause cracks up.

"All I can say to that is just having a dance background, dancers are a whole different breed of human beings in the sense that they’re just so connected to their bodies that there’s no difference between mind and body almost," he says. "You’re really comfortable in a way that I think most people are not. You use your body to express yourself. I don’t think that we are close-minded in the way that people who don’t deal with their bodies in that way can be."
Yet, when he reflects on his career to date, the sex appeal aspect is still a bit surreal, he admits.

"I didn’t get braces until I was in my early 20s and do contacts until I was 18," LaCause says of his awkward childhood, where he was the biracial student in all-white schools. (He’s currently writing a screenplay about the meeting of his mother, who is white, and his father, who is black, in 1969 Ohio.) "Now to be in these kinds of roles or to be seen this way is great, it’s wonderful, it’s very flattering, but you always have that other person that’s living inside you that still can’t believe it all, and is still sort of questioning and wondering when everyone is going to see that you’ve been fooling them."

But there’s absolutely no reticence on his part about tackling gay roles. LaCause says he went into the "Take Me Out" audition "fighting" for the part of Darren. His victory is even more noteworthy considering that the theater company reported that more actors auditioned for the 11 parts in "Take Me Out" than for any other roles in its 29-year history.

"It’s just about how great the role is and this was something that I couldn’t pass up," LaCause says. "Sexuality has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not I would want to do a role at all. I wouldn’t want to limit myself to that.
"It’s funny because a lot of the gay roles that I had auditioned for in the past, I never got. I always think that it was because I would not do the stereotypical gay choices. This role is a very masculine role so I don’t know if that has anything to do with it, but maybe my luck is changing."

And yes, he is aware that the boys in the audience will be curious about his own sexuality, but he’s deflecting the topic for now.

"Because of the type of role that it is, I want the people who come to see the show to not have preconceived ideas about me, so that when they sit down and they see the play and they’re watching Darren, there’s nothing clouding their minds. At this point in my career, I can do that," he says, laughing out loud. "I want it to be as pure for them as it can be. I think that’s going to be the best experience that they can have when they see the show."

"Take Me Out" should certainly shake up the typical South Florida theatergoer. Even LaCause notes that he heard an audible gasp in the theater when the first towel fell away in the Broadway production. Then he shares a story about meeting some middle-aged women while attending another South Florida play with some of the "Take Me Out" cast – when they heard about the story, the women said they were buying tickets.

"They seemed pretty excited about it. I think they were pretty excited about seeing us naked to be honest," LaCause laughs. "They were very enthusiastic."

But if they find themselves in the "Take Me Out" audience, he hopes they will leave with more than memories of flesh. Greenberg’s play is not about titillation.

"I would want them to take away the idea that – I guess people already know this – but that people are not always what they seem and that our ideas of who people are and how people should be are not always right," he says. "We should be more open-minded and encouraging to diversity."

BUFF JOB
Sebastian LaCause, the nearly naked star of The Rocky Horror Show, exposes the formula for his ripped physique
By: Beth Greenfield

The Rocky Horror Show is packed with striking stage entrances - from Joan Jett's bald, butch appearance as Columbia to Tom Hewitt's leggy turn as 'sweet transvestite' Frank W Furter. But when Rocky, the man-made love slave, is lowered onstage by chains - spread-eagled and wearing nothing but a teensy pair of silver briefs and a belly-button ring-all eyes in the theater are on him and his breathtaking physique. And that's enough to keep the actor, Sebastian LaCause, religious about his workouts.

'When you're wearing a bikini In a show, that's sort of your motivation, you know?" he say's with a gentle laugh. 'There's no margin for error at all!"

LaCause, 29, works out at Crunch to stay in shape for Circle in the Square's updated version of The Rocky Horror Show (which also stars legendary talk-show host Dick Cavett and Rent vet Daphne Rubin-Vega). The 5-foot-11-inch, 185-pound LaCause recites details from his 90-minute workout routine as If they were second-nature facts, like his address or date of birth: 'It's usually a cycle of four days with weights, one day off to rest [then four days on again]. I do one big and one small muscle group a day. Like for example, cheat and triceps [one dayl, and the next I'll do shoulders and abs, then back and biceps, and then legs and abs again.' He skips cardio (because he spends so much time dancing), and eats a low-fat, high-protein diet, sticking to staples like chicken with rice and beans.

A dancer since the age of six, the Ohio native has appeared In Broadway productions of Chicago and Minnelli on Minnelli, in films like Showgirls and Boo& Nights, and with Madonna for London's 1995 Brit Awards. LaCause was in good shape when he got the part of Rocky, but had to shed some body fat and transform himself a bit. 'Normally [in the film and other stage productions], Rocky's the tan bodysurfer, played by somebody who's really blond and white," says LaCause, who Is half Sicilian, half AfricanAmerican. "So It's great that they saw a 'Rocky' quality In me -- because what I took like can be changed."

And It has been: LaCause radically altered his image for this monumental "Step out of the ensemble." His naturally curly black hair has been clipped and dyed the color of angelfood cake, his furry chest waxed as smooth as Jett's head. Then, of course, there was the matter of appearing onstage half naked -- but that wasn't a difficult adjustment for someone who danced in Showgirls wearing only a G-string. 'After that, it's just not a big deal anymore," he explains. "I think I have a bit of exhibitionist Inside me.