Nick Adams was co-starring in A Chorus Line in 2007. Mario Lopez was brought into the show for some star power. It is unclear who made the call, but someone thought it best to cover Nick Adams muscular body and place him in spots on the stage, to as not steal the spotlight from Mario Lopez. A star was born!
Audiences might have gone to see Lopez in the iconic musical, generally regarded as one of the theater's great ensemble pieces but it was usually Adams' bulging biceps and toned torso that had tongues wagging as they filed out of the theater and set message boards ablaze with gossip about the fabricated feud. In the weeks that followed, there was a media frenzy! Whoever made the call of covering Nick, only thrust him into limelight further. He has this charm and presence that is irresistible.
Adams was inundated with calls from major networks and casting directors. His website got 100,000 hits within a day. And the underwear company 2(x)ist, offered a campaign to Adams. The campaign was shot, but never ran.
"It did nothing but help me in the end," said Adams.
Lopez told The Daily Beast he never asked for any changes. "It was so not true," he said. "we get along great, we even work out together. That was my first foray into that world and I would never go around saying anything and demanding anything."
Lopez says he has no idea who made the request, but suspects it came from an overly eager producer. When asked whether he was bothered by all the bad press, he said no. "I thought it was funny. We [Nick and I] both got a big kick out of it."
Perhaps the only negative thing to come out of that story is the perception that Adams owes his career to Lopez. "I think after that a lot of people only looked at me as being a body and not an actor," he said. "I've been doing this my whole life." -
Adams has been onstage from the age of nine and began his professional career at sixteen.
BGN: Nick, you are sort of the Tommy Tune of our time! Do you realize that?!
Nick:(laughs) my gosh! That's flattering!
BGN: Whereas Tommy got into choreography and directing - any aspirations for you there?
Nick: I think I have always just aspired to be performer and actor. I don't really see myself delving into their other side- that creative side. It's a very different skill set - a different talent. I am very happy with what I am doing!
Nick: That was such an amazing night. I still can't believe it. THOUSANDS of votes were cast. I mean I was in one category with Patti LuPone and Sutton Foster – and I ended up winning! Just to be in their company was a huge honor. And it was such a beautiful ceremony. It was in the Allen Room at Time Warner, and overlooked Columbus Circle and Central Park, Vanessa Williams hosted and my dad and my step mom were there, they came in for the AIDS walk and stayed for the awards show. And it was really special to share that with them. It was really special, and I feel so honored, it is something I will never forget.
BGN: Speaking of the AIDS WALK NY, wow! You did such an amazing job! I know we helped raise money for you for the AIDS walk and readers made donations. My gosh, how many $500 backstage tours did you end up giving?!
Nick: Oh my god, it's been so crazy - I don't even know how many. It seems like each week I am doing like 3 or 4. I actually have 2 different groups I have to take around tonight after the show. It's been amazing. People were so incredibly generous. I was really overwhelmed with the amount I was able to gather in just a short amount of time. And GMHC was blown away. And I walked with the Broadway Impact group and my donations alone represented like half of our donations! It was just crazy. I am so happy people were so generous and I was able to give such a large amount.
And Broadway Impact is such a wonderful group that really gets the word out about marriage equality and gets the broadway and theatre community and even the fans active. So for us to be able to contribute a large donation, it brought some attention to the work they do as well.
BGN: You are so involved with charities, how do you find time?
Nick: They are necessary causes and I think it's our responsibility as performers to donate our time and talents to help others.
I try to be a person who cares. If I can use my time or energy or my talent, to help somebody else make a difference, or use a platform to reach a lot of people, I try to use it. If there is something that I care about I invest my time and energy and I feel good when change happens. It enriches my life. This industry can be so…egocentric. It can be so focused on getting ahead...and self-gain…and you have to have a bit of that, to be competitive in this field. But it makes life so much more rich when I am able to do things like raise money for the AIDS walk or work with people from Broadway Cares and groups like Live Out Loud and It Gets Better - things like that make me feel gratified – just as much as doing my show. I think it's important to give back and I am glad I am at a place in my life where I am able to do that.
Nick: Yes, 21 chages! I have a dresser who helps me backstage. He is with me the entire show, but we sometimes have 4 people hidden in the bus helping me make a quick change. My favorite is the silver suit I wear atop the shoe.
It's so crazy I mean, people at the stage are door every night are like, "How the hell do you get through that show?", and you know, it's so much fun that once you get used to the costumes and the pace of the show, it's just kind of like, we are on stage and once we start we don't stop. So it doesn't give us time to rest, which is good for me because it's like once you rest and then my body realizes that it's exhausted. The 5 show weekends are the hardest.
By the end of the night, it's like we did it and we're on the high of the show, the adrenalin and then I come home and crash and I'm exhausted. It's sort of the nature of how the show structured. It keeps moving and moves really quickly and the pacing is really fast and, yeah it's definitely a work out, and I lost like 10 lbs. up in Toronto while we were doing the show there. It's definitely aerobic, for sure.
I think it's been the most exciting and freeing experience because I've had the liberty to sort of just play in and bring a lot of what I thought I wanted to bring to it, and our creative team, our director really allowed me to kind of have my own spin on it and bring a different energy to this part and then in the West End Production and what they had in Australia.
As actors, what we wanna do is to really feel like we're creating character and not mimicking somebody else's performance or fitting like a specific mold of a different actor, so to get to like build this person from the ground up has been awesome to know that, for always and like theatrical history that would have been my role. It's pretty great.
BGN: Being that theatre performers live their lives show to show, what is your current commitment like?
Nick: I will be with the show for at least one year - but gosh, I hope it's one of shows that runs forever! I think regardless of there being "gay themes" in the show, it boils down to the basics of love, family, and tolerance. Anybody who has felt like an outcast or felt different can relate to it.
I got a letter from a teenage girl who was on the verge of suicide, she randomly got a free ticket to the show in Toronto and she broke up with her abusive boyfriend, got back in college, and her whole life changed because of this show. Its not just a jukebox musical all about having fun, but it does serve that purpose, but there is definitely something more."
Thank you! Nick Adams for sharing your time with us!
Special links of interest -
For more of Nick Adams check out his blog.
Priscilla on Broadway Tickets, info and news
Plan a Party at Priscialla - use the exclusive Concierge Service!
Sneak peaks backstage at Priscialla from Broadway.com
and Nicks video blog Muscles and Mascara series - over 20 videos!
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