Millburn-Short Hills Magazine Spring 2019 | Page 44

Q & A
STARRING AS A
SQUID
Gavin Lee brings beloved cartoon characters to life
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
I
t’s hard enough to earn a Tony
nomination as a featured actor in
a musical, but how many perform-
ers can do it while tap-dancing in a
multi-tentacled octopus costume?
Most likely, nobody but British
native and Maplewood resident Gavin Lee.
Lee originated the stage role of
Squidward Tentacles, the cranky cashier
of SpongeBob SquarePants, on Broadway;
the British actor also won a Drama Desk
Award for his performance, and rave
reviews from critics. “I love that my kids
can see a show Daddy’s making a fool of
himself in,” says the father of three,
ages 8, 5 and 2.
After nine months as Squidward and
a five-week break from the stage, Lee
returned to play another character with
a big personality and a crazy costume to
match: The Grinch, star of Dr. Seuss’ How
The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical.
The show toured briefly in Chicago and
Boston, and opened on Dec. 13 at the
Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden,
where it ran for 30 performances. Most
recently, he has performed a series of
concerts at Disneyworld’s International
Festival for the Arts, Disney on Broadway
series.
We spoke to Lee, who is married to
American actress Emily Harvey, about his
career playing characters who are beloved
by children, and his family’s love of
Maplewood, their hometown.
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SPRING 2019 MILLBURN & SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE
YOUR FIRST BIG ROLE WAS AS
BERT IN MARY POPPINS, FIRST IN
LONDON’S WEST END AND THEN
ON BROADWAY. HOW DID YOU
BRING HIM TO LIFE? I had worked
with Steven Meer and Anthony
Drew, who wrote the additional lyr-
ics, and together they were pushing
me in front of [producer] Cameron
Macintosh. Bert is a cockney, and I’d
spent all my adult life in London, so
it was easy for me to slip into that
accent; it was one less thing to think
about. I could work on the physical-
ity and his arc throughout the whole
show. Bert’s more like me in my
natural state.
WAS IT HARD TO LEARN HOW TO
TAP DANCE WITH EXTRA LEGS IN
SPONGEBOB? It took an awful long
time. I had never tried tapping with
extra legs before, and neither had the
choreographer. You have less control
over two feet that don’t belong to
you. I had to be flappy and messy,
and made the back feet join in a
second afterwards; whatever noise
I made, I got an echo a second later.
HOW DID YOU GET THE ROLE AS THE
GRINCH? I was very lucky, because
I just got offered this role — it fell
in my lap the week after SpongeBob
closed. That doesn’t happen often.
>
OUT OF MAKEUP Gavin Lee has won
two Drama Desk Awards, and been
nominated twice for Tony Awards.