Gavin Lee Steps Out with Fred Astaire at Birdland

"I just finished watering my garden and I'm folding laundry, so I'm living the dream," Broadway song-and-dance man Gavin Lee tells EDGE as our interview commences. "I gotta get these domestic things done – it can't all be showbiz."

The revelation that even a two-time Tony nominee, and two-time Drama Desk winner, of Lee's stature has domestic duties brings a grounded sense to a conversation about "Steppin' Out with Fred Astaire," Lee's tribute to a dancer who seemed, in his many films, to be more light and air than ordinary muscle and bone. In his one-night-only solo show on May 29 at the storied jazz club Birdland in New York, Lee will be telling the tales, singing the songs, and even dancing one of the tap routines that make Fred Astaire a legend.

Lee has appeared in plenty of the classic stage musicals: "Oliver!," "Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat," "Les Misérables," "Show Boat." But he's also branched out into newer work, including a touring production of the musical stage version of "Mary Poppins" as Bert, taking on the role of the green fiend The Grinch in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical," and portraying Squidward Tentacles in the Broadway production of "SpongeBob Squarepants" – a role that surely endeared him to gay theater goers. Even better, he's played gay icon Lumiere the candlestick in "Beauty and the Beast" in a West End production, opposite Nigel Richards, who played Cogsworth, the clock that lights up Lumiere's life.

EDGE had a chance to chat with Lee ahead of his Birdland gig and find out about the origins of his solo show, his thoughts on Astaire, and his big gay fandom.

EDGE: Tell me little about the show, and why you're bringing it to at Birdland in NYC?

Gavin Lee: I always wanted to do a show celebrating Fred Astaire. During the pandemic, I had the opportunity to do the show at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn [New Jersey], because I live only 10 minutes away and they were doing an outdoor concert series. I did it a couple of times there, and then I went to London [for "Beauty and the Beast"] for a whole year, and I did the show at The Crazy Coqs, which is a great cabaret room in London's West End. I came back from London at the end of last year and thought it's time to do this show at a venue in New York. This is my first time at Birdland – I'm really excited because that's a jazz club I've [heard about since] I was a kid.

EDGE: What prompted your interest in doing a solo show?

Gavin Lee: Throughout my whole career, when it came to [doing the] the Broadway Cares speech [an address from the stage when the member of a play's cast asks the audience for donations to support Broadway Cares], or the West End Cares speech in England, I was never the guy that did it. I never wanted to talk to the audience as me. I'm a person that likes a script, and I like to be in character. Then I came to Broadway with "Mary Poppins" in 2006, and they asked me to do the Broadway Cares speech, and I thought, "I've got to get over this." So, I did the speech. And because I got over that fear, I thought, "Well, my next fear is to do a cabaret standing on a cabaret stage with everyone staring at you, and you're not being a character – you'll be Gavin Lee."

Then [after doing some cabaret shows] I thought, "I don't want to do a show that's just, 'Oh, Gavin's gonna come on stage and sing his favorite songs and have some nice stories to tell.' " I wanted it to be a full hour of... not a story. I'm not telling a story. I'm telling you about my love for Fred Astaire, and I'm telling you lots of great Fred Astaire quotes, Fred Astaire stories.

EDGE: Why Fred Astaire, in particular?

Gavin Lee: I've done two musicals that were adapted from Fred Astaire shows, "Holiday Inn" and "Top Hat." So, I've played the Fred Astaire role twice. I would never presume to try and be Fred Astaire. That's not what I'm trying to be in my cabaret. I'm [performing] all his fabulous songs, and doing some of his dance routines, but I'm never standing up there saying, "Hey, look! I am just as good as Fred Astaire!," because that is just not remotely close. It's all Gershwin and Cole Porter and Irving Berlin songs, and it's all about Fred.

EDGE: Are you looking to channel Fred Astaire, or are you simply giving an audience a glimpse at the sorts of things he would do?

Gavin Lee: There is actually one dance routine that is taken straight from "Top Hat." It is the same choreography. I do four different tap routines in the show, and because it's at Birdland it's going to be on a tiny three-by-three square piece of wood. It's very tight on that stage, so I can't really look like Fred and spread out.

EDGE: What kind of research did you do for the show?

During the pandemic, I read two biographies, and I highlighted all the real fun quotes and paragraphs. Then I did a whole list of every single song he ever sang. I decided there are only going to be songs [that] have a connection to Fred.

It was only after reading these biographies I discovered that he came with [his sister] Adele transferred to the West End in the 20s with four of their Broadway hits, and played them in two of the theaters where I performed. I wish I'd known, when I was performing in these theaters, that I was actually on the same stage as Fred Astaire [had performed on].

I [found out] when I came to Broadway with "Mary Poppins" in 2006 that Adele and Fred Astaire had been in a show called "The Bandwagon" at the New Amsterdam Theatre, and I was told that it was very likely me and Fred would share the same dressing room, 75 years apart. I talk about how I used to sit at my dressing table before my "Mary Poppins" performance, thinking, "Fred sat here. He could have sat right here, getting ready for his show, just like I am."

I finish that little story by saying, "I'd be gutted if I ever found out that it wasn't actually his room." And that leads straight into this song called "I'm Building Up to An Awful Letdown."

[Laughter]

EDGE: You have a big gay following. I wonder if that has to do with you having been in "The SpongeBob Musical" and also, as you mentioned, you were just in London playing Lumiere in "Beauty and the Beast," a character fans have embraced as a gay icon.

Gavin Lee: I'll take it. I'll take a fan wherever I can get one. Many people over the years have been, like, "Oh, you're not gay?" I'm as camp as the next guy, and I'm flamboyant, and I'm theatrical. When you're in theater, you're surrounded by every type of sexuality. That's why so many people who feel different, sexually, they gravitate towards theater – because people are so open and happy for everyone to be exactly how they want to be. And I love that! Getting to play Lumier and hamming it up with a little wink and a nod to the audience is my favorite thing.

EDGE: Did you have fun playing up that vibe with Nigel Richards as Cogsworth?

Gavin Lee: Oh my gosh, it was the best. Randomly, the last big show I did before the pandemic was Lumiere in The Paper Mill's version of "Beauty and the Beast." And then I saw that there was a brand-new Disney production that was going to happen that would end up being the production that went around the world and, fingers crossed, eventually to Broadway. But it was gonna start as a UK tour and then and then go to The London Palladium. I had an audition and got the role, and got to play opposite Nigel Richards, who I knew vaguely years and years ago. He's a brilliant, hilarious actor. And The Palladium was a dream come true, because I've only ever done a couple of charity one-nighters at the Palladium, so to get to sit down for three or four months at the Palladium, playing this extremely flamboyant French candlestick, was amazing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that eventually that production comes to Broadway, and I can put on the candlesticks and get to ham it up again.

Gavin Lee appears at Birdland in "Steppin' Out with Fred Astaire" on May 29. There is a $40 music charge. Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street in New York.

Watch Gavin Lee perform at the 2018 Tony Awards.