Raul Esparza Page

Raul Esparza--actor, singer, and probably anything else he want's to be . . .

Raul Esparza is not only one of my favorite actors, he's evidently a lot of other people's also. I first noticed this great guy in the revival of "Company" where he played Bobby. Esparza was nominated for a Tony as best actor in a musical, received a Drama Desk Award for Outstandin Actor in a Musical, and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. All deserved.

Variety said of Mr. Esparza in "Company": Raul Esparza strikes just the right balance of easy charm and circumspect distance, alone even in a crowd of friends. He's a deeply ambiguous mass of swirling contradictions -- confused but self-knowing, seductive but standoffish, vulnerable but heavily armored, open to love but ambivalent.

Bloomberg News said: What makes Raul Esparza the best Bobby I've seen is his ability to turn befuddlement into something quite touching. He is not just amused, bemused or put off by what he sees, he is more: sympathetically stymied, helplessly hamstrung. (Review of "Company")

And The New York Times quoted: Mr. Esparza inflects Bobby's wry considerations of his married friends' emotional dilemmas with slashes of dark humor slung straight at the audience, suggesting at times the mischief-making of Jon Stewart at his most deadpan. But his splendid singing throbs with an ardor that expresses the intense confusion under Bobby's veneer of semi-contented solitude.

Esparza has also appeared in "The Normal Heart," "Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang," and "The Homecoming."

A handfull will remember the musical "Taboo," in which Mr. Esparza appeared in drag. The musical flopped, but Mr. E did not.

Mr. Esparza was born in 1970, in Wilmington, Delaware and attended New York University Tish School of the Arts, receiving his diploma from there (BFA) in 1992. He is of Cuban-American descent and was raised in Miami. Esparza first became known to the general public in 2000 with his role in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which won him the Theatre World Award. The next year he appeared in "Tick, Tick . . BOOM!" Additional roles have included Che in the national touring company of "Evita" and the salesman Alfredo Aldarisio in "Pushing Daisies."

If you did not catch his performance as Bobby in "Company," this is now on DVD and simply fantastic. The staging is excellent and Mr. Esparza has one set of pipes on him. He's able to balance incredible gentleness with outright unabashed bravado.

Visit his website at: www.raulesparza.com A great actor who we hope to see more from

This article by: Ham