Rotten Job

Rotten Job

y dream roles have yet to be written. I really enjoy being cast for the first time in something and helping to create that role.”

DAVID BEACH ’86

“THEY’RE ALL A BUNCH OF HEAthens!” Beach bellows at a crowd of Londoners. As Brother Jeremiah, a bewigged, blustery circa 1595 Puritan in Something Rotten!, the actor takes on one of the musical comedy’s most rib-tickling roles. It’s his sixth Broadway show, and previous credits include Mamma Mia!, Fish in the Dark and Urinetown, not to mention dozens of roles off-Broadway, in film and on TV (he recently turned up on Veep and The Good Wife).

Growingup in Columbus, Ohio, Beach didn’t foresee a life in the footlights. He majored in English and developed a deep love of the arts: “I was able to write and direct plays. I was in musicals and the Chamber Singers, into Shakespeare. I studied dance with Pepe and Vicki De Chiazza. I was given so much leeway to try new things.” Beach’s talent blossomed, earning him the David Birney Award for Excellence in Theater Arts in his senior year and a fellowship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

In New York City, fresh out of acting

school, Beach braved “soul-crushing support jobs” and took nearly every part he was offered (including donning a panda suit to hand out flyers for the World Wildlife Fund). His big break came in 1995, when he went on as an understudy in Moon Over Buffalo, starring Carol Burnett and Philip Bosco. The thrills have kept coming for Beach, who relishes each role. “I went right from the wonderful community of Mamma Mia! to a play called Opus that had a small cast, a small venue, and was beautifully written and directed,” he says. “To go between those extremes has kept me very interested and energized.”

Elizabeth Gerst

Beach returned to Spaulding in 2013 to direct the Glee Club performance of Candide in celebration of the Hop’s 50th.