‘Smash’s’ Christian Borle on Playing the Bad Guy in ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’

Christian Borle is doing double time. He has a hit show on NBC with “Smash” and a Tony-nominated show on Broadway with “Peter and the Starcatcher” - not to mention a Tony nomination for his portrayal of the evil villain Black Stache in “Starcatcher.” Borle chatted with Back Stage at the Lucille Lortel Awards on Sunday night about dealing with this “high-class problem."

“Peter and the Starcatcher” started Off-Broadway and moved to Broadway. How did that process work for you?
Christian Borle: Trucks, I think, is the short answer. It was a lot of hoping after we did it last year and not knowing for a while. So then when the machine started to move, we were all just surprised and just got along for the ride. And what we found was that it felt like yesterday. So the show was still kind of in us, and it came back very quickly. And then it was just fitting it into a different space and making it tighter and cleaner and more accessible.

How did you balance working on “Smash” and “Peter and the Starcatcher”?
Borle: There were a few weeks where it was both, but I never had to do them on the same day, so it was somewhat manageable. It was just a really high-class problem to try to figure out how I was going to have the stamina to do both things at once.

How did you prepare for playing Black Stache?
Borle: Stretching, thigh pads, and watching movies from my childhood and basically just ripping off every villain that I’ve ever seen.

What advice do you have for actors?
Borle: Two things. Everyone has a different timetable and other people’s successes are not your failures.

Suzy Evans is the Senior Web Editor at Back Stage. Follow her on Twitter: @suzyeevans.