Nicholas Rodriguez Talks Life, Love and "Oklahoma!"

Nicholas Rodriguez is best known as Nick Chavez, the out-and-proud soap stud of ABC's One Life to Live. For his role in the first gay love triangle on American daytime TV, he was honored with AfterElton's 2009 Visibility Award, along with co-stars Scott Evans and Brett Claywell and head writer Ron Carlivati, as "Men of the Year."

But nowadays, Rodriguez is collecting more kudos in another arena: at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. Now through Dec. 30, the hunky Broadway actor, 33, is riding high as the singing cowboy in its multiracial revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Oklahoma!

From the moment the 6-foot-1, Latino tenor from Austin, Tex., struts onstage in his leather chaps and boots, audiences can't help but think, "Oh, what a beautiful Curly!"

Eleasha Gamble, his lovely leading lady who plays Laurey, says, "Nicholas brings a youthfulness and playfulness to Curly, yet he's such a man." His director, Molly Smith, adds, "He's from Texas, so we believe he's a cowboy. We completely buy that he's in love with Laurey. He also has a glorious singing voice, moves like an angel and has a muscularity about his work. Plus, he's got great comedic timing. He has everything."

In a rave review in the Washington Post, Peter Marks called Rodriguez a "charming Curly [who] sings like a dream" in a "triumphant" production. And now there's talk that this theater-in-the-round revival at the Fichandler Stage might go to Broadway.

AfterElton.com sat down with Rodriguez to discuss how he got roped into Oklahoma!, what's it like to be an openly gay actor and how One Life to Live changed his world.

AfterElton: Congratulations on playing Curly in Oklahoma! at Arena Stage.
Nicholas Rodriguez: Thanks! It's really fun. I've seen the 1955 movie with Gordon MacRae. I saw the 1999 DVD of the Hugh Jackman production in London, and I caught Patrick Wilson doing it on Broadway (2002). All those guys are great, and they set the bar very high.

But our production is so different that I never felt any pressure about being compared to them. I also did it three years ago in Atlanta, but my favorite production might be the one I saw when I was 13. My grandmother was an elementary school music teacher, and they did it with fifth-graders. I still remember that in "The Farmer and the Cowman," the cowboys wore blue bandannas and the farmers wore red ones.

AE: Curly is one of Broadway's top leading-man roles, so what's your take on him?
NR: I've keyed in on how people describe him in the show: smart-aleck, hopeful, tough. Curly's a cowboy, so he knows how to handle himself with the guys, but ladies are kind of an enigma, so [he] lets some boyish charm come out. I play it as if Laurey is his first true love. That way our romance is almost as fresh as Will and Ado Annie's. I also drew on my grandfather, who lived on a ranch, and I grew up riding horses.

Rodriguez as Curly in the Arena Stage's Oklahoma!

Photo by Suzanne Blue Star Boy