Pittsburgh Idol
Once a regular on the local theater scene, Marcus Stevens returns to play God.
At Point Park University, Marcus Stevens was one of those Theater students who got cast all the time. Many local patrons will recall some of his performances and the actor, who now lives in New York, has many happy memories of his time in Pittsburgh.
“It’s the place where I went from being a kid who aspired to be in the theater to becoming a professional actor and writer,” he says. “Going to Point Park for undergrad was an incredible experience. It challenged me, allowing me to play roles such as the title character in Floyd Collins, and Vershinin in The Three Sisters. Chekov? Come on!” he says. “My professors were all Pittsburgh theater luminaries: Robin Walsh, Shirley Tennenbaum, Scott C. Wise, Rich Keitel, John Shepard. Working with these amazing people allowed me to become entrenched in a rich theater community.”
In Floyd Collins, Adam Guettel’s darkly powerful musical, Marcus got to demonstrate his beautiful singing voice, and as the verbose Vershinin he displayed his acting chops. But it was a role he landed just after graduating that allowed him to put it all together, and also show just how funny he could be.
“Getting cast in Forever Plaid at Pittsburgh CLO and opening their Cabaret at Theater Square was a dream come true,” Marcus says. “As a kid right out of college, to have an acting job for 16 months, I was pinching myself! That job led to many others in Pittsburgh, including a role at City Theatre and a handful of shows at The Public, where I got to meet and work with Ted Pappas.”
Perhaps inevitably, Marcus ended up in New York. He scored big when he was cast not once but twice in Forbidden Broadway, the popular revues that satirize the big musicals and their stars. Marcus appeared in Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging! and Forbidden Broadway: Alive and Kicking. He can be heard on both original cast albums and was in the Off-Broadway company for two years.
“I got to do my Stephen Sondheim impression for Stephen Sondheim, I did slapstick for Carol Burnett, and I achieved 16-year-old Marcus’ dream of getting to be Mandy Patinkin on stage, eight times a week! It was an exhausting, surreal, and incredibly fulfilling experience that I am so proud of,” he says.
This attraction to the frantic and zany is definitely a part of Marcus, but there is a quieter side as well. He has been writing for many years and the first full-length musical he penned, Red, was produced at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
“Ron Lindblom gave Scott C. Wise the green light to help me develop it with the Conservatory at Point Park. Their guidance helped me develop the show to the point where it won the Richard Rodgers Award for New Musicals in New York,” Marcus says.
Also in New York, he was accepted into the renowned BMI Workshop for Musical Theatre Writing. It was there that he met Sam Willmott, his collaborator on Yo Vikings!, a musical that has now been performed in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Ontario, and Pittsburgh.
“Yo Vikings! has been licensed and published by Samuel French, Inc., and the day I got to walk into the Drama Book Shop on 40th Street and see my musical on the shelf was pretty unbelievable,” Marcus says.
But the best thing that happened to him in New York was meeting the woman who is now his wife. “I finally fell in love with New York when I fell in love with her,” he says. “We’ve been married for almost two years and we’re expecting our first child this summer.” That, Marcus thinks, is a true act of God.