N =ozTI{EATER, oB @z = 6 roo N N 6 f 6 ! c aEo io oa cThe former'N Sync-er is ready for his Broadway debut svMrcHAEL Grlrl.z "I'd much rather play to 50,000 people than 1,000!" says Bass, who plays Corny Collins, perkv and popular dance-show host in 1962 Baltimore, stafting Tuesday. "In a theater, you can see everyone! "It is like doing a live TV show," adds the 28-year-old Mississippi native who shot to fame as one of the members of the massively successful group, who, at their peak, rivaled Backstreet Boys for squeal- ing fans and launched the careers of Jus- til Timberlerke, Joey Fatone md the rest "Everything has to be perfectly il-sync," Bass says, smiling at the pun, "I hate to use that pbrase.</p><p> But lon stagel you don'twant to miss your rue " Even though Bass made headlines by coming out last year, among the 'N Sync guys, it's Fatone who's the real musical- theaterbuff Heevenbeat Bass to Broadway by appear- ing in "Rent" and "Uttle Shop of Honors " Like other out pop stars, Bass says the fears that fans - especially young female fans - would grow disenchanted with him was wildly off-base "When I came out, my female fan baseexploded," says Bass.</p><p> He'll be testing that again next yeil by developing a reality show for the gay cable chamel Logo (md, he notes, hopefully MTV; both networks are omed by Viacom) Pass says he fell in love with perfoming as a kid, when he appeared in his church choir, in Attache (the "show choir" that was a huge part of his ad- olescence) and high school productions of "West Side StorJ/ and "Bye Bye Birdie" before dropping out his sopho- more year to join 'N Symc In small-town Clinton, Miss , "you either played football or you per- formed in Attache," says Bass, who notes that one strength of the show choir was that kids needed to act like adults and train with utter professiona-tism."That's where I leamed the discipline I needed to do 'Hairspray,'" says Bass, whose autobiography, "Out of Sync," will be published this October.</p><p> He explains that the group had constant rehearsals, a band, their om stage crew md a reper- toire that ranged from Broadway classics to Van Halen; they gave two amual recit- als and competed nationally.</p><p> It underscored a passion for the stage that began even eulier for him "The flrst time I was ever on stage, it was in the third grade," says Bass, friendly and confldent despite being dubbed "The Shy One" during'N Sync's heyday. "I played Smokey the Bear I remember being so happy that I'd memorized all my Iines; I knew the entire script, and I was so proud And I hadabear costume Iwas so cute!" he insists drolly. "An6, 1-or", tot Halloween, too " a,rfavorlte sonEs r BY I4ICHAEL GILTZW* .W r'$ he latest revival of "Grease" has a secret weapon - and it isn't the stunt casting of the leads, Max Crumm (as revival of "Grease" closed on Broad- way but Marshall pooh-poohs the idea that this revival is too soon "I look at the audience md you see a lot of families md a lot of kids who weren't bom when the last revival came out," she says "Itwould be like a dance company not do- ing'The Nutcracken"' She says opening the same weekend as "High School Musical 2" airs on the Disney Channel - that's the se- quel to the massively popular TV movie - feels right, too 'nvhen they were fllming 'High School Musical,' I heard that they were catling itDanny) and Laura Osnes (as Sandy), via the recent NBC reali- ly show "Grease: You're the One That I Want." For the first time ever on Broaowav. ''Grease' will inctude four now-iconii sones from I he smash I 978 movie that weren't in eiLher rhe original producrion during the I 970s or ihe successful revival that ran in the early '90s Director and choreogra- pher Katrueen Marshall (a Tony wimer, most recently for her revival of "The pajama Game") says that's actually one of the rea- sons she signed on to this show. "Now Sandy says, 'Tell me about it, stud,, dnd Darny finally gets to sing: 'I got chills, they're multiplyin'," says Marshall about the climax of the show with "You're the One That IWant ' .. rThat No.</p><p> I smash hit from summer'78 ap- pears along wirh "Sandy." "Hopelessly De- voted to You" and the new opene4 "Grease Is the Word " (ronically, "Grease" spillover is everJryhere: Frankie VaIIi, who sang the title song, has a Tony-winning life story on vlew in the current smash "Jersey Boys," and Olivia Neu.ton-John's musical followun to "Grease." 'Xanadu," is also packing them in, with tongue firmly nestled in cheek ) It has been almost a decade since the last 'Grease 3, " says Marshall (there was, of course, the ill-fated 1982 sequel "Grease 2") "It's another high-school rommce with peo- ple from different groups, the jocks and the brains." As for the realify show that played on TV this winter and gave the show its leads, "Grease You're the One That I Want" onlv reached about 7 million viewers a week But most episodes scored higher than the Tony Awards in the ratings.</p><p> Still, it was a risk of tainting the actors as not pros In the U.K., theypulled the same tactic and the revival that recently opened in the WestEnd got withering reviews "Some people will come in with a precon- ceived notion about the show and a precon- ceived notion of how our leads were cast," says Marshall, who has also done acclaimed work on 'Vonderful Town," "Follies" and "Kiss Me Kate " "And if they decide to be negative, they can be " But all those eager new kids performing all the songs people associate with the mov- ie and show are her biggest plus "We've got 14 people making their Broad- way debut," says Marshall "We've got a re- ally fresh, young exciting cast They've got a spirit and energy you kind of can't fake You can't fake freshness " a.i.w o-l
