Sweet geek Zachary Levi tackles Broadway in ‘Blind Date’

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In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s additionally perhaps maybe not Jewish. (Joan Marcus)

In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s additionally perhaps maybe perhaps not Jewish. ( )

People who enjoyed the sweetly nerdy lead of TV’s “Chuck” will soon be pleased to find its celebrity, Zachary Levi, on Broadway, doing just exactly just what he does most readily useful: singing, dancing . . . cringing.

In “First Date,” opening in a few days, Levi plays Aaron — as awkwardly earnest as Chuck, but as bearded and bespectacled as a yeshiva kid, on top of that. Cue the cringing whenever Aaron discovers that their hot date, Casey — the comely Krysta Rodriguez (“Smash”) — is not Jewish.

Then once more, neither is Levi.

“Nope, maybe perhaps perhaps not a Jew!” he says by having a grin. “But if individuals would you like to lump me personally in with God’s selected, I’ll go on it!”

Backstage during the Longacre Theatre — backpack by their part, their 6-foot-4 frame closing in black colored Converse sneakers — the set that is 32-year-old record right, their discussion peppered with all the words “journey,” “amazing” and “blessed.”

He had been created Zachary Levi Pugh — that Welsh surname’s pronounced “pewww!” — which resulted in no end of “brutal reviews” in boyhood and past. His representative proposed the young star might would like to alter their title.

It wasn’t a decision that is easy.

“I’d made a guideline that i’dn’t alter or fold for Hollywood,” claims the star, who was raised in Southern Ca, when you look at the shadow of Disneyland. But after he “prayed about any of it very long and difficult,” he made a decision to just lose the Pugh.

That, Levi states, resulted in another trouble: “I’ve had casting directors call my representative and state, ‘Yeah, you know — he’s a tad too Jewish.’ ”

So far as the creators of “First Date” had been concerned, Levi had been perfectly.

“Zachary’s like a better-looking form of me personally — the me I’ve always wished to be,” says Austin Winsberg, the show’s bespectacled book author. The one women want to be with and the guys root for while writing for “Gossip Girl,” which shared offices on the Warner Brothers lot with “Chuck,” Winsberg saw in Levi what he calls “the sweet spot — someone who could sing, dance, be funny and play the romantic leading man. ”

Since it occurred, Levi ended up being free, and Broadway ended up being on their bucket list. He’d been singing and dancing in local movie movie theater since he had been 6 (“I happened to be a ham”), and then he along with his “Tangled” co-star Mandy Moore sang a duet together at the Oscars.

Their only doubt: getting typecast as a nerd, also himself that way in real life if he sees. He and buddy operate a small business he describes as “Nike for Nerds” — the Nerd Machine, which produces duds and gizmos for sci-fi fans and gamers like Levi himself, whom place their supply via a light fixture while hitting an overhead smash throughout a Wii game of tennis.

“ http://datingrating.net/escort/chula-vista/ we think in making use of the working platform you have got for good,” says Levi, who calls their company transactions “conscientious capitalism — have a money, offer a buck.” He’s an enthusiastic supporter of process Smile along with other charities, and arranged for per week off at “First Date,” just after previews began, to honor their dedication to appear at Geek Central, a k a Comic-Con.

And their love life?

“That we won’t enter into,” he claims, pleasantly. Despite a breakup that is well-publicized singer Caitlin Crosby, he’s were able to keep their personal life regarding the down low.

“I’m maybe maybe not just a big dater, really,” he claims. “I’m a kind that is go-with-the-flow of . . .

I’d rather hang away with somebody in a bunch and find out then we’ll get on a romantic date. when they check these different bins beside me before we venture out together — get acquainted with one another extremely casually and coolly, and in case there’s chemistry,”

Judging through the ecstatic applause Levi’s drawing in “First Date,” a complete great deal of individuals is really pleased to understand him better.