David Hyde Pierce, the very model of a modern Major-General, in "Pirates! The Penzance Musical"
All David Hyde Pierce has to do is step out on stage, and he gets applause, even before he launches into the idiotic tongue-twister from "The Pirates of Penzance":I am the very model of a modern Major-General,I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historicalFrom Marathon to Waterloo, in order categoricalWith practically no expression on his face, babbling away, all kinds of commotion around him, he's funny.I asked, "Why do you think 'less is more' can be funny?""Well, I think so much of theater, rightly, is MORE," Pierce replied.
"Sometimes, what's unexpected in theater is someone doing less." "Is there a temptation to overact?""Always," he said."You remind me of a great line from 'Frasier,' which was, 'If less is more, think how much more MORE will be!'"It is thanks to his 11-year run on the TV mega-hit "Frasier" that Pierce has the recognition, and can afford to pick and choose his roles.
He's the Major-General in "Pirates! The Penzance Musical," a jazzy re-working of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic, transplanted to New Orleans.Pierce showed us one of the Gilbert & Sullivan scores from his summer camp from the 1970s ("It's almost as old as I am"), which was also the score he used for an episode of "Frasier" where he, Kelsey Grammer and David Ogden Stiers sang from "Penzance." I asked, "What does Gilbert & Sullivan mean to you?""Hmm.
Well, it must mean something, 'cause it's … I'm getting emotional," Pierce replied."Thinking about the question, I guess it's just, it's just because it's been threaded through my life for so long."In his dressing room at the Roundabout Theatre, the wall is covered with photographs of people who were in the dressing room before: "Famous people, a lot of them dear friends of mine," he said.
"I'll be up there eventually.Tradition is very important to us.
It's being aware that you're part of something bigger."Pierce's "Pirates" dre...