Ordinarily I don't love to hear that my Curtain Cuties have girlfriends (or boyfriends for that matter) but I have to say I am happy for this particular Broadway power couple. My current cutie Steve Kazee and his girlfriend Megan Hilty make for a very talented pair who are both making quite the impression on the New York theater community. Hilty is currently in L.A. starring in the Broadway-bound musical, 9 to 5. She’s playing Doralee Rhodes, the role Dolly Parton made famous in the 1980 film. Steve has been in four Broadway shows in three years after getting an MFA in Drama at NYU. He's currently appearing in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of To Be Or Not To Be, as the young and dashing albeit a little daft World War II soldier who woos a Polish theater company's diva away from her over the top actor husband who butchers the part of Hamlet on a nightly basis until the Nazis invade. The farcical play based on the 1942 movie which starred Carole Lombard and Jack Benny opens on Broadway tonight at the Friedman Theatre.

I met with Kazee at the theater before one of the show’s final previews. He was a few minutes late but rushed in apologizing with a big friendly smile and not a hair out of place. I quickly forgave him and, we got down to some serious business -- the effect the economic crisis is having on Broadway -- but also touched upon some cheerier subjects like Hilty and his two Jack Russell terriers, Harley and Gracie. What a happy family.

Where did you grow up?
I'm from Ashland in eastern Kentucky. It's a very small town. I had 34 people in my senior year class.

Where did you go to college?
I went to a small undergraduate called Morehead State University in Kentucky between Lexington and Ashland.

Wow, two small towns and then here? Was it a hard adjustment?
Strangely it wasn’t. My mom had always sort of said to me that she didn't think I was going to stick around. She always thought that I would move to a big city. I didn't get involved with theater or acting until college so it was never really in the cards but I just knew I wasn't small town. I knew that I wanted something different.

So what finally attracted you to acting then?
What attracted me was a young lady in my biology class and she wanted me to walk her to an audition. I had been trying to talk to her forever, so I go and I’m just sitting in the lobby waiting for her and the director came out and asked me if I was there to audition. I said no and he said, well I think you should, and I said no, no, no and he said, well do you sing? And I said yeah -- I played guitar and sang a lot. Music was a big part of my family, so I went in and sang "Happy Birthday" or something and he said, great check the call board tomorrow and we'll let you know, and I'm like what is the call board? Then I got cast in the show which was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and she didn't get cast, so that love affair ended like that day. She probably has no idea that she's responsible for me being on Broadway today.

So did you then decide to study theater?
I went to undergrad for two years and then I quit school because I sort of figured out I could get paid to be an actor so why was I paying to learn how to be an actor? I took three years off and traveled all across the country and worked at any theater I could get a job at. I was 22 and 23 years old just living this wonderful life and then my mom got breast cancer so I moved home to take care of her and once I got back home I sort of lost my way for a year. I didn't know what I really wanted to do anymore. I was living in my hometown working at Applebees hanging out with the wrong crowd.

That's quite the twist! Is your mom OK now?
She got through that. She actually just got diagnosed with breast cancer again this past fall, but she once again got through it.

So how did you get out of your rut?
I decided that I had to get my life in order so I went back to school -- the same place I went as an undergrad, and decided to finish up my degree and thought, well if nothing else I can be a teacher, that old fall back thing. Then something happened in my last semester of my last year and I just thought I'd done well as an undergrad but it wasn't a very wide pool so I didn't know what my abilities were as an actor so I decided to apply to grad school at NYU and Yale just to see. I got into NYU and it was the best time of my life. They see a lot of people and they only take 18 and I thought OK I can actually do this as a living now. This is going to be my way in.

What do you like to do in New York when you're not on stage?
I'm a big comic book geek.

Haha, really?
I know, don't tell anybody. No, I go to Midtown Comics quite a bit and I read a lot of comics and graphic novels and I love to go to the movies. It's one of my favorite things to do in New York. I'm sort of a homebody. I used to be fun. I've also been very politically active and so this past year has been spent doing that side of things. I'm constantly on Realclearpolitics.com.

Have you always been involved in politics or is it just this election?
I was involved in politics when I was much younger I was the president of the Young Democrats in Kentucky.

Do you think the current economic crisis will have a huge affect on the Broadway audiences?
I think realistically if you look at the Broadway grosses right now it's really reflecting. I mean I looked last night and was sort of doing some research and there are four shows playing anywhere from 90 to 100 percent [capacity], there are about six or seven shows playing at the 80 percent range and everybody else is playing low 70s down to 30 percents. If you are a family of four going to see a broadway show you're going to spend $500 and this is why we have all these shows happening that have the name recognition. I mean you're going to go see Grease as opposed to seeing Billy Elliott because at Grease you know what you are going to get and also 'Oh I saw that guy on American Idol'. When you leave you're going to feel like you got your money's worth. The best example of this was I was in the elevator with an older couple and they had programs for Young Frankenstein. I haven't seen the show but I asked them what they thought and the man said we really feel like we got our money's worth. He said there were just so many technical elements and lots of special effects and just big showy dance numbers, and I thought that is the audience now and we'd like to believe there is a higher more artistic gathering of people but unfortunately at the end of the day they want the most bang for their buck. They want to see some explosions, fights and some scantily clad women and puppets. There's got to be something there for the kids.

I love puppets.
I do too. I love those people that take their kids to see Avenue Q without realizing what it is and then get so offended and worked up. Those are my favorite people in New York.

What shows are you looking forward to seeing this season?
Actors are the worst because we can hardly afford to go see other shows.

Don't they have special invite nights for actors sometimes?
Sometimes, but that's the thing, your schedule is always a little wonky as well so it's hard to find the time to go see a show. I would love to go see Billy Elliott right now I just haven't had the time.

What's in your dressing room?
Seven sweaty men actually. I share a dressing room with most of the other men in the company so there's not a lot in my dressing room -- there's my guitar, I keep one here and one at home so I can always play without having to take mine back and forth. So that's what's in my dressing room -- a bunch of dudes, a guitar, pictures of my dogs, my family and my girlfriend.

Aw that's sweet. Do you get stage fright at all?
No I don't think I've ever had stage fright. When I played football I had football fright -- I used to throw up before every football game, but onstage I never have that problem at all.

I wonder what your former teammates would think of you being on stage now?
I would like to talk to some of the people I graduated with and see what they think of all this.

Pictured is Steve with girlfriend Megan Hilty at the opening of 110 in the Shade (I like the scruffy look!). Photograph courtesy of Broadwayworld.com and in character in To Be or Not to Be. Photograph by Joan Marcus.