Entertainment

STRAIGHT SHOOTER: GAY TV LEAD GETS HITCHED, JOINS WIFE IN ‘CHICAGO’

On TV, he’s an upright, uptight gay undertaker.

Off the screen, “Six Feet Under” star Michael C. Hall is something else again – a low-key married guy who’s done his fair share of Shakespeare.

He sings, too.

His crooning comes in handy in the TV mortician’s latest undertaking – stepping in Tuesday as the slick, jive-talking lawyer Billy Flynn in the Broadway hit “Chicago.”

Even better than belting out tunes, Hall says, is getting to play opposite his wife of three months, Amy Spanger, who joins the show Aug. 6 as that murderous minx, Roxie Hart.

“This chance to work together is, like, our favorite wedding present,” he told The Post at the couple’s Upper West Side apartment.

“It’s not something we pursued – it just sort of dropped out of the sky. It’s a great wedding present because it doesn’t take up any space – not that we don’t appreciate all the gifts we’ve gotten.”

Still, Hall hastened to add, “We have a very small kitchen.”

Their kitchen may be small, but a lot is cooking with Hall’s career.

He’s been widely praised for his work as David Fisher, the semi-closeted gay son of an undertaker in HBO’s “Six Feet Under.” The show received 23 Emmy nominations this year, including one for Hall as Best Actor.

All told, headlining a hit show has been heady stuff for the sandy-haired, 31-year-old North Carolina native, who came to New York eight years ago to study acting at NYU.

Soon he was doing “Cymbeline” and “Henry V” at the New York Shakespeare Festival – and bombing at an audition for a national tour of “Rent.”

“I’d gotten to the callback on pure adrenaline,” he recalled, clearing his throat in David Fisher-like fashion.

“I’m by no means a rock ‘n’ roll tenor, and I knew I’d completely blow it, which I did. I crashed and burned – but at least I met Amy in the waiting room.

“I didn’t get the part, but she did.”

Even so, Spanger was still waiting tables when they met again, a month later, in Midtown. The two struck up a conversation and Hall gave her his phone number.

“I guessed she always had guys asking her for her phone number, so I gave her mine,” Hall explained. “I sweated it out for a few days but she did call me.” They married in May.

Neither is a stranger to Broadway. Spanger won raves as Bianca in “Kiss Me, Kate,” the Tony-winning revival that closed last year, while Hall succeeded Alan Cumming in “Cabaret” – playing the spiky, androgynous emcee for almost 500 performances.

“Talk about six degrees of separation,” Hall said.

As it happened, “Cabaret” director Sam Mendes had seen and admired Hall in a workshop he was doing of Stephen Sondheim’s “Wise Guys.” Mendes had also directed “American Beauty,” which was written by Alan Ball, who created “Six Feet Under.”

“And ‘Chicago’ is composed by Kander and Ebb, who composed ‘Cabaret,’ ” Hall said, “so everything’s connected.”

As Billy Flynn, Hall gets to sing, dance and kibitz in ways the diffident David Fisher could only dream about.

“Flynn’s fun to play,” Hall said. “He’s utterly confident and virtually without conflict, so he’s very different from David. And I get to sing with a big band behind me.”

Any chance he’ll burst into song in “Six Feet Under?”

“I dunno,” he laughed. “I haven’t seen page one of the first script of the third season yet, but I wouldn’t rule anything out.”

One thing he does know is that he isn’t afraid of typecasting.

“If you’re part of a successful TV show, certainly you’ll be associated with it, but that’s OK,” he said.

“It’s a great part – but I don’t think I’m going to play homosexual morticians for the rest of my life.”