As Bryan Collins on “The New Normal,” Andrew Rannells has a celebrity BFF in Nicole Richie (left) and a partner in David (Justin Bartha). (Trae Patton/NBC)
As Bryan Collins on “The New Normal,” Andrew Rannells has a celebrity BFF in Nicole Richie and a partner in David (Justin Bartha, left). (Trae Patton/NBC)
As one of the leads on “The New Normal” — NBC’s freshman comedy about two gay men looking to have a baby — Andrew Rannells is finding himself in a rather abnormal position for an actor.
First, he’s kinda sorta portraying his own boss. His character, Bryan Collins, has more than a few things in common with “Normal’s” creator, Ryan Murphy — and that’s no coincidence. For instance: Bryan and Ryan (Did you catch the rhyming names?) are both in committed relationships with men named David (Bryan’s David is played by Justin Bartha). Plus, both men are showrunners for musical TV series (besides “Normal” and “American Horror Story,” Murphy is the creator of “Glee”; Bryan runs a show called “Sing”).
“I would say ‘loosely based on’ is the correct term,” says Rannells, describing how Ryan Murphy inspired his character. “The jumping-off point was Ryan — though he sort of made the point before we started the pilot that he was not expecting any kind of impersonation, certainly. Then the rest of the character has become up for grabs. It’s a little bit [of series co-creator] Ali Adler. It’s become all our writers, I suppose. And it’s become a little bit of me.”
To add yet another layer of meta to Rannells’ portrayal, Murphy has just announced that, like Bryan, he and husband David Murray plan to start a family next year (they married this summer). So in a way, Rannells is test-driving fatherhood on behalf of his boss — and maybe even himself. Doing the show, Rannells says, “may be a good way to try parenthood before having to commit to it in real life.” This may be a ways down the road, though. “There are no kids in the future, no immediate husband,” says 34-year-old actor, who, like his character, is gay.
But then, when would he find the time? In the past year, Rannells has played four roles. At one point, he spent his days shooting the recurring part of Elijah (Hannah’s ex-closeted-boyfriend) on HBO’s “Girls,” and his nights performing on Broadway, where he originated the Tony-nominated role of Elder Price in the smash musical “The Book of Mormon.” Somewhere in there, he found two days to create the role of Manny the stripper for the movie “Bachelorette” (that’s his back in the poster). And now, of course, he’s being “Normal.”
The only downside of being an “it” guy right now is that Rannells hasn’t been pumping his Broadway muscles much lately. A Great White Way veteran, the actor, who was born in Omaha, Neb., spent his pre-“Mormon” years playing Link Larkin in “Hairspray” and Bob Gaudio in “Jersey Boys.” And right now, out on the left coast, Rannells is suffering from “total withdrawal” from musical theater.
“I sing way too loudly in my car now,” he says. “And on long drives, I will sing entire cast albums. Broadway was an everyday part of my life for 6 years, So it feels very weird not to do that.”
In fact, while he definitely digs some aspects of LA life (“Running errands, you can just throw crap into the back of your car — it’s the craziest thing!”), his Twitter handle still bases him in “New York, NY.” Says Rannells, “It will always say ‘New York.’ That is who I am now. Also, Broadway isn’t going anywhere. They’ll always have me back and I hope to go soon.”
When he does return, he’ll probably come back a better-dressed man. Going from a year and a half of playing a white-shirt-sleeved Mormon missionary to portraying a clotheshorse Hollywood producer has certainly given Rannells a case of couture shock. But as tasteful a dresser as he is in real life (by all means, check out his previous interviews on YouTube), Rannells is definitely picking up a few pointers from Bryan, who loves risky vestments. (During the pilot, Bryan asks a sales clerk, “Do these pants make me look like Mary Tyler Moore?” The sought-after answer would be “yes.”)
“There’s been some crazy [outfits],” Rannells says. “But sometimes, when I see what they actually look like on television, they don’t look that nuts. And in the past few episodes, things have been toned down quite a bit. I think we’re reaching a good level of normalcy. But it has sort of bled into my normal wardrobe a little bit. You see yourself in those crazy Vivienne Westwood suits and then I do find myself clashing more patterns than I ever did before in my life.”