Martin was a member of the boy band Menudo in the 1980s. (New York Post)
Ricky Martin appeared on “General Hospital” in 1994. (Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.)
Ricky Martin after his first performance in the Broadway production of “Evita.” (AP)
Ricky Martin is back on the soaps – for a moment, anyway.
The singer turned Broadway star appeared in a series of “General Hospital” skits on tonight’s episode of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” donning a wig and scrubs and saying lines to his pop songs.
The segment was a call-back to Martin’s turn as Miguel Morez, a singer and actor on the actual TV soap “General Hospital” in 1994.
Where Martin’s “GH” days saw him singing tender love songs and facing adult decisions, the “Late Night” clips show a shaggy-haired Martin and Fallon in an emergency room, discussing patient injuries and treatments.
“What do we know about the patient, doctor?” Fallon asks.
“Female, 34 … It appears that her lips are devil red and her skin, her skin is the color of mocha,” Martin says, quoting lyrics from his smash hit “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”
The second clip shows Martin and Fallon discussing a woman who hit her husband with a bat.
“Like she bang, she bang, she bang … she looks like a flower but she stung like a bee,” Martin says.
“That’s every girl in history,” Fallon responds.
Back in Fallon’s studio, the Puerto Rico native dismissed the host’s claims that he was citing song lyrics during the segment.
“I was just reading a script,” he said.
“Then you said the word Menudo (Martin’s childhood boy band).”
“Yeah, that’s Spanish for ‘minute.’”
The third and final skit sees Fallon and Martin holding back giggles, the segment reaching a certain level of ridiculousness.
“It’s been a long day,” Fallon says. “What are you eating?”
“Just a cup of Life,” Martin says, and he’s holding Life cereal. The segment devolves to show Fallon shaking a bag of bonbons … yes, another Martin song lyric stuck somewhere in your memory.
After rocking Michael Bolton-esque soap opera hair and later conquering the pop charts, a maturing Martin is developing his acting chops with his recent run in Broadway’s “Evita.” During his stop on Fallon’s show, Martin discussed a moment when he lost his composure.
“There was a guy in the last row of the audience, and he started screaming,” Martin said. “It was a serious scene, but this guy was screaming, ‘What is going on here?’ and ‘This is crazy.’
“I don’t know what he meant, but apparently he was really drunk.”
So the show continued. But frazzled by the outburst, Martin forgot his lines.
“The director told us if we forgot something, just to jump in and say something in Spanish,” Martin explained. “But I started cursing … The cool thing is, I got a standing ovation.”
Martin is going to busy in the near future. He recently signed a deal to write a produce a TV series for NBC.
“I’ve got a white canvas,” Martin said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”