Theater

Why the Village People’s cowboy is returning to Broadway

Thanks to such novels as “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead,” author Ayn Rand is a hero to libertarians, conservatives and Tea Partiers. So who better to star in “The Anthem” — the new off-Broadway musical based on her 1938 novella about a futuristic society in which individuality is illegal — than Randy Jones of the Village People.

Yes, the cowboy from the iconic group is playing an evil overlord in the show opening at the Lynn Redgrave Theater on Thursday.

Speaking to The Post in a drawl that reveals his North Carolina origins, Jones admits that he really wanted to work with director Rachel Klein — but he’s not a fan of the author’s philosophy.

“[Rand’s] very much about independence,” he says. “I believe differently. There are only two things that human beings can do solely by themselves. One is to use the bathroom and the other is to masturbate. Everything else one does or needs requires the cooperation of others.”

Jones plays an evil overlord in “The Anthem.”David Rosenzweig

The 61-year-old performer is no stranger to musical theater, having appeared in regional productions of such shows as “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “Carousel” and “42nd Street.” He studied theater and dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York in 1975 at the age of 23, soon landing a gig as a backup singer and dancer for Grace Jones. Clad only in a leather jockstrap, he attracted the attention of the Village People’s founders. When he showed up to the audition in his usual garb of boots, jeans and a cowboy hat, his stage persona was sealed.

The group — whose other members dressed as a Native American, a military man, a construction worker, a police officer and a leather-clad biker — went on to sell more than 100 million records, with such iconic hits as “Macho Man” and “Y.M.C.A.” Jones served two stints with the group, from 1977 to 1980 and again from 1986 until 1990. He was the only member who actually lived in Greenwich Village, where he still resides.

The original members of The Village People, from left, Randy Jones, David Hodo, Felipe Rose, Victor Willis, Glenn Hughes, and Alexander Briley.Getty Images

“[The group] was campy, it was funny and it was over the top,” he says. “We were doing everything we could to make you laugh, get your attention, and walk up to the edge without being offensive to anyone.”

Of course, the 1970s were a much more closeted time. But Jones believes “people were laughing with us, not at us. We were in on the joke. We knew we were guys dressed like hypermasculine images yet singing these silly songs. It was a pastiche of all those inspirations I was raised on, from ’50s-era television Westerns to Milton Berle wearing a dress to Liberace. There was no way I could grow up and not be a gay cowboy.”

His private life stands in contrast to his flamboyant onstage persona.

“I’m a very regular person,” he says. “I’ve been with my husband for 30 years. I have a very settled life.”

He and partner Will Grega had a commitment ceremony in 2004, then legally married last September in a three-day celebration, beginning with a City Hall wedding attended by both their families.

Meanwhile, Jones isn’t worried about reactions to his appearance in the show, which is fairly campy but not a parody, from Ayn Rand’s conservative followers.

“I’m so embedded in the pop culture that they love, I’m nearly irresistible,” he says with a laugh.