Jesse L. Martin Doesn't Have the Energy for Broadway
In a recent interview with WENN, stage and screen star Jesse L. Martin admitted that he might not have the energy to star in a Broadway musical. Martin commented: "I'm open to it, it's just really hard! You gotta work really hard with musicals. I mean, eight shows a week, it just takes a toll on your whole body and voice so it has to be something I'd be really, really excited about."
Martin made his Broadway debut in Timon of Athens, and then performed in The Government Inspector with Lainie Kazan. While employed at the Moondance Diner, he met the playwright Jonathan Larson, who also worked on the restaurant's staff. In 1996, Larson's musical Rent took the Theatre World by storm, with Martin in the role of gay computer geek/philosophy professor Tom Collins. The 1990s update of Puccini's La Bohème earned six Drama Desk Awards, five Obie Awards, four Tony Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize.
From 1999 to 2008, he played Det. Ed Green on Law & Order. He had a brief hiatus at the end of the 2004-2005 season while he was filming the movie adaptation of Rent in which he reprised the role of Tom Collins. Martin's final episode of Law & Order aired April 23, 2008, as he was replaced by Anthony Anderson. Martin returned to NBC a year later, as the co-star of The Philanthropist.
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