Asa Somers (born December 5, 1969) is an American stage, film, and television actor.
He is an alumnus of the Phillips Exeter Academy and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and theatre studies at Yale University.
Somers made his Broadway debut in The Rocky Horror Show as a Phantom and Narrator understudy, then went on to join the original Broadway casts of Dance of the Vampires as Herbert, Taboo as the fight captain and standby for Boy George, Grey Gardens as a standby for Joe and Jerry, and Next to Normal .
He was also in the Off Broadway productions of Once Around The Sun as Kevin at the Zipper Theatre, the Playwrights Horizons production of The Burnt Part Boys as Miner Taylor, Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Hedwig at the Jane Street Theatre, and Next to Normal as Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine at the Second Stage Theatre.
Somers originated Dan in the U.S. national tour cast of Next to Normal , alongside Alice Ripley, Emma Hunton, Curt Hansen, and Jeremy Kushnier [1] and stayed with the production until its close on July 30, 2011.
Somers recently revived his role as Dan Goodman in Penn State's CentreStage production of Next to Normal, which played at the Pavilion Theatre from June 6 to 14, 2014.
As of December 2016, he is a standby for the role of Larry Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway.
Somers' rock musical, Something As Big As This, had a closed developmental reading on July 2, 2012. [2] The reading cast included former Next to Normal cast members, Brian d'Arcy James, Preston Sadleir, and Emma Hunton and was directed by Louis Hobson. [3]
The show will have a free public presentation at Seattle's Balagan Theatre on January 14, 2013. [4] [5] The workshop features a different cast than the 2012 closed reading but is directed by Louis Hobson, who also directed the reading.
Somers appeared in the regional theatre productions of Kean as Edmund Kean at Yale University, We're All Dead as Oedipus Rex at the Blue Heron Arts Center, Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Hedwig at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, Hair as Berger at the Theatre Under The Stars in Houston, Man In The White Suit as Michael at New York Stage & Film, and Tallgrass Gothic as Daniel at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Somers recently finished a run at Dallas Theater Center, where he played The Narrator in Fly By Night, April 26 to May 26, 2013.
In 2000, Somers appeared as Blaine Richardson in The Sopranos episode "D-Girl." In 2003, he played the paramedic in Whoopi in the episode "Once Bitten." He appears as Chaz in the pilot episode of The Wedding Album . In 2007, Somers plays Mike Conneally in the Law & Order episode "Over Here." He has appeared twice in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Craig Vattic in the episode "Game" and as Colin Andrews in the episode "Smut." Somers is also a restaurant customer in the 2009 Ugly Betty episode "Blue on Blue" and plays Mr. Harper in The Good Wife episode "Heart." He recently appeared in Royal Pains and in Gossip Girl as Richard Wellings in the episode "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World." In 2012, Somers played the Doctor in the second episode of Elementary, "While You Were Sleeping."
Somers co-stars as Kyle Cassimer in the 2009 independent film Clear Blue Tuesday , a rock musical revolving around the September 11 attacks, which opened at the Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village. [6] He is featured in the independent films Never Forever as Rich, which was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and Ira & Abby as Gus. Somers also appears in the shorts A Change of Climate as Eddie, When Stars Fall as Capella, and No, No Now as Adrian Lanes.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2006 | Ira & Abby | Gus | |
2007 | Never Forever | Rich | |
2009 | Clear Blue Tuesday | Kyle Cassimer | Also writer |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2000 | The Sopranos | Blaine Richardson | Episode: "D-Girl" |
2003 | Whoopi | Paramedic | Episode: "Once Bitten" |
2005, 2008 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Colin Andrews / Craig Vattic | 2 episodes |
2006 | The Wedding Album | Chaz | Television film; unsold pilot |
2007 | Law & Order | Mike Conneally | Episode: "Over Here" |
2007 | Independent Lens | Self | Episode: "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway" |
2009 | Ugly Betty | Restaurant Customer | Episode: "Blue on Blue" |
2010 | The Good Wife | Mr. Harper | Episode: "Heart" |
2010 | Gossip Girl | Richard Wellings | Episode: "It's a Dad, Dad, Dad, Dad World" |
2010 | Royal Pains | Frank | Episode: "The Hankover" |
2011 | Blue Bloods | Frank | Episode: "Lonely Hearts Club" |
2012 | Elementary | Doctor | Episode: "While You Were Sleeping" |
2013 | Person of Interest | TOVO Networking Advisor | Episode: "Trojan Horse" |
2014 | White Collar | Mr. Rawling | Episode: "Live Feed" |
2014 | Unforgettable | Holliman | Episode: "A Moveable Feast" |
2015 | Mr. Robot | Jeremy | Episode: "eps1.6_v1ew-s0urce.flv" |
2016–2017 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Drew | 3 episodes |
2018 | Billions | Ashley Cutler | 2 episodes |
2020 | Tommy | Peet | Episode: "To Take a Hostage" |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | Pedestrian | Voice |
2018 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Arturo Bullard |
In theater, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness, injury, emergencies or death, the understudy takes over the part. Usually when the understudy takes over, the theater manager announces the cast change prior to the start of the performance. Coined in 1874, the term understudy has more recently generally been applied only to performers who can back up a role, but still regularly perform in another role.
Scott Leo "Taye" Diggs is an American stage and film actor. He is known for his roles in the Broadway musicals Rent and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the TV series Private Practice (2007–2013), Murder in the First (2014–2016), and All American (2018–2023), and the films How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Brown Sugar, Chicago, Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), and The Best Man (1999) and its sequel, The Best Man Holiday (2013).
Kendra Kassebaum is an American theatre actress, who has performed in many different musicals, and is perhaps best remembered for playing the role of Glinda in the first national tour, Broadway, and San Francisco casts of the blockbuster musical Wicked.
Jenna Leigh Green is an American actress and singer best known for her performances as Libby Chessler on the television show Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as well as for roles on tour in the musical Wicked and later in the Broadway production.
Next to Normal is a 2008 American rock musical with book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. The story centers on a mother who struggles with worsening bipolar disorder and the effects that managing her illness has on her family. The musical addresses grief, depression, suicide, drug abuse, ethics in modern psychiatry, and the underbelly of suburban life.
Brian d'Arcy James is an American actor and musician. He is known primarily for his Broadway roles, including Shrek in Shrek The Musical, Nick Bottom in Something Rotten!, King George III in Hamilton, and the Baker in Into the Woods, and has received three Tony Award nominations for his work. On-screen, he is known for his recurring role as Andy Baker on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, Officer Krupke in West Side Story, and reporter Matt Carroll in Spotlight.
Shrek The Musical is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. It is based on the 2001 DreamWorks Animation film Shrek, along with elements of its sequels: Shrek 2, Shrek Forever After and William Steig's 1990 book Shrek!. After a trial run in Seattle, the original Broadway production opened in December 2008 and closed after a run of over 12 months in January 2010. It was followed by a tour of the United States which opened in 2010, and a re-vamped West End production from June 2011 to February 2013.
Jeremy Kushnier is a Canadian actor, singer and songwriter.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and a book by John Cameron Mitchell. The musical follows Hedwig Robinson, a genderqueer East German singer of a fictional rock and roll band. The story draws on Mitchell's life as the child of a U.S. Army major general who once commanded the U.S. sector of occupied West Berlin. The character of Hedwig was inspired by a German divorced U.S. Army wife who was Mitchell's family babysitter and moonlighted as a prostitute at her trailer park home in Junction City, Kansas. The music is steeped in the androgynous 1970s glam rock style of David Bowie, as well as the work of John Lennon and early punk performers Lou Reed and Iggy Pop.
Legally Blonde: The Musical – The Search for Elle Woods is an MTV program created in order to cast an actress to replace Laura Bell Bundy in the role of Elle Woods in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde: The Musical. The show debuted on June 2, 2008.
Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.
Aaron Kyle Tveit is an American actor and singer.
Brian Yorkey is an American playwright and lyricist. His works often explore dark and controversial subject matter such as mental illness, grief, the underbelly of suburbia, and ethics in both psychiatry and public education.
JenniferDamiano is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in 2006 as an ensemble member in the original production of Spring Awakening, and went on to originate the role of Natalie Goodman in the musical Next to Normal, for which she was nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, becoming one of the youngest nominees for the award at age 17. Her other Broadway roles include Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark in 2011 and Jean in the 2016 musical American Psycho, in addition to a number of roles off-Broadway.
Curt Hansen is an American actor and singer.
Meghann Fahy is an American actress. Her first prominent role was playing Hannah O'Connor on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live from 2010 to 2012. She starred as Sutton Brady on the Freeform drama series The Bold Type, which ran from 2017 to 2021. In 2022, Fahy played Daphne on the second season of the HBO series The White Lotus. On Broadway, she starred as Natalie Goodman in the stage musical Next to Normal from 2010 to 2011.
Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal, known professionally as Lena Hall, is an American actress and singer. She originated the role of Nicola in the Broadway musical Kinky Boots and won the Tony Award for her performance as Yitzhak in the 2014 revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which also earned her a Grammy nomination for the musical's official album. She made history by becoming the first person to play both Hedwig and Yitzhak in the same production during the national tour of the musical in 2016. Her other Broadway credits include Cats, 42nd Street, Dracula, the Musical and Tarzan, the Musical. Hall has also starred in Off-Broadway productions such as Radiant Baby, Bedbugs!!!, Rooms: A Rock Romance, The Toxic Avenger, Prometheus Bound, Chix6, Little Shop of Horrors, and the 2017 original play How to Transcend a Happy Marriage.
Louis Hobson is a musical theater actor and was the artistic director of Balagan Theatre in Seattle, Washington. His Broadway credits include Next to Normal and Bonnie & Clyde.
Jennifer "Jenny" DiNoia is an American singer and stage actress. She is best known for her work in musical theatre, especially Wicked, playing the lead role of Elphaba in various productions around the world.
Rachel Bay Jones is an American actress and singer. She has played the roles of Catherine in the 2013 Broadway revival of Pippin and Evan Hansen's mother, Heidi Hansen, in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter earned her an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and the 2017 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.