Adam Arian
Currently: Starring as a variety of loving, lovesick and loveless characters in the musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which celebrated its 10th anniversary off-Broadway on August 1.
Hometown: Larchmont, New York. In sixth grade, Arian got hooked on theater when his parents brought him in from the 'burbs to see the original Broadway production of Into the Woods. "It seemed within my reach because it wasn't people doing acrobatics and tap dancing," he says with a laugh. "And it was just awesomely smart." That outing sparked an interest in acting—his first role was Rooster in a seventh grade production of Annie—and kicked off an Arian family tradition of seeing a Broadway show every year as a Hannukah gift. "It was always a surprise: 'What's the show going to be?'" he recalls. "My parents would psych us out by taking us into the lobby of really bad shows, then out and into the really good shows."
Get a Life: Though he continued to perform through high school, Arian chose the liberal arts curriculum at Brown University over a conservatory theater program. "I'm so glad I made that decision, because I think it's hard to know in high school you're going to become a professional actor," he says. He double-majored in political science and theater, studying Socrates, Plato and Kant by day and rehearsing at night for roles in shows like Sweeney Todd alongside fellow Brown alum and recent Tony winner John Lloyd Young of Jersey Boys. Coming full circle, he also played Cinderella's Prince in Into the Woods.
Stand Up and Move On: Arian's strong reaction to Fahrenheit 9/11 led him to take a break from show business and throw himself headlong into the 2004 presidential campaign. "I felt like the world was ending, and if I don't do something about it, I won't be able to look at myself in the mirror," he remembers. He landed a job as an assistant director with a group called Grassroots Campaign and spent six weeks in Cleveland working 15-hour days trying to drum up volunteers and votes through MoveOn.org. "It was the hardest experience of my life," he says. "And it was like death at the end. Everyone finally went to sleep at four in the morning on election night without knowing [the outcome] and woke up at one in the afternoon to it all being over. And then we had to go back to the office to clean up." But in spite of the outcome, he's glad he did it: "Whatever is going to happen with this presidency, and with this war and the other war and the other war and the other war and terrorism, I can at least say that when it was time to stand up and fight for something, I did. And if I'm free [in 2008], I'll do it again."
We're All Human: Until that need arises, Arian is content to be back in New York, making his mark through acting and directing. "You have you use your gift to contribute to the world in some way," he says earnestly. "And I believe the arts does that by reminding humanity what humanity is about. When things are getting twisted and taken out of context, art can bring people back to that [humanity], even a show about dating and marriage—just to say that there is some commonality between people."
Nudge, Nudge: "This show knows exactly what it is, and it's so well-maintained," Arian says of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, which has been performed in more than 300 cities worldwide and ranks as off-Broadway's longest-running musical. A decade after opening night, the everyday relationship conflicts portrayed onstage still ring true. "A couple of days ago, I came out and starting singing, 'We came to buy shoes…,' and this guy yells out, 'Oh my god, like how many are we going to look at, right?!' A friend of mine calls it a big 'nudging' show," he adds. "Now that I'm watching for it, you can see the whole audience shift to the right at certain points because everyone's been nudged by the person next to them. Married people from the suburbs—from everywhere—feel like we are reading their minds," Arian concludes with a grin.