Orville Mendoza

Currently: Winning laughs as the mysterious manservant Tempura in Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick's musical spoof Adrift in Macao at Primary Stages. Why Tempura? "Because I have been battered by life," he declares.

Hometown: Victorville, California. "I was born in Manila, in the Philippines, but my family moved to the United States when I was three years old."

A New Life: When they arrived in America, Mendoza's family spoke Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines. "I learned English by watching television commercials and playing with our neighbors, two Chinese kids who spoke perfect English," he says. After high school, Mendoza majored in business at nearby Cal State San Bernardino but slowly drifted toward performing. "I took one acting class, then the next level, and suddenly I had all these units in theater that my parents knew nothing about," he says with a laugh. "Finally I told them I was going to change my major—much to their dismay. But I got the second national tour of Miss Saigon right out of school, and once they saw I could earn a living as an actor, they were fine with it."

Living Out of a Suitcase: Popular shows like Miss Saigon often tour for a loooong time—as Mendoza learned when he stayed on the road for a whopping five and a half years. "I was young!" he says now. "I wasn't paying rent anywhere, so it was a lot of fun for me. At the beginning of the tour, we would stay in one place for four months or six months, and I loved getting to know different cities." His favorites: Honolulu, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston. "I went skydiving and got scuba-certified—it wasn't all work." Best of all, the young ensemble member/understudy managed to go on numerous times in the lead role of the Engineer. "It was great training. And some of those cast members are still my closest friends today."

Genial Genie: Many actors downplay stints at a theme park, but Mendoza is happy to highlight his run as the big blue Genie in Aladdin at Disneyland five years ago. "Francesca Zambello, who is directing The Little Mermaid for Broadway, did the show, and she let us improvise our own jokes," he says. "There were two casts, and my version was completely different from the Genie I alternated with. We threw in Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes when he first became governor, Martha Stewart jokes… it was great fun to work that improv muscle. People kept coming back to see what we had added."

Inscrutable? Not! It's impossible to sum up Mendoza's hilarious performance in Adrift in Macao without giving away the surprises that await at the end of show, first in Tempura's big song, Revelation, followed by an even more outrageous topper in the deliriously daffy final number—an audience sing-along, no less—"Ticky Ticky Tock." Reading the script, Mendoza says, "Something just clicked in my head: I totally knew this character. I understood the tone of it right away." Though Durang and Melnick have pitched the show as a musical parody of film noir, Mendoza notes, "The character I play is more from the Charlie Chan films, which I thought were funny because the portrayals of Asian people were so wrong."

Politically Incorrect: Clad in a traditional silk outfit, purple satin slippers and a beanie, Mendoza wickedly embodies a range of Asian stereotypes in Adrift in Macao, but his Cheshire cat smile makes it plain that he's in on the joke: "I don't think Chris Durang is trying to be political with this show, but he shows you how ridiculous the stereotypes are. It's actually kind of empowering." Mendoza has, of course, played plenty of Asian-specific roles, notably in the Broadway revival of Pacific Overtures, but he's expanded his range in shows like Des McAnuff's recent revival of The Wiz, in which he was Uncle Henry and the Gatekeeper in a largely African-American cast. "I do a lot of new work, and sometimes I get called in for things that are not necessarily Asian," he says. "Now more than ever, opportunities are opening up to ethnic actors, which is wonderful."