Joey Fatone Gets Jump Start on Little Shop Lead
Fatone made his Broadway debut as Mark Cohen in Rent on August 5, 2002 and stayed with the show until December 22 of that year. During his tenure, box office sales of the long-running tuner spiked. In his Broadway.com Review of Fatone's performance, Ken Mandelbaum wrote: "Fatone turns out to be well suited to Mark, and offers a sweetly sincere, fully committed performance. His pop baritone rides the music well, and he makes the character appealingly insecure. Fatone also fits into the ensemble admirably, in no way pulling focus because of his renown."
Fatone, who was born in Brooklyn, began performing at a young age After his family moved to Orlando, Florida, he briefly worked at Universal Studios where he earned his stage chops performing in the Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue. 'N Sync formed in 1996 and quickly became a sensation. The boy band's hit singles include "Space Cowboy," "Here We Go," "That's When I'll Stop Loving You," "Gone," "Bye Bye Bye" "Tearin' Up My Heart," " I Want You Back," "This I Promise You," "Pop" and "Girlfriend." Although Fatone had a couple of bit film parts before 'N Sync's formation, his acting career only took off a few years ago. He has had substantial roles in the movies On the Line, My Big Fat Greek Weeding, The Cooler, The Bros. and Red Riding Hood.
In addition to Fatone and Wilson, Little Shop of Horrors currently stars Rob Bartlett, Darren Ritchie, Michael-Leon Wooley, Trisha Jeffrey, Carla J. Hargrove and DeQuina Moore. Robert Evan will take over for Ritchie as sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello, D.D.S and various other roles on June 29.