Nick Adams Interview On Guys And Dolls, Mario Lopez, Having Best Biceps On Broadway

It’s a little bit darker than past productions of the show. We set it in the 30s, as opposed to the 50s. The reason for that is the stories in the show are based on stories by David Runyon, written in the 30s. It adds a different flavor to the show. It’s not as cartoonish with the bright costumes. The girls at The Hot Box are like real burlesque strippers. There are things with technology that we didn’t have before that help to carry the show better. It’s one of musical theater’s best shows.

I play Liver Lips Louie, a crap-shooting tough guy, in the show. I had to get back into dance classes because it’s pretty demanding choreography. It’s really athletic, really masculine. I’m going to physical therapy to prevent against any injuries. Every show is different. In A Chorus Line, I was a principle character and I got to play him for the whole two hours. In this show, I’m a gangster, a boxer, a mechanic, so it’s fun to mixed it up and challenge myself in new ways.

Doing A Chorus Line was probably the best year of my life. It’s always been my favorite musical — it’s what inspired me to do musical theater. It was a dream come true for me. When Mario joined the cast, all the focus was on my body. He and I are definitely good friends — I set him up with one of my good friends and they are still together. Every time he comes to New York we all get together. We used to work out together during A Chorus Line — he had just come out with a fitness book at the time, so he was really into that. He was like an older brother to me, in a way. When he came to the show, they changed my costume, so I didn’t show as much skin and they moved me to the back and made my character a little less prominent. You know, they make modifications all the time in Broadway shows when celebrities come. The attention that came out — that we were having catfights backstage and hated each other — honestly, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. The things that have happened since then have just blown my mind — I’ve even been in the National Enquirer. There’s no bad blood between us.

It’s about Quentin Crisp, who is played by John Hurt. It’s my film debut, and I have a big scene with John. A big gay socialite is having an event at his house. I play Quentin’s boyfriend for the evening. I’m a simple-minded, handsome guy, and I get left alone with Quentin and he sort of ends up insulting me and then a girlfriend of mine runs over and saves me from the situation. John is a two-time Oscar nominated actor, so it was a little intimidating. It was a great learning process for me seeing how such a seasoned actor worked on set.

I was always a really skinny kid growing up. Since high school, I was 6’ tall and weighed 135 lbs. When I was in college, one of my professors said, ‘Nick, if you want to increase your chances of being successful, you should try to go the gym and put some size on.’ I have a big baritone voice, and they said you have to match your look with your voice. I started out not knowing what I was doing, but I have a friend who was sort of a trainer and we worked out together. I sort of watched people and copied what I thought would work for me. I work out every day for about two hours. I only do one muscle group a day–biceps one day, then chest, triceps, and so on. For arms, specifically, people neglect their triceps. What’s good for the front is good for the back, you have to work both sides. The tricep will actually develop faster since it’s a longer muscle, so it will really make your arms look bigger. I try to do heavy weight, low rep which helps me keep my size on. I just do my own thing.

When all the stuff was happening with Mario, they just contacted me. They brought me in for a meeting and said, ‘We’d love to work with you.’ I did a bunch of runway shows for them in L.A. When I was kid, I used to look at underwear boxes and say, ‘I wish I could be an underwear model!’ It was always an inspiration for me to look like one of those headless guys on the box. And, now I get to do that. It’s pretty crazy.