Tales of the . . . Cast! Meet Alex Hsu

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Meet Alex Hsu, who plays Lionel. Click here to read his official bio.

Check back tomorrow to meet another member of the cast of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City: A New Musical!


NAME Alex Hsu.

CHARACTER Lionel.

HOMETOWN Born in Taipei, Taiwan; grew up in Hayward and Fremont, California.

FIRST THEATER EXPERIENCE My mom took me to see a production of Promises, Promises! at the college where she worked, and I remember being absolutely mesmerized by Turkey Lurkey Time. I can probably trace many aspects of my personality to that experience, such as my love of musical theater, my affinity for mid-century design and fashion, and my appreciation of go-go dancing.

FAVORITE THEATER EXPERIENCE Seeing Les Misérables on Broadway in 1996. I basically wept for three hours. It was absolutely transcendent and spiritual.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH TALES Watching the TV miniseries on DVD many years ago.

HOW ARE YOU LIKE LIONEL? We are both second-generation Bay Area Chinese. Well, I imagine that Lionel is second-generation. And I did spend one summer in college delivering frozen yogurt to office ladies who would call me “Yogurt Boy.”

FAVORITE MUSICAL A Chorus Line. A close second would be Irving Berlin’s White Christmas (for personal reasons, of course).

FAVORITE SONG TO SING Right now, it is “I Wish I Could Go Back to College” from the musical Avenue Q.

EDUCATION B.A. in linguistics and anthropology from UCLA. Dance training at Dance Arts Center in San Carlos.

PERFORMANCE RITUAL Pre-: putting on makeup. Fewer and fewer men seem to wear stage makeup in professional theater, especially when the production is in a realistic style. But I still do it because to me it is part of the transformation into my character. I don’t feel completely present until I go through that. Post: EAT!

FAVORITE ’70s WARDROBE ITEM I owned a pair of rainbow “Mork from Ork” suspenders as a kid. LOVED them. Also any pair of tight bell-bottoms that make my ass look good!

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