With characters named Boq and Og, Igor and Ogie, nine-time Broadway veteran Christopher Fitzgerald has played some of the freshest and funniest roles on Broadway, many of which he originated, which makes him perfect for my Broadway Alphabet Series – although I couldn’t resist including the entire eerie and hilarious 10-minute play “In-Zoom,” presented during the 2020 shut down of in-person theater, where he matches wits and weird faces with fellow master clown Bill Irwin.
When Christopher originated the role of Boq in a show called “Wicked,” he had already made his Broadway debut a year earlier in the short-lived Amour, and his theatrical debut two decades earlier in “Oliver!” when he was eight. His character Boq turns into the Tin Woodman; Christopher turned into a Broadway regular.
His next role was Igor in “Young Frankenstein,” for which he received the first of his (so far) three Tony nominations
He was next Tony-nominated for portraying Og, the leprechaun lover in the 2009 revival of “Finian’s Rainbow”
Christopher took a break from musicals to perform on Broadway in a Shakespearean play, “The Merchant of Venice,” although his character, Launcelot Gobbo, once Shylock’s assistant, is a quick-witted trickster.
He performed in Chicago,” as both Roxie’s good-natured sap of a husband Amos Hart and as the slick lawyer Billy Flynn
In the comedy “Act of God” he was one of the Almighty’s (Jim Parson’s) arch-angels, Michael (“My wingmen. My Genesistants, if thou shalt”), walking the aisles and working the audience like a magician’s assistant.
Tony nominated yet again, for his role as Ogie, Christopher sang his show-stopping number from the musical “Waitress” at the Stars in the Alley concert. But first, he talked to his co-star…on his shirt.
Christopher most recently performed in the just concluded revival of “Company,” where a highlight of the musical was his character getting high. Christopher Fitzgerald’s physical comedy while his reality adjusts on Maui Wowie made this one of the most memorable stage moments of the year.
