Lewis Cleale is an American theatre actor and singer.[1]
A graduate of theUniversity of Miami'sFrost School of Music, where he has been named Distinguished Alumnus, and of theBurt Reynolds Dinner Theatre,[2] Cleale's big break came when he was cast in a European tour ofOklahoma!, in which he was noticed byMary Rodgers, who recommended him for a Los Angeles production ofState Fair.[2]
Cleale made hisBroadway debut in the 1995Johnny BurkerevueSwinging on a Star, for which he received aDrama Desk Award nomination as Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. Additional Broadway credits include the 1996 revival ofOnce Upon a Mattress withSarah Jessica Parker, the ill-fated 2002Michel Legrand musicalAmour, and the 2005 hitSpamalot. Cleale also appeared in the popular revueI Love New York which was done at the Rainbows and Stars room along withBryan Batt, Janet Metz andHeather MacRae.Off-Broadway, he has appeared inCall Me Madam oppositeTyne Daly andA New Brain[3] withMalcolm Gets andKristin Chenoweth forLincoln Center Theater.
From September 2008 through March 2009[4] and from June 2009 through March 2010,[5] Cleale played El Gallo in the Off-Broadway revival ofThe Fantasticks at theJerry Orbach Theater on 51st Street and Broadway. Cleale left that show to be an understudy forSondheim on Sondheim.[6] Cleale credits Sondheim as being one of the reasons he went into acting:
It's Stephen Sondheim andJames Lapine, and I moved to New York to work with them. I was a business major in Miami when I took an acting class, and my teacher said 'I don't think you should be a lawyer. I think you should do this [act] with your life.' He gave me the cast album ofInto the Woods, and I became obsessed with it. I remember going to my final exam in the spring of '89. It was seven in the morning, and I had a tape deck in my car, and I had this tape playing. It wasRobert Westenberg singing, and I got fixated on the lyrics. I'm supposed to be thinking about statistics, and all I could think about was lyrics. So it was, in fact, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.[6]
In 2011, Cleale starred in the original Broadway cast ofThe Book of Mormon, playing roles that included the Mission President,Joseph Smith and others.[7] As of 2025, he remained the longest serving original principal cast member and departed the show on October 26.[8]
InWashington, D.C., Cleale portrayedJohn Adams in1776 atFord's Theatre[3] and Giorgio inStephen Sondheim'sPassion at the Signature Theatre, for which he won the 1997Helen Hayes Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Musical". In May 2009, he played the lead in the new musicalGiant, based onEdna Ferber's novel of the same name, at theSignature Theatre.[9]
Cleale has also performed leading roles atGoodspeed Opera,George Street Playhouse,Cleveland Opera,Actors Theatre of Louisville,Long Beach Civic Light Opera, andThe Muny inSt. Louis.
In 1999-2000, Cleale portrayed Joe Gillis oppositePetula Clark's Norma Desmond in the national tour ofSunset Boulevard, and in 2002 went on the road again as Lieut. Joe Cable inSouth Pacific oppositeRobert Goulet.[2]
Cleale's recordings includeWilliam Finn'sInfinite Joy,Adam Guettel'sMyths and Hymns, theRCA VictoranthologyGreat Musicals, and theoriginal cast albums ofOnce Upon a Mattress,Swinging on a Star,Call Me Madam, andAmour.
