From ‘I Couldn’t Get Arrested in Pittsburgh’ Theater, to a memorable eBay Commercial and Broadway Triumphs
By SHARON EBERSON
Christian Borle’s career took a beat before it soared beyond his Pittsburgh roots. From growing up in Fox Chapel to Carnegie Mellon (Class of 1995) until now, with two Tony Awards and five nominations under his belt, his only appearances on Pittsburgh stages were with the touring companies of Footloose and West Side Story, more than 25 years ago. Borle is about to resolve that long-awaited return when he arrives at the Greer Cabaret Theater for two sold-out Trust Cabaret shows on Monday, November 16, 2026.
“I couldn’t get arrested in Pittsburgh [but] I was always a late bloomer in the business, so I didn’t take offense.”
“I can’t believe it’s finally happening,” Borle says by telephone. “I’m excited to come to Pittsburgh — you know, it’s my hometown — and I’ve been bumping in and out a few times over the last couple years [to meet with CMU Drama students], and it just seems so energized. I’m thrilled to be at the cabaret.”
I admit that the first time I became aware of him was the 2003 “That’s on eBay” commercial — look it up if you don’t know it; it’s a huge musical number, starring Borle.
“I still remember every word,” he says. “That was directed by Sam Mendes, if you could believe it.”
I do. It was that memorable. But it was his mutli-role triumph in Spamalot that hooked me, aiming toward more comedic-gold performances, for the win: as the Black Stache in Peter and the Starcatcher (Tony for Featured Actor in a Play) and as William Shakespeare in Something Rotten! (Featured Actor in a Musical).
For the latter, I was covering the 2015 Tony Awards for the Post-Gazette, with the Pittsburgh CLO-produced An American in Paris. The Tony winners were ushered from the ceremony in Radio City Musical Hall to meet the media across the street, at the New York Young Republicans Club.
With Borle holding his award, I pointed to the live scene on a monitor from An American in Paris.
“I couldn’t get arrested in Pittsburgh,” he said, then as now.
However, there are no hard feelings. From Falk School to St. Edmund’s Academy to Shady Side Academy, he kept his stage work to school musicals.
“I was always a late bloomer in the business, so I didn’t take offense,” Borle says. “I think there’s a certain skill set that you have when you’re young, to fit into an ensemble. When I look back on it, I like to joke to myself as I’m falling asleep at night that I was unique, ‘I don’t fit into the ensemble.’ But really, it’s just because my voice wasn’t good enough.”
It’s notable that his plans when he is in Pittsburgh include a visit with his voice teacher from Carnegie Mellon, Gary Kline, who now works at Point Park University.
BORLE BRINGS YINZER ROOTS TO BROADWAY
Among Borle’s five Tony nominations are Legally Blonde, Falsettos, and most recently, in 2023, for Some Like It Hot.
In the latter musical adaptation of the classic comedy, Borle played the Tony Curtis roles of Joe, Kip and Josephine. Playing the musician in drag, hiding out from the mob, Borle sounded decidedly like a yinzer.
“Well, I have a funny story to tell you about that,” Borle says, explaining that he and his writing partner were asked to write additional material for the show because the pandemic “threw off the whole production schedule,” and writers Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin had to leave for other projects before rehearsals.
“One of my ideas was that Josephine would be based on my second-grade homeroom teacher from Falk School. And so we mentioned her in the script.”
And for anyone who has ever spent time in Pittsburgh, the accent was immediately recognizable, although there’s a fun Reddit thread trying to pin it down, including all points Midwest.
‘FALSETTOS’ REUNION AT CARNEGIE HALL
The demand for tickets to a concert reunion of the 2016 Falsettos cast at New York’s Carnegie Hall recently forced the addition of a second performance.
“It’s been a dream, and we have more on the horizon,” he teased. “You know, we bonded so deeply during the original revival production, and we’ve stayed in touch, and … we were all together for an event, and [Betsy Wolfe] said, ‘Do you guys want to do it again?’ And she spent the last 18 months putting it together.”
Borle sounds wistful when he talks about the Falsettos concert experience.
“To step out on that hallowed stage at Carnegie Hall together, and the reception that we got, there’s a whole new generation of fans who came to it via the pro shot over the pandemic,” he says. “I think it was a lot of people’s comfort place. And now there’s all these young people in Marvin and Whizzer cosplay, sitting in the front row.”
Borle played Marvin, a father and husband who leaves his wife for Andrew Rannell’s Whizzer, and yet, an extended family grows embraces them. He muses that the “whole new generation” of Falsettos fans likely come from viewing the show when the pro shot was broadcast on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center; it also is available to stream on BroadwayHD.
I say I have watched a clip from a previous cabaret Borle performed, titled “Chip on My Shoulder,” where he reminds the audience of the poison pen of New Yorker critic John Simon, who excoriated Borle for his work in William Finn’s Elegies, and ripped Finn to shreds, too.
But then, “I felt like I was in great company,” Borle says of expressing his thoughts on Simon. “There’s an interview with him and Siskel and Ebert, and he’s trashing the original Star Wars. And they’re like, well, ‘You have no soul.’ ”
We agree, in both cases, “That is the correct response.”
THE RISE AND FALL OF ‘TAMMY FAYE’
I venture that maybe I should not bring up Tammy Faye, a hit show in the UK that lasted just 29 performances, with 24 previews, in the transfer to Broadway.
The show also starred Olivier Award-winner Katie Brayben in the title role, with Borle as Jim Bakker, and another two-time Tony winner with Pittsburgh ties, Michael Cerveris, as Jerry Falwell.
After the swing and miss, does Borle think that the show will ever make a comeback?
“I don’t,” Borle says. But the experience, he continues, was still “a great ride.”
“I had such a great time working with Michael [Cerveris]. We crossed paths in ’96, when we did Tommy in Offenbach, Germany, together. You know, I was awestruck by him [but] we didn’t really get to know each other very well. He’d been doing the show for years, and he was like a gladiator at that point. And so it was so fabulous doing Tammy Faye with him. He’s such a good actor. I love the way he works.”
As for the show’s reception in New York …
“Andrew Rannells did it across the pond to great acclaim, and then it fell to me, and I thought the script was kind of bonkers in a good way; very funny on the page,” says Borle, who had just won raves for a Bye Bye Birdie revival at the Kennedy Center, and spent time in the off-Broadway
But in Tammy Faye’s trip across the pond, “Something got lost in the translation.” In the UK, Borle notes, the show was done in a relatively small theater, with a DIY feel to props and staging.
“There was a certain charm to that,” Borle says. “And then they brought it into the Palace, which, of course, is enormous, and everything was automated. There was this huge TV wall, which, I think, as it loomed downstage, instead of being engrossed in the story, people were like, ‘That’s gonna fall on the actors.’ And I thought that, too.”
The timing “didn’t help,” he adds. “You know, we’re talking about the rise of the religious right, and then the election happened, smack dab in the middle of that. … So something tonally didn’t click” with American audiences.
WAY, WAY OFF BROADWAY
Of late, Borle’s world has expanded beyond stage and TV series (Smash, The Good Wife) to a guest-starring role at comic-cons. Fans of the Prime Video series Hazbin Hotel will recognize him as the voice of Vox, the singing overlord of a media conglomerate that controls broadcasts and influences opinion among Hell’s citizens.
For his homecoming, Borle isn’t ready to hint at what his cabaret covers, only to say that it has been “tweaked a little bit” from previous shows.
“I have a finite amount of songs that are rattling around in my brain, so it’s going to be some of the same repertoire with a couple surprises,” Borle says.
Pressed for more, he says, “I think it’s going to be cheeky. It’s going to be personal, and I think anyone who knows my vibe will get a kick out of it.”
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