“Madam Secretary”’s Erich Bergen Sold Broadway T-Shirts as a Teen. Now He Stars in a Show in the Theater Next Door (Exclusive)

• After getting his start selling Broadway T-shirts at the Schubert Theatre as a teen, Erich Bergen is now originating his first Broadway role next door at the Broadhurst Theatre in Boop! The Musical

• Boop! scored three Tony nominations this year

• A producer as well as an actor, the Madam Secretary alum executive produced Joan Rivers: A Dead-Funny All-Star Tribute, airing May 13 at 10 p.m. ET

Erich Bergen is where he wants to be.

After dreaming of originating a role on Broadway for years, the performer is doing just that eight times a week in Boop! The Musical. And he’s found success both in the spotlight — and behind the scenes — on his own terms.

“I was manifesting exactly what I wanted to do from day one,” Bergen, 39, tells PEOPLE, “and now I’m just figuring out what I want to do next.”

Over the years, Bergen has built an impressive résumé, from playing Bob Gaudio in Clint Eastwood’s Jersey Boys film adaptation and acting opposite Téa Leoni in Madam Secretary for six seasons, to Broadway stints in Waitress and Chicago and launching his own production company. (On Tuesday, May 13, his first executive producer credit on a network TV special will run onscreen when Joan Rivers: A Dead-Funny All-Star Tribute airs at 10 p.m. ET on NBC; the uncut, uncensored version will stream the next day on Peacock.)

But Bergen’s Broadway dreams began when he was a teen.

“I didn’t have enough money to go see Broadway shows as much as I wanted to. Somebody told me, ‘You just have to get in the room.’ So when I was a teenager, I got a job selling T-shirts at the Schubert Theater — next door to the [Broadhurst] theater that I’m in now — when Bernadette Peters was starring in Gypsy,” he recalls. “I worked at the merch booth, and every time the show would begin, the merch people would go on their lunch break or whatever, but I stayed and watch the show. So, I saw her do that 50-something times.”

It was while watching Gypsy that Bergen says he began “manifesting” hitting the stage himself — “but I didn’t know how to get there. I think that a lot of people who have a dream job in mind, I think the thing that holds them back is that they don’t know how to get there. What I’ve discovered is there is no set path. And no one is going to discover you. They may say that they discovered you, but they didn’t. There’s no overnight success. That’s not a thing.”

He adds: “For me, selling T-shirts was getting in the building. Once I was in the building, I got to meet the actors and the stagehands, and I got to see how it worked. I got to put it together, and I got to see these performers do it night after night, and I got to see what level I needed to be at to get to that next place.”

Bergen’s career began to snowball after he played the Four Seasons keyboardist-vocalist Gaudio in a Las Vegas production of the Jersey Boys musical before he reprised the role in the 2014 movie. Following successful runs on primetime TV and Broadway, Bergen began producing virtual and live events in 2020. Years after first meeting David Foster, the Grammy-winning songwriter-producer tapped Bergen to help with backend efforts on Boop! The Musical in its early days.

All this led to Bergen eventually being cast as Raymond, a sleazy New York City mayoral candidate who tries to take advantage of the titular Betty when she escapes her cartoon for a journey of self-discovery in real-world Manhattan.

Bergen admits he was “skeptical” of the musical at first.

“There is no reason why we needed a Betty Boop musical. There was no good reason why that should have been a thing, and I actually think that’s something that we have in our favor: She’s an iconic character. Everyone knows her or has seen her, but all they know is she’s the cartoon drawing on the back of a jacket or a T-shirt or a keychain. They haven’t done the Barbie treatment. There’s never been a movie. There’s never been a TV series. There hasn’t even been a cartoon since the ’30s,” he says. “So this is the first time we’re seeing Betty come to life in a long, long time. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I was so excited about it, too. And then, I read the script, and I thought it was just funny and adorable.”

Indeed, Boop! The Musical is ridiculously charming — kind of genius, even — and the music by Foster was another pull for Bergen.

“I’m a stickler for songs that are memorable and songs that have a great hook, and no one knows how to do that better than David Foster. And I think a lot of these songs feel like, I don’t know, they’re instantly, people leave the theater singing these songs, and that has not happened on Broadway in a long time,” Bergen says, “and I think it’s because no one knows how to write a hooky melody better than David. So, it really worked in our favor on this show.”

Since opening in April, the production has garnered favorable reviews, and Bergen’s costar Jasmine Amy Rogers, who makes her Broadway debut as Betty, scored a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. (The production also picked up nods for Best Costume Design of a Musical and Best Choreography.)

“She’s just joy. She reminds me so much of Lucille Ball, and it’s very exciting that I get to say that I was there with her at the beginning of her, what I’m sure is going to be a very long and award-filled career,” Bergen says of Rogers.

For his part, Bergen says it’s been creatively fulfilling originating a role after stepping into past actors’ shoes for Waitress and Chicago (“I got to help build it from the ground up. I feel completely nourished by it. I feel completely satisfied. I don’t know that there’s a better word than true satisfaction”).

And it’s been heartening for him to see fans from his various eras show up at the stage door after Boop! performances.

“It tends to be that the younger fans know me from this show, and then a lot of Waitress fans and whatnot, and then their mothers who are standing right behind them all love me from Madam Secretary. A lot of people come with Jersey Boys things for me to autograph,” Bergen says. “So, it’s nice that I can be part of these people’s families — and it’s a very nice feeling to have people show up because they want to see what I’m doing next.”

Between Boop! and producing projects like Joan Rivers: A Dead-Funny All-Star Tribute, Bergen has his plate full — but he’s eager to keep busy, whether he’s the star or a behind-the-scenes player. “I’m dying to work with Ryan Murphy, with Aaron Sorkin and people like that,” he says.

Adds Bergen: “The old idea of waiting for the phone to ring doesn’t work anymore. There is nothing wrong with speaking what you want out into the universe. You have to create [your own opportunities]. You have to speak it out loud, and you have to scream it because there’s so much noise in this world.”

Read the original article on People