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"  Raise your Bartles &amp;amp;amp; Jaymes: Rock of Ages, Broadway&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;80s hair-metal jukebox musical, has joined the vaunted ranks of this year&amp;#039;s Tony contenders, garnering no fewer than five nominations\u2014including a Best Actor nod for star Constantine Maroulis. Best known for his stint on season four of American Idol, Maroulis is the first contestant from Fox&amp;#039;s hit series to earn this rarefied distinction. The 33-year-old singer, who plays wannabe rocker Drew Bowie in Rock of Ages (recently optioned by New Line Cinema), spoke with us about the merit of metal, the state of Broadway, and grooming his widely recognizable mane.   So, what was your reaction when you found out about the Tony nomination? I was really surprised, but I knew that people love our show. I grew up as an actor, long before the American Idol experience, and this has been a great vehicle for me. It&amp;#039;s a wonderful character, so I just go out there and do my job every night.   Were you a big fan of hair metal growing up? I listened to everything from traditional Greek music to Nat King Cole to Zeppelin and Guns N&amp;#039; Roses. But I grew up in New Jersey, and the soundtrack of my youth was Poison, Styx, Foreigner, and Bon Jovi\u2014this music was so theatrical, and I loved the theater from an early age, along with my rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll. These bands were rock gods\u2014the music was bigger than life. They dressed the part and had this charisma that just jumped out of the television set.   How would you respond to critics who say that Poison doesn&amp;#039;t belong on a Broadway stage? I haven&amp;#039;t heard many people say that. But I think a great song is timeless, whether it&amp;#039;s written by Andrew Lloyd Webber or Bret Michaels. And these songs lend themselves perfectly to theatrical settings. We&amp;#039;ve crafted them into a beautiful love story and probably the funniest comedy to be on Broadway in modern theater. It&amp;#039;s done very well\u2014in an artistic way and not in an obnoxious way.   What&amp;#039;s your favorite number from the show? I think the Whitesnake number at the end of Act One, &amp;quot;Here I Go Again on My Own,&amp;quot; is probably my favorite because it involves the whole ensemble, and my character in particular has reached his emotional peak. He&amp;#039;s starting this journey that he&amp;#039;s always dreamed about but is unsure of, and the lyrics are perfect. I think that&amp;#039;s why it elicits such an amazing reaction from the crowd\u2014people really get it. Granted, we&amp;#039;re partying and having a great time, but trust me: They are connecting with these characters and with the story.   Have Simon Cowell and the other AI judges congratulated you yet? No, not yet. They&amp;#039;re a little busy with this season of American Idol right now, but I&amp;#039;m sure I&amp;#039;ll hear from them when the time is right, and hopefully they&amp;#039;ll come see the show.    How did Idol prepare you for Broadway? I studied at the Boston Conservatory, and my BFA is in musical theater. Long before Idol, I was doing the eight show a week thing in Rent, so it&amp;#039;s really been a long progression for me professionally. But American Idol is just the greatest performance bootcamp you could wish for. So much happens in such a short period of time. I was lucky that I was a little older and had the experience to deal with it. And my season was early on enough in the show&amp;#039;s history that no one really knew what to make of it. I think now we&amp;#039;ve learned that this is about talent, and the true talents end up working and having wonderful careers.   In Rock of Ages, your character is pressured to fit a cookie-cutter boy-band image. Did you feel that on Idol? There&amp;#039;s always pressure in this business. When I was on American idol, they didn&amp;#039;t know what to make of me. I had this big theater background, but I was also in a band\u2014they were these &amp;quot;bad boys&amp;quot; from Brooklyn, and I was this &amp;quot;rocker.&amp;quot; So I was certainly branded with that image. I obviously love rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; roll, and it&amp;#039;s a big part of who I am, but it&amp;#039;s not all that I am. So I think it&amp;#039;s important to define who you are as an artist on that show, because the opportunity is just massive, but the window post\u2013American Idol is very small for you to capitalize on that success, certainly as a recording artist.   Have you felt scrutiny from the theater community for having done Idol? Well, I think that not everybody knew right away that I had a theater background. A lot of people knew me from Rent\u2014I played Roger on the road for a while\u2014and it is a small community, so a lot of people knew that I went to Boston Conservatory, which is probably the number one program for the musical performing arts. So that portion of the community welcomed me and knew how passionate I am. But I think there is a bit of a stigma. However, if it&amp;#039;s the right performer and the right role, it makes sense.   Are there any other Tony-nominated shows you&amp;#039;re rooting for? It&amp;#039;s a tremendous year for Broadway. We&amp;#039;re in a very challenging climate right now with the economics of everything, but there are some amazing talents here\u2014Jane Fonda, James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Angela Lansbury. Those kids in Billy Elliot are amazing. And we have a tremendous revival in Hair, which I&amp;#039;m secretly rooting for, because Will Swenson used to be in our show off Broadway, and I have so many dear friends in it\u2014also, they&amp;#039;re not in our category.   Speaking of which, how do you maintain your signature coif? I used to do a lot more to it than I do now. People are always sending me different products, so I just use all the free stuff that I can. For the show, I spray it a bit and make it a little bigger than it normally would be. But I like to let it dry and be naturally curly and wavy\u2014maybe throw a little product in. Before the Tonys, I should probably have a professional take a look at it. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a9984/constantine-maroulis-322348/>