David Hyde Pierce Goes Behind The Curtain On His Subtle Tribute To David Burns

Two-time Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce has a chance to add a third to his résumé after his recent best lead actor in a musical nomination for the role of Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly!. Laura Heywood (aka @BroadwayGirlNYC) had a chat with Mr. Pierce on Tony Award nomination day and the two discussed his biggest challenge with the role.

"The biggest challenge for me is that I'm not the person you would normally cast to play this part of Horace Vandergelder in Hello, Dolly!. So it was fun for me to find my way into the character in a way that could still be me but also serve the play and also work opposite Bette [Midler], which was part of the joy of doing this," said Pierce.

Pierce also gave insight into his subtle tribute to David Burns, who was the original Horace Vandergelder when Hello, Dolly! first hit Broadway in 1964.

"There is one specific moment that Davie used to have, he had a reaction to discovering someone hiding in a cupboard where he famously had a twitch in his cheek. So I've done my own version of that which is an homage to him because I just wanted to do that."

Tune into the 71st annual Tony Awards on June 11th at 8:00 PM EST, only on CBS.