Josh Groban on Miss Piggy/
Josh Groban is sweet on the Muppets, less so on Donald Trump
JOSH Groban is an interesting case. The deep-voiced balladeer sings of romance with unabashed earnestness, then turns around and acts like a total goofball, from guesting on TV’s “Parks and Recreation” to playing Miss Piggy’s post-Kermit squeeze on “The Muppets.” Oh — and he’s also set Kanye and Trump tweets to music, and sung them on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
We caught up with the singer before next week’s Beacon Theatre shows, where he’ll perform material from his latest album, “Stages,” a collection of show tunes. You’ve said you’d love to do a Broadway musical. Would you prefer a revival or a new show?
The dream for me would be to originate something. I get offers all the time — “Step two months into this” or whatever — but I’m most inspired by the idea of crafting something new. But [I] never say never, and “Stages” has helped me reimagine some classic songs that have stood the test of time. You even do a song from the musical “Notre-Dame de Paris” — in the original French!
Whenever I can introduce a different fan base to a different song or a different show, that’s exciting. Did you feel you were introducing the tennis fan base to show tunes when you performed at the US Open this year?
[ laughs] I would be naive to think I’m introducing any New Yorker to the world of musicals. I’m not Lenny Kravitz, I’m not going to run out there and shred a guitar, but I’m an avid tennis fan and I wanted to celebrate the tournament. The really fun part was spending an entire day running around with Patrick McEnroe and Billie Jean King. I ran through the ball-boy tryouts, they took me to the roof, I even did a fake press conference. Show tunes aren’t nerdy enough, so you just added tennis geekery to the mix.
If I was concerned about cool, I would have changed course 23 years ago!
Who was harder to set to
music, Kanye or Trump?
Trump. Kanye’s just weird. With Trump, we were going through all the tweets, and I remember thinking, “God, these are all so mean!” I didn’t want to have to sing the mean ones, even though he wrote them. You seem drawn to comedy. Can’t your girlfriend, Kat Dennings, get you a sitcom like her “2 Broke Girls”?
[ laughs] My acting agent hates me because I don’t have time for anything like that . . . I’ve had great chances to do some comedic acting — I play Miss Piggy’s boy- friend in the new “Muppets” show. She was definitely the biggest diva I’ve ever worked with. She had her way with me and moved on, you know? Your music is conducive to nooky, after all.
My shows have been known to be a romantic environment for couples. People have proposed — like, I’ll see someone get down on their knees and propose in the middle of a song!