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">[edit] Career
Jackson at a New York rally for same-sex marriage
equality on May 17, 2009.
Early in his career, Jackson worked as a back-up singer for Vanessa
Williams, Heather
Headley, and Liza
Minnelli.[7][8] Regionally, Jackson has appeared as Tony in West
Side Story, as Joey in The Most Happy Fella, as Cain in Children of Eden,
as Berger in Hair, as Billy Bigelow in Carousel, as
Joe Hardy in Damn
Yankees, as Rocky in The Rocky Horror Show, and as The
Poet in Kismet, among many other productions.
Jackson made his Broadway debut understudying both male leads in the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. He later
served as the standby for the character of Radames in Aida, then originated
the role of Matthew in the off-Broadway production of Altar Boyz. In 2005, he
originated his first Broadway leading role in the musical tribute to Elvis Presley, All Shook Up. His
performance as Chad earned him much critical praise, the Theatre World
Award, as well as nominations from the Drama League and Outer
Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor.[9] In 2006, he starred off-Broadway in playwright Nicky Silver's The Agony and The Agony with
Victoria Clark. In
June 2007, less than a week before the scheduled opening night, Jackson assumed
the lead role of Sonny on Broadway in Xanadu. He replaced actor James Carpinello
who had been injured during rehearsal. Previous workshop productions of the
musical starred Jackson and Jane Krakowski. However, both Jackson and
Krakowski opted out of the initial Broadway run, citing schedule conflicts.[10] His performance as
Sonny would go on to earn him nominations from the Drama League and Drama Desk for Outstanding Lead Actor.
Xanadu had several Tony
Award nominations including "Best New Musical" for which Jackson and the
cast performed on the 62nd Tony Awards show.[11]
In 2008, Jackson re-teamed with Jane Krakowski and Sean Hayes in the New York City Center's
Encores! production of Damn Yankees. He returned
to Encores! in 2009, playing Woody Mahoney in the staged concert of Finian's
Rainbow which was praised by critics.[12][13][14]Book of
Mormon by Trey
Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez (who co-wrote
the music for Avenue Q);
the musical will be about Mormons and has a planned March 2011 opening.[15] Jackson also starred in the development workshop of
He has guest starred on television series including; Lipstick Jungle, Life on Mars, Ugly Betty, and has a
recurring role on the award winning NBC series, 30 Rock. On March 15, 2010 Jackson made his
guest-starring debut on the long-running NBC series, Law & Order in an
episode entitled Innocence.[16] Jackson filmed a
sitcom pilot for ABC-TV called It Takes A
Village co-starring Christopher Sieber and Leah Remini, which was not
picked up for the Fall 2010 season.[17]
Jackson has starred in several notable webisode series including; "Cubby Bernstein"
opposite Nathan Lane,
"Legally Brown" with Allison Janney , and "The [title of show] Show"
from the meta-fictional Broadway musical [Title of Show].[18][19]
In March 2009, Jackson made his nightclub debut at Feinstein's
at Lowes Regency with a sold out one man show titled "Back to the Start". He
later teamed up with Michael Feinstein to create a nightclub act
titled "The Power of Two". The show was praised by the New York Times, Variety, and
the New York Daily News among others.[20][21][22][23][24] A CD of the show was released on November 3, 2009.
In October 2009 Jackson opened on Broadway to positive critical reviews
reprising the role of Woody Mahoney in the Broadway revival of the 1947 musical
Finian's
Rainbow at the St. James Theatre, costarring with Jim Norton and Kate Baldwin.[25][26][27][28][29] The
Wall Street Journal[30] raved, "The way that [Kate Baldwin] and Cheyenne
Jackson sing "Old Devil Moon" is the stuff best-selling cast albums are made
of." Despite the rave
reviews and great word of mouth, the show closed on Broadway on January 17,
2010.
Jackson was a featured performer on the New York Daily
News float and telecast of NBC's coverage of the 83rd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade singing "Play To Win", composed by Michael Feinstein and William
Schermerhorn.[31] Along with the
company of Finian's
Rainbow, he recorded the Broadway revival cast album in early December 2009,
with a release date of February 2, 2010.[32]
Jackson will be featured in a prominent guest role during Season 8 of Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
Jackson was recently cast in Glee to play
the coach of a glee club named "Vocal Adrenaline."[33]