Claybourne Elder (born April 21, 1982) is an American actor, singer, and writer who is best known for his work on television and on Broadway.

Biography

Elder is from Springville, Utah. His mother is a schoolteacher and father a carpenter, and he is the youngest of eight siblings. At an early age he played violin in the school orchestra. Elder studied acting at the Moscow Klasse Centre in Russia before attending Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. He earned a degree in dramaturgy and directing from The University of Utah. Elder received rave reviews and was nominated for a

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fo ...

for Outstanding Leading Actor in A Play for originating the role of "Ollie Olson" in ''One Arm'' directed by

Moisés Kaufman Moisés Kaufman (born November 21, 1963) is a Venezuelan theater director, filmmaker, playwright, founder of Tectonic Theater Project, based in New York City, and co-founder of Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre. He was awarded the 2016 National ...

. He was nominated for a 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical for '' Allegro'' at Classic Stage. He originated the roles of "Buck Barrow" in '' Bonnie & Clyde'', "Hollis Bessemer" in

Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...

's '' Road Show'' and "Michael Victor" in ''

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

''. He played the Soldier/Alex and understudied Jake Gyllenhaal in the Broadway revival of ''

Sunday in the Park with George ''Sunday in the Park with George'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It was inspired by the French pointillist painter Georges Seurat's painting ''A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatt ...

'', which opened in February 2017. He also played the soldier in the concert performances in October 2016 at New York City Center. He can be heard on the cast recordings of ''Bonnie & Clyde'', ''Road Show,'' ''Venice'' and ''Sunday in the Park with George.'' Elder guest-starred as Pete O'Malley in the second season of The CW's ''

The Carrie Diaries ''The Carrie Diaries'' is a young adult novel, the first in a series of the same name by American author Candace Bushnell. The series is a prequel to Bushnell's 1997 collection ''Sex and the City'', and follows the character of Carrie Bradshaw du ...

''. Regionally, Elder played George in ''Sunday in the Park with George'' at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, in 2014. On Broadway, Elder played the role of Andy in the 2021 revival of

's musical ''

Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

''.

Filmography

Personal life

Elder and director Eric Rosen were married on July 28, 2012 in New York State. In 2017 they had a son through surrogacy. In 2022, many news outlets reported a human interest story about Elder. In 2007, as a 23-year-old aspiring actor visiting New York City, he was in the standing-room section of the Broadway musical '' The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee'' when a stranger approached him, noted his obvious enthusiasm for theater, gave him $200, and told him to spend it the next night on a ticket to a revival of

's '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street''. Elder did see that show and considered it—and the stranger's kindness—to be the factors that helped him decide to move to New York and pursue acting. By 2022 Elder was starring on Broadway in a different Sondheim revival, ''

'', alongside Patti LuPone, one of the stars of the ''Sweeney Todd'' production that so affected the course of Elder's career; at the same time, Elder was also starring in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

The Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

'' with Michael Cerveris, who had played the title role in that ''Sweeney Todd'' revival. Elder was reunited with Mark Howell, the stranger who had given him the money, and "paid forward" the favor by buying strangers tickets to ''Company''. In July 2022, Elder retold this story on an episode of the WBEZ radio program '' This American Life'' that examined acts of kindness from strangers.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elder, Claybourne 1982 births Living people 21st-century American male actors 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people American gay actors American male singers American male musical theatre actors American male television actors American gay musicians LGBT people from Utah Male actors from Utah People from Springville, Utah