Steve Blanchard

Steve is from Maryland and attended the University of Maryland. After college, he spent a couple of years performing in local dinner theatre before a friend, Wayne Duvall, told him they were searching for a Hans Christian Andersen in New York. In 1981 after booking the gig, Steve began the typical actor's journey. Regional theatre stops in Boston at the Charles Playhouse, Baltimore's Center stage, and the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. During a run of The Robber Bridegroom at the West End in Virginia, once again Wayne Duvall called to let him know of an audition for a revival of The Three Musketeers on Broadway. After driving all night and waiting on an open call, Steve had five call-backs in six months, finally getting an understudy to Brent Spiner's "Arimus." The show closed after one week. Back to the road.

More stops followed in DC's Ford's Theatre in Hot Mikado, a Jesus Christ Superstar at Candlewood, and in 1987, a national tour of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Mickey Rooney understudying "Miles Gloriosus." As luck would have it, Steve went on during the opening night performance in Los Angeles. His reviews garnered an agent or two and he began to focus on the small and large screen. In 1989, Steve signed on to Ken Hill's original Phantom of the Opera for almost three years. In 1992, while performing Chess at the Paper Mill Playhouse, he was chosen as "Lancelot" opposite Robert Goulet's "Arthur" in the national tour of Camelot. After two years of Camelot, Steve was once again making stops in St. Louis's Rep's Esmeralda, Westbury's Annie Get Your Gun with Andrea McArdle, and Atlanta's South Pacific with Mr. Goulet. In 1995, Steve performed the role of "Fred" and the "Headless Ghost" in Alan Menken's A Christmas Carol at the Madison Square Garden.
Originally, Steve was seen for Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 1993 while on tour with Camelot. Finally, in late 1995, he was asked to standby for both "the Beast" and "Gaston." In 1997, he took over "the Beast" in the Toronto company and was then asked to come back to Broadway to become "Gaston." And in 1999, Steve was chosen to play "the Beast" yet again at the Lunt-Fontanne in the re-opening of the production.

Steve originated the title role in the new Off-Broadway musical, Johnny Guitar, which played at the Century Center Theatre in the spring of 2004. He can be heard on the original cast recording of the production. Later that year, Steve starred as Doc Holliday in the original recording of the new musical, Sundown, based on the Legend of Doc Holliday. Sundown was named one of the top 10 best theatrical albums of 2004 by Jonathan Frank of Talkin' Broadway.
On television he has been seen in Ed, Third Watch, Law and Order, Sunset Beat, Police Story, Another World, One Life to Live, Guiding Light, and Rapmaster Ronnie for HBO.

On July 29, 2007, Steve completed an 8 year run as "the Beast" in Beauty and the Beast at the Lunt-Fontanne on Broadway. He has the distinction of being the actor with the longest run on Broadway in the role of the Beast.