HE PLAYS A newbie federal agent assigned to spy on a fellow spook on USA’s new crime drama Grace- land, but Aaron Tveit is no amateur when it comes to acting. A Broadway star and a singing sensation, Tveit, 29, appeared in the Tony-winning musical Next to Normal and the film adaptation of Les Misérables. We got him to spill some of his secrets. -Aubry D’Arminio

  1. He covered Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” in his one-man cabaret act. “I sang it around the house, and then I decided to sing it in public. I thought it could have been the worst idea ever, but the response was fantastic.”
  2. He plays softball in the Broadway Show League. “For the last couple of years, I’ve been on the Rock of Ages team. It’s something that takes my mind off everything. Playing softball in Central Park is a great thing to do.”
  3. He loves New York City. “It’s very much home to me,” says Tveit, who grew up in Middletown, New York. “You get addicted to the pace and the energy, and it’s different from Los Angeles. New York doesn’t revolve solely around the entertainment industry. which is a great thing.”
  4. He nearly tried out for the second cycle of American Idol. “When the first season aired, I thought, “I would have liked to have done that!’ So, during my sophomore year in college, my friend and I were going to go to auditions in New York, but I had rehearsal for a play I couldn’t miss. The next year, the same thing.”
  5. That’s really him surfing on Graceland. “I’d only surfed once before, but that was perfect because [my character] Mike is supposed to be terrible at it. I didn’t really have to act. They said, ‘Go out and fall and we’ll film you falling and I said, ‘Great, I’m sure I can do that.”

“Mike’s a dog with a bone once he sets his mind on something,” Tveit says of his Graceland character