A tale of two Davids on Broadway

NEW YORK — Two actors named David walk into a room, ready to talk up the new musical comedy that has brought them together, It Shoulda Been You.

The show marks David Hyde Pierce's Broadway directing debut, and David Burtka's return to the Broadway stage after more than 10 years away.

It takes place entirely on the day of a wedding — "always a place of heightened emotion," says Pierce, 56, who is married to the show's librettist and lyricist, Brian Hargrove. "Two tribes come together, and they have to make peace."

Burtka, 39 and wed to Neil Patrick Harris, plays the groom, whose name is Brian. "There are a lot of Davids and Brians" involved in the production, Burtka notes.

The ensemble cast also includes Sierra Boggess as Brian's bride, Rebecca, a nice Jewish girl — Brian is Christian — and Tyne Daly and Harriet Harris as Rebecca's and Brian's mothers. The moms' strained relationship is among several speed bumps and twists en route to a happy ending that, without giving away too much, celebrates tolerance and inclusion.

"It's for Jewish people, for WASPy people, for gay people, for straight people — for anyone who has found love in a certain way," says Burtka.

Pierce, who has acted on Broadway numerous times in the past decade, says, "What Brian (Hargrove) intended to do was to make an old-fashioned form of musical, but to make what happens inside it completely contemporary."

Burtka notes that Pierce and Hargrove both drew on their extensive experience in television — Pierce on Frasier and various other programs, including The Good Wife, Hargrove as writer and producer of Caroline in the City and Wanda at Large. "They come from that world and work at a fast pace, so they were throwing new jokes at us all the time" in rehearsals, Burtka says.

"You guys were very patient with that," says the soft-spoken, dry-witted Pierce, with typical graciousness.

"There was no tension between them, ever," adds the more animated Burtka, referring to Hargrove and Pierce's working relationship. "It was amazing to see. I think I would have killed Neil."

He's joking. Harris directed Burtka in a cabaret act at Manhattan's 54 Below, he notes, and Burtka produced the Web series Neil's Puppet Dreams and appeared on TV with his husband in How I Met Your Mother and, more recently, American Horror Story.

In recent years, Burtka has worked as a chef while focusing on his and Harris' 4-year-old twins, son Gideon and daughter Harper. While Harris was honing his Tony Award-winning performance in last season's Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Burtka also found time to give him notes.

"At one point rehearsals (for Hedwig), there was this rawness Neil was missing," Burtka says. "It was a little too polished. I told him he should be a little more dirty."

Pierce quips, "Boy, he sure took that note. I remember him licking that floor."

Hargrove and Pierce also had worked together before Shoulda Been, but "this is a much more intense version of what we've done in the past," Pierce says. "It was 24 hours. We would literally be next to each other, not sleeping — him thinking about writing, me thinking about directing. Then we'd get up in the morning and go to rehearsal."

Pierce smiles. "It was, I have to say, bliss."