Max Crumm

Max Crumm
Max Crumm in 2006
Born	Aaron Maximillian Crumm (1985-10-08) October 8, 1985 Pasadena, California
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present

Aaron Maximillian "Max" Crumm (born October 8, 1985)^[1] is an American actor and singer known for his work on the New York stage. He has originated starring roles on Broadway in both the revival of Grease as Danny Zuko, after winning NBC's talent search competition, Grease: You're the One That I Want!, and in Seth Rudetsky's Disaster! as Scott, after playing the role Off-Broadway. He also played starring roles in The Fantasticks as Matt, Brooklyn Crush as Christian Mohammed Schwartzelberg, and in Jersey Shoresical as The Situation, Off-Broadway.

Biography

Crumm was born in Pasadena, California and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Growing up in an artistic household, he was cast in his first musical, Anything Goes, at the age of 6, as a tap dancing sailor with his parents' theatre company, Ahwatukee Foothills Theatre. Also with his parents company, Max played Jack in Into the Woods and the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz. Once he was older, Crumm ventured into children's theater in Downtown Phoenix. He started out in a children's sketch comedy group at Valley Youth Theatre. Crumm then went on to play in Grease (twice; once as Doody, once as Kenickie), Titanic and The Wiz in the main stage productions at The Herberger, also with Valley Youth Theatre. At Desert Stages Theater, he played the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the Prince in Cinderella, Linus van Pelt in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and numerous roles in original musicals created by owner Gerry Cullity. Crumm was also part of a traveling group of performers affiliated with Desert Stages. Once he graduated from Desert Vista High School in 2003, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting, attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood.

Career

While attending school at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he did several television commercials.

In March 2006, Crumm landed a principal role in the indie-film Echoboom.

In November 2006, he auditioned to be a contestant on the Grease competition. Criticized for his "slacker" attitude and bad haircut, he barely made it onto the show, literally being the last person chosen. However, week after week he won over the judges with very entertaining performances in which he displayed a keen sense of humor paired with undeniable star quality. Crumm proceeded to the finals of the show and on March 25, 2007, Crumm was declared the winner.

On July 24, 2007, he began to play the role of Danny Zuko in Grease on Broadway alongside the female winner Laura Osnes as Sandy. After a year on Broadway Crumm and Osnes played their final performances as Danny and Sandy on July 20, 2008. They were replaced by Grease: You're the One that I Want! runner-up Ashley Spencer and Derek Keeling.^[2]

Crumm appeared in the Screen Gems comedy Easy A as Pontius; the film co-starred Max's childhood friend Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes, and was released in the fall of 2010. While in Los Angeles, he took a temporary hiatus from theater to do several films.^[3]

Shortly after returning to New York City in 2011, Crumm starred in the original musical JERSEY SHOREsical: A Frickin' Rock Opera as "The Situation".^[4] The musical was written by Daniel Franzese, Hanna LoPatin and directed by Drew Droege. The cast also featured RuPaul's Drag Race star Derrick Barry. Shoresical ran from September 21 to September 24, 2011 at the New York Fringe festival.

Crumm originated the lead role of Christian Mohammed Schwartzelberg in the off-Broadway rock musical F#%king Up Everything.^[5] His role lasted from March 2013 until the show closed on June 13 of the same year.^[6]

On July 29, 2013, Crumm was cast for the reading of new comedy play, You're Really Not Helping alongside Daphne Rubin-Vega, Kevin Spirtas and Aaron Simon Gross.^[7]

Shortly afterwards (also within the same year), Crumm appeared on the popular web series "It Could Be Worse",^[8] created by fellow Broadway actors Wesley Taylor and Mitchell Jarvis.

In February 2014, Crumm joined the cast of Off-Broadway's Disaster!^[9] the musical for 2 months until it closed in April 2014. He continued with the show through its Broadway production, which opened in March 2016.^[10]

On April 27, 2014, Crumm was cast as Hoover in the reading of "Brave New World: The Musical",^[11] which was adapted from the classic Aldous Huxley novel of the same name. The reading took place in Manhattan. The cast at this private reading included Colin Hanlon as Director Thomas Mond, Andrew Keenan-Bolger as Bernard, Andrew Kober as John, Julia Mattison as Lenina and Keala Settle as Linda.

Also, in April 2014, it was announced that Crumm would play Linus, a new series regular on season 2 of the popular web series WALLFLOWERS, shown on www.Stage17.tv (a new website for broadway themed television shows).^[12]

On July 8, 2014, Crumm took over the lead male role of Matt in The Fantasticks Off-Broadway at the Snapple Theater Center complex in the heart of Times Square.^[13]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Max Crumm.

• Max Crumm at the Internet Movie Database
• Max Crumm on Twitter
• Official NBC site (Archived October 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.)
• "Ahwatukee actor wins starring role in 'Grease' on Broadway", Arizona Republic, March 28, 2007