Sell Watches To You

Jonathan Groff, the star of Glee, might have swapped the bleachers of William McKinley High School for a West End theatre, but one wouldn't know it to look at him.

His all-American style – tight T-shirt, trainers, blindingly white teeth – perfect for the award-winning TV show, appears at odds with the fusty drapes and swags of the Noël Coward Theatre, where previews of his new play, Deathtrap, begin this week.

As an fan of the hit US import, I half expect Groff – whose name is usually prefixed with the words "hunk" or "heart-throb" – to break into song, or at the very least punctuate his sentences with jazz hands, but he is more muted than the limelight-loving character for which he is best known. While the 25-year-old has been working on Broadway for some time, it was his appearance in the enormously popular TV show about a fictional high-school glee club, New Directions, which has brought him international success, and much controversy.

Groff has the good looks of Hollywood's golden age actors. Although he bears more than a passing resemblance to James Dean, which will do little to hurt his career, it is a comparison to another star, Rock Hudson, that has attracted the most attention. When a Newsweek magazine journalist criticised the performance of Groff, who is gay, as Jesse St James in Glee, in an article that also questioned the ability of gay actors to play straight characters, a furore was ignited.

The journalist wrote: "There's something about his performance that feels off ... he seems more like your average theater queen, a better romantic match for Kurt than for Rachel." This prompted a massive backlash.

While Glee's creator, Ryan Murphy, called for a boycott of the magazine, and guest star Kristin Chenoweth condemned the article as "horrendously homophobic", Groff appears much more relaxed. "It's just one of those things," he says. "You just have to take it like any good or bad review, and try to let it roll off your back. I've played all kinds of characters, with all kinds of sexuality, and I hope to go on doing that."

However, he doesn't believe the article was homophobic, and compares it to a scathing review of an actor's unconvincing accent. "It's all pretty much the same. People will say, 'so-and-so can't play this role because of this or that'," he muses. Sitting in the Royal Retirement room at the theatre, Groff seems positively Zen. "As an actor, it is great if you can leave your personal life at the door, but it is inevitable that the public is going to come to know more about you."

drive from www.independent.co.uk