Lee portrays Eva Crane, the determined but misguided secretary in thrall to a sadistic prison warden and in love with the warden’s intellectual convict flunky in Tennessee Williams' little known early effort, Not about Nightingales (Circle in the Square Theatre). She's dating actor Gilles Chiasson, who portrays Corporal William McEwen, the noble Union soldier pining for his sweet young wife, in composer Frank Wildhorn's The Civil War (St. James Theatre).

Lee and Chiasson met in September 1998 in Houston when they both were in rehearsal at the Alley Theatre, she as the female lead in the Tony Award-winning regional troupe’s mounting of How I Learned to Drive and he in the world-premiere co-production of The Civil War. Passion that quickly lit up the Bayou City is still burning bright on the Great White Way.

How about that for a backstage romance?

The two told BroadwayNow that at first they were cordial strangers, wandering thespians in Houston for work, who’d chitchat about politics and theater during breaks since their rehearsal spaces were next to each other. But after Chiasson attended a run-through of How I Learned to Drive and took in what he more or less called Lee’s heady, vulnerable sensuality, he began to pay closer attention to her.

"He’d come into my dressing room and just stare at me," Lee, an Alley company member, marveled. Many in the cast of The Civil War are singer/songwriters, ever ready to strum a guitar and croon a ditty. Chiasson was also something of a troubadour for Lee, pitching melodic overtones of woo while she and the other actresses put on their makeup.

One night, prior to opening, the cast of How I Learned to Drive headed out for drinks. A piqued Lee asked if Chiasson would join them. He declined. At a local watering hole Lee was peppered with questions about why, at age 31, she was still single, what she wanted in a guy. Among other qualities, she was looking for a progressive sensibility coupled with a courtly sensitivity. Lee chose to see these attributes as paradoxical, not contradictory. Hence her single status.

Two days later, Chiasson decided to go out drinking with them. Well, with Lee. Because upon his arrival he asked if he could buy her a beer. Small talk began to loom large. "The apartment complex the Alley put us up in is a pseudo 'Melrose Place,' and he walked me home," Lee explained. Nervous about what would, or would not happen, Lee couldn’t find her keys, then dropped them. Just as they were saying goodnight, Lee continued, "He gave me a chaste, respectful kiss that transcended any kiss I ever received."

Both happened to have the next night off. They went on a traditional date: the movies (A Touch of Evil). For opening night of How I Learned to Drive, Chiasson wrote Lee a poem. (Why Lee didn’t do anything for Chiasson on opening night of The Civil War was because it debuted about a month earlier, prior to the onset of their flirtation.) "And I actually dressed up for the party afterwards," Chiasson remarked, "which I found out was very important." Lee added that she loves to dance and that Chiasson is especially light on his feet.

How I Learned to Drive closed a week or so earlier than The Civil War in Houston. Lee headed back to her New York City apartment. But the two spoke every day on the phone. How could they not? Three weeks into the relationship, Chiasson had already flown her out to Michigan to meet his parents.

Trained at the University of Michigan and the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Theatre Institute, Chiasson has a list of credits that include Armand St. Just in The Scarlet Pimpernel and Steve in Rent, original casts and cast albums of both, and national tours as Marius in Les Miserables, Jinx in Forever Plaid, and Willy in Gift of the Magi.

Before meeting Lee, Chiasson had planned to spend the December holidays in a rustic Maine cottage, alone. He desired a sabbatical from the theater and his home turf of New York to gear himself up for the next phase of rehearsals of The Civil War, which was to travel to New Haven in mid February 1999 to further ready it for the April 1999 Broadway opening. The idea Chiasson had was not to speak to anyone -- or even at all. Silent, isolated sanctuary to reclaim inner peace and recharge creative drive.

Chiasson did go on his retreat. Trying to be supportive, Lee, whose recent graduate training occurred at the American Repertory Theatre Institute at Harvard University, said she would keep a diary, writing detailed entries every day, so that when he returned he could catch up on the month he had missed in her life.

"I got in the car," Chiasson, age 32, recounted, "and drove six hours and called her."

Phone bills soared. And toward the end of the retreat, Lee, who was visiting relatives in Dallas during the holidays, trekked on up there.

The long-distance phase of their relationship led to more intimate ground when New York rehearsals for both shows began in January 1999, though Chiasson was away some three weeks, mid February through early March, when The Civil War ran in New Haven. While they spend much of their free time with each other, they do not live together.

Chiasson has seen Not about Nightingales twice, at his insistence, just in case Lee (who originated the role of Eva Crane in its world premiere at London’s Royal National Theatre in March 1998 and has been with the show in all its incarnations) had an off night the first time he attended. Lee, meanwhile, went to every Sunday night performance in New York of The Civil War during previews. Obviously, they can't go to their respective mate’s shows now: they both work at the same time. At each performance, The Civil War ends approximately 45 minutes before Not about Nightingales. Once wiping off his makeup, changing clothes, signing autographs, and greeting well-wishers, Chiasson, who has had backstage romances before, sneaks backstage to Not About Nightingales to await for Lee, who has not had backstage romances before. "I come off the stage sobbing and abused and look, there's Gilles, and I feel very happy," Lee cooed.

By Peter Szatmary

From Theatre.com