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In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s also maybe maybe maybe not Jewish. (Joan Marcus)

In “First Date,” Levi pairs up with Krysta Rodriguez, who’s additionally perhaps maybe not Jewish. ( )

People who adored the sweetly nerdy lead of TV’s “Chuck” are going to be very happy to find its celebrity, Zachary Levi, on Broadway, doing just just exactly what he does most readily useful: singing, dancing . . . cringing.

In “First Date,” opening in a few days, Levi plays Aaron — as awkwardly earnest as Chuck, but as bearded and bespectacled as a yeshiva child, on top of that. Cue the cringing whenever Aaron discovers that their hot date, Casey — the comely Krysta Rodriguez (“Smash”) — is not Jewish.

Then once again, neither is Levi.

“Nope, perhaps perhaps not really a Jew!” he says having a grin. “But if individuals wish to lump me personally in with God’s plumped for, I’ll go on it!”

Backstage during the Longacre Theatre — backpack by their part, their 6-foot-4 frame closing in black colored Converse sneakers — the set that is 32-year-old record right, his discussion peppered with all the words “journey,” “amazing” and “blessed.”

He had been created Zachary Levi Pugh — that Welsh surname’s pronounced “pewww!” — which resulted in no end of “brutal reviews” in boyhood and past. Their soulsingles quizzes representative recommended the young star might only want to change their title.

It wasn’t a decision that is easy.

“I’d made a guideline that i’dn’t alter or fold for Hollywood,” claims the star, whom spent my youth in Southern Ca, into the shadow of Disneyland. But about it long and hard,” he decided to simply lose the Pugh after he“prayed.

That, Levi states, generated another trouble: “I’ve had casting directors call my agent and state, ‘Yeah, you know — he’s a tad too Jewish.’ ”

So far as the creators of “First Date” had been concerned, Levi had been perfectly.

“Zachary’s like a better-looking type of me personally — the me I’ve always wished to be,” says Austin Winsberg, the show’s bespectacled book author. While composing for “Gossip woman,” which shared workplaces from the Warner Brothers lot with “Chuck,” Winsberg saw in Levi exactly what he calls “the sweet spot — a person who could sing, dance, become funny and have fun with the intimate main character, usually the one ladies desire to be with therefore the dudes root for. ”

Since it took place, Levi ended up being free, and Broadway ended up being on their bucket list. He’d been singing and dancing in local movie movie movie theater since he had been 6 (“I became a ham”), in which he along with his “Tangled” co-star Mandy Moore sang a duet together during the Oscars.

Their only doubt: getting typecast as a nerd, also if he views himself by doing this in true to life. He and a close buddy operate a small business he describes as “Nike for Nerds” — the Nerd Machine, which produces duds and gizmos for sci-fi fans and gamers like Levi himself, whom place their supply by way of a light fixture while hitting an overhead smash during a Wii game of tennis.

“ we think in making use of the working platform you’ve got for good,” says Levi, whom calls their company transactions capitalism that is“conscientious have a dollar, provide a buck.” He’s a devoted supporter of process Smile along with other charities, and arranged for per week off at “First Date,” just after previews began, to honor their dedication to appear at Geek Central, a k a Comic-Con.

And their love life?

“That we won’t go into,” he states, pleasantly. Despite a well-publicized breakup with singer Caitlin Crosby, he’s was able to keep their personal life in the down low.

“I’m maybe maybe not a big dater, genuinely,” he claims. “I’m a go-with-the-flow type of guy . . .

I’d rather hang away with somebody in an organization to discover when they check these different bins beside me before we venture out together — get acquainted with one another really casually and coolly, of course there’s chemistry, then we’ll continue a night out together.”

Judging through the ecstatic applause Levi’s drawing in “First Date,” a complete great deal of men and women could be really pleased to understand him better.