And, like Tony, Harris found his life's trajectory changed because of a girl.
The avid soccer player had never considered drama until he was convinced to try out for a show at Woodbridge High School in Irvine.
"I was dating a girl who did musicals, and she said I should do it," Harris said. "I ended up getting bit by the theater bug."
He went on from high school productions to studying theater in Arizona, award-winning stints in New York and regional productions, with roles in "Hair," "Newsies," "Urinetown," "The Who's Tommy" and more — and his star began to rise.
As a cheeky addition to his résumé, Harris noted that he was an excellent stage kisser.
"I threw it on there as a conversation starter, and here we are talking about it," he laughed. "It's definitely one of the perks of my job. Basically, every show I've been in, I've had to kiss a girl. So I put that as a personal skill."
Harris moved to New York after college and began making the requisite rounds at various open-call auditions, not expecting "Web Site Story" to be a game-changer for him at all — but the casting directors loved it.
"I auditioned for the matinee Tony who does two shows a week on Broadway," Harris recalled. "But they told me they wanted to save me for the national tour, which wasn't coming up for like seven months."
Harris didn't take this claim seriously, and assumed he was being given the cold shoulder in the politest way possible. But he soon found himself packing his bags for an epic road trip.
He now spends six nights a week — and two matinees — singing and dancing as star-struck lover Tony across the country.
Harris said his hitherto-mild esteem for "West Side Story" began to change as he got to know it.
