Mark-Paul Gosselaar takes to the stage

  Mark-Paul Gosselaar AP Photo/Jeff Christensen

Mark-Paul Gosselaar has been in "the biz" for about 30 years now, and to most of Generation X, he's better known as Zach Morris, a mischievous, good looking kid from the fictional Bayside High.  Through his entire career, he's done lots of TV.  Some of it good (like his new TNT show Raising the Bar), and some of it not so good (like Saved by the Bell: The College Years).  The one acting job he's never tackled is the theater.

The cliche is that actors will say they can do anything.  (Can you ride a horse?  Of course!  I'm a pro!  Can you do a Cockney accent?  Absolutely!)  If they get the gig, they can always learn whatever skill they're lacking later.  But not Mark-Paul.  He went into his audition with complete honesty, telling the director, "I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing."  Lucky for him, the character he's playing in "The Understudy" is also a theater novice who has lots to learn.   

He seems to be enjoying his new endeavor.  In fact, Gosselaar is so smitten with the little dance number that happens in the play that he's said he would consider doing a musical, despite the fact that he says he's never tried to sing.  I suppose that means that wasn't really him singing for The Zach Attack in Saved by the Bell all those years ago.

"The Understudy" opens today, but you'll have to go to New York City to check it out, and you've only got until January 3rd.  If you're looking for good theater closer to home, check out what's showing in the Houston Theater District.