Chip Zien Movies and Career Information

Chip Zien (born Jerome Herbert Zien; March 20, 1947) is an American actor. He is best known for playing the lead role of the Baker in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. Later he played the role of Buzz Richards in Applause at City Center Encores!, and of Thénardier in the Broadway production of Les Misérables. Zien was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and graduated from Whitefish Bay High School and later from the University of Pennsylvania. There, he was the President of Mask & Wig, the nation's oldest all-male collegiate musical comedy troupe. His first major role was Marvin in William Finn's first musical, In Trousers. In its sequels, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, this role was played by Michael Rupert, while Zien played Mendel, a role he reprised when these two one-act musicals were joined together and played Broadway as Falsettos. Several years later, Zien was featured in another Finn musical when he played a bizarre children's show host called Mr. Bungee in A New Brain. He also starred on Broadway in Grand Hotel (as Otto Kringelein), The Boys from Syracuse (as Dromio of Ephesus), The Suicide (as Victor Victorovich), and Ride the