Mark Consuelos’s sleep schedule is a little complicated.
Depending on the production schedule, he wakes up at 6 a.m. several days a week to tape the morning talk show “Live With Kelly and Mark,” which he hosts with his real-life wife, Kelly Ripa. He doesn’t get home until after 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, when he performs on Broadway in “Fallen Angels.”
He isn’t sweating it.
“People think we wake up so early, but I don’t get in the car to head down to work until 7:30,” Consuelos, 55, said in a phone call from a cab on the way to a tech rehearsal.
In “Fallen Angels,” a comedy about two women awaiting the arrival of a mutual old flame, he plays Maurice Duclos, a suave Frenchman.
Consuelos is making his Broadway debut with this show, and coincidentally, his youngest son, Joaquin Consuelos, also made his this spring in “Death of a Salesman.”
“Proud doesn’t begin to describe the way I feel,” Mark Consuelos said. “It’s not lost on me that it took me 30 years to get on Broadway, and it took him about three months.”
Consuelos shared a few of the cultural essentials that are getting him through his stint on Broadway (set to run through June 7), among them cigars, long hikes and Netflix’s “The Diplomat.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
My Cigar Lounge
I remember having a cigar and a martini at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan when my wife and I were first dating and thinking, “I’ve achieved manhood.” I don’t drink anymore, but I fell in love with cigars, and so I was able to carve out a room in our townhouse. It’s a place where I can go and watch whatever I want to watch, and share a cigar with my buddies.
Campobasso FC
On a lark, in 2022, I was approached to buy a piece of this fifth-division Italian soccer team. And in two years we brought them up to the third division. I spent the first six years of my life in Italy, and it really connects me to my Italian roots.
Palm Springs
I love the old Hollywood history there. The midcentury architecture is fascinating. It’s also a place where I’m outside almost every waking hour of the day, whether I’m on a patio or hiking or playing golf. It’s an escape from New York.
Kelly’s Scrambled Eggs
I often tease Kelly, “You were definitely a French woman in a past life.” She learned how to make this French soft scramble — it’s kind of like a custard. I wouldn’t say it’s runny; it’s like the curds are smaller. On weekends, she often makes me breakfast, and I feel bad asking her to do it because it’s a bit of a process, but I think it’s kind of her representation of love for me.
Hiking
When I worked in Los Angeles, my buddies would say, “Do you want to go hiking?” And I thought it was the most ridiculous thing ever. And then we started hiking in Colorado, and I realized that you couldn’t see any cars, any power lines, any people, you’re just out in the wilderness. The smells are different, the sounds are different.
Family Dinners
When our three kids were growing up, that was our one rule: No matter what was going on, we had to sit for dinner. And now when they come visit, even if they’re not going to go out to dinner with their friends until 9 o’clock, they sit with us when we eat at 6, and we gossip and talk about what’s going on in our lives.
Performing Live
Doing film and TV, you get to do so many takes, and if you screw up, it’s easy to go back and do it again. But watching actors walk that tightrope onstage every night — specifically, when I go see a one-man show or a one-woman show, when they’re by themselves for 90 minutes to two hours — I have anxiety for them. I just find it thrilling.
‘The Diplomat’
It’s a cross between “Homeland” and “The West Wing” — Debora Cahn, who created it, wrote on both shows. To me, it’s the perfect show, the perfect actors. What I hate about it, though, is that they drop all the episodes at once, so Kelly and I will start on a Friday and finish on a Sunday. We can’t stop watching it.
Ocean Sunset Swims
We have a little spot in the Caribbean that we go to as a family in the summer, and I go for a swim in the ocean at sunset every single day. It’s like an act of meditation.
My Daughter’s Playlists
I was informed by Spotify that I have the listening habits of a 22-year-old, which is awesome. My 24-year-old daughter, Lola, is the family D.J., so she makes my playlists. I find her choice of music fantastic. She mixes in some of her songs — she’s a singer and a songwriter — but she doesn’t overwhelm me with her music. But I would have to say she’s my favorite artist.
Sarah Bahr writes about culture and style for The Times.
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