Although he'd been acting on stage and screen beforehand, most people first were introduced to David Hyde Pierce ... (It's also to Pierce's credit that you could easily see him playing King ...

"We did not know at that time that either one of us was gay, and we just hung out as best friends," David Hyde Pierce tells PEOPLE about first meeting his now-husband, Brian Hargrove, in 1982 ...

including Tony Award winner David Hyde Pierce as "Major General," Tony Award nominee Ramin Karimloo as "Pirate King," Tony Award nominee Lilli Cooper as "Ruth," Colton Ryan as "Frederic," and ...