By PATRICIA O'HAIRE
Daily News Feature Writer
David Hasselhoff has taken off his swim trunks and won't be needing them for a while.
The tall actor with the rugged good looks and to-die-for pecs and abs very much on display every week for seven years in the TV series "Baywatch" is getting some new duds for his Broadway debut.
Hasselhoff has almost always suited up as the "good guy." He was head lifeguard in "Baywatch," leading the team of muscular men and women keeping the California beaches safe. Before that, he spent four years as Michael Knight, an ex-cop who tooled around after lawbreakers in a powerful, gimmicked-up James Bond-style car that talked to him in the series "Knight Rider."
Now, he'll be playing a good guy and a bad guy at the same time, as the star of "Jekyll & Hyde." "And I've never worked so hard in my life," he says. But right now, though, he's tired and hungry. In front of him is a steaming bowl of Sardi's pasta. As he polishes it off, he says that as soon as he had a few days off from rehearsals and previews, he hopped a plane and went home to California, returning two days later on the red-eye.
"I missed my family," he says. "My two daughters, Taylor and Hayley. They're 10 and 7, they're Girl Scouts. I wanted to see them and my wife [actress Pamela Bach]. We needed to talk about their moving to New
York while I'm working here. I'd like them to come, but I hate disrupting their schoolwork and their friends. But then, we think living here might be good for them, too. We have a few schools we want to look at. "They might even see some snow," he says with a laugh.
The musical "Jekyll & Hyde," as most folks know, is based on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson and tells of a doctor who experiments with chemicals, using himself as a guinea pig. During one of his tests, he
changes into a different man — evil and violent. In time, the dark side takes more and more control as his "good" side weakens.
Naturally, the leading character has to do quite a bit of singing, as both the good guy and the bad guy quite a test for anyone's voice. Until now, Hasselhoff has not been known as a singer in this country, anyway. But he's a big, big name on the other side of the Atlantic. A glance at international pop music charts over the last dozen or so years would show his name at the top — or very near it — for records released in Germany, Spain, Austria and various other countries.
In fact, the 48-year-old has twice been named Most Popular and Best-Selling recording artist in Germany, topping both Madonna and Michael Jackson.
"I've taken singing lessons and voice lessons since I was a kid," he says. "When the TV show ended, I wanted to try Broadway. I never did anything there before, never tried to. I had thought I might be good for 'Annie Get Your Gun' or 'Chicago,' or maybe some other. But when I saw this, it seemed so right for my voice — it's kind of 'pop opera.'
"I know I'll be fair game for critics. I expect that, always have. But this is a challenge for me. It's not as if I need the job, or the money. It's something I want to do."
He has been doing the role in previews for three weeks. Tomorrow night, the critics are invited.
He's ready for them.