After beginning his career Off-Broadway at the Light Opera of Manhattan in the 1980s, Cuccioli starred as Lancelot du Lac in national tours of Camelot in 1987 and first appeared on Broadway in 1993 as Javert in Les Misérables. He has appeared in numerous New York and regional productions since then, including his long-running stints on Broadway in Jekyll & Hyde (1997–1999) and as the Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2012–2014). Cuccioli has also appeared in films and on television.
Aside from Cuccioli's early tenure at the Light Opera of Manhattan, his other notable off-Broadway appearances include Nathan in the long-running revival of The Rothschilds (1990); the highly successful 1991 Kander and EbbrevueAnd The World Goes 'Round, which garnered him an Outer Critics Circle Award in 1991; and he played the title role in the Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit musical Phantom at the Westchester Broadway Theater in 1992–93, a role that he has repeated. In 2000, he played Macheath in The Threepenny Opera.[5] He was also seen as Karl Streber in Temporary Help in 2002 and in Mirette by Harvey Schmidt with York Theatre in 2005.[6]
Cuccioli's U.S. regional theatre credits include Ankles Aweigh at the Goodspeed Opera House in 1988, Jud Fry in Oklahoma! at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 1992,[5] Archibald Craven in the Sacramento Music Circus production of The Secret Garden (1999), The Actor in Enter the Guardsman at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival (1999 and again off-Broadway in 2000),[6] King Marchan in Victor/Victoria at the Paper Mill in 2000,[7]Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl at the Paper Mill in 2001, Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival (2002), Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music at the Paper Mill in 2003, and Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls at the Paper Mill in 2004, with Karen Ziemba and Kate Baldwin.[5] His 2005 theatrical credits include Alexander di Medici in Lorenzaccio at The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and Capt. von Trapp in The Sound of Music at the Bendedum Theatre in Pennsylvania. He has also starred in shows at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, where he has played the title role in Macbeth (2004), Brutus in Julius Caesar (2005) and Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (2008), among others; at the New York's Equity Library Theatre; and in regional theatres around the United States.[6]
Cuccioli's later stage appearances include the off-Broadway revue, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris in 2006. In June and July 2007, he played Claudius in Hamlet at The Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, D.C., with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. In 2007, he appeared in pre-Broadway tryouts of Lone Star Love in Seattle, starring Randy Quaid, but the Broadway run was cancelled. Later that year he played the title character in Man of La Mancha at the White Plains, New York Performing Arts Center.[6] Cuccioli reprised the title role in Phantom at the Westchester Broadway Theater from December 2007 to February 2008.[8] He also is heard on a concept album for The New Picasso, which was released in 2008.[9] In 2008, he returned to the White Plains Performing Arts Center to play King Arthur in Camelot and starred in Conor McPherson's The Seafarer at George Street Playhouse in New Jersey. In 2009, he starred in Thom Thomas's A Moon to Dance By, at the Pittsburgh Playhouse and at the George Street Playhouse, with Jane Alexander, and played John Dickinson in 1776 at the Paper Mill Playhouse.[10] He reprised the role of Dickinson in 2012 at Ford's Theatre.[11] That same year he played the role of Anatoly Sergievsky in Chess at Lincoln Center.[12]
In 2015, with York Theatre, he starred as Mayer Rothschild in Rothschild & Sons, a reworking of The Rothschilds. Although the show was critically panned, Cuccioli's performance was praised.[13] In 2019, he played the title role in Caesar and Cleopatra in off-Broadway's Theatre Row Building in a production by The Gingold Theatrical Group.[14] For the same company in the same venue, he starred as Sir George Crofts in Mrs. Warren's Profession in 2021.[15] He next starred as Cornelius "Con" Melody in A Touch of the Poet in Irish Repertory Theatre's 2022 off-Broadway production. David Finkle, writing for New York Stage Review, called Cuccioli's performance "grand ... another addition to a resumé attesting to Cuccioli’s place as a foremost tragedian".[16]
^Saltzman, Simon. Macbeth. CurtainUp, 2004, accessed April 29, 2011. See also Nash, Margo. "Jersey Footlights". The New York Times, March 30, 2003, accessed April 29, 2011.
