Dylan Baker

Last night at the Palm restaurant on West 50th Street, the actor Dylan Baker was talking about how glad he was to be working in New York. But it's not Los Angeles that snatches him away.

“The problem is, you’re always looking for that pay-job and often that’s in television or film," said the 48-year-old Manhattan-dweller. "And that can take you to Canada, it can take you to Eastern Europe or something.”

Mr. Baker, who is perhaps best known for nailing the role of the creepy pedophile father Bill Maplewood in Todd Solondz’s 1998 Happiness, is now appearing in Theresa Rebeck’s play, Mauritius..

“Broadway’s always here, and for us, we live right in Hell’s Kitchen, so it’s a walk. So it’s just like you’re at home; you get to walk to work, you’re working with people you can relate with and they know what you’re going through and they know what you’re going through. You know the winter’s coming, you don’t care,” he continued with a smile under a foppish mane of thick dark hair.

“It’s great. The whole audience is going to go through the whole experience with you. There’s nothing about Broadway that I don’t love.”

After Mauritius’ curtain falls one final time for Mr. Baker later this month, he will begin rehearsals for David Mamet’s play November, co-starring Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane. Mr. Baker last acted alongside Mr. Lane back in the late 1980s—when the pair tromped the floorboards for The Common Pursuit.