NEW YORK — Huey Lewis has the look of someone who has found a new drug.
The front man for Huey Lewis and the News is kind of freaked, kind of jazzed. It's the feeling you get when you realize you might be in a little over your head, but it feels good anyway.
"I pinch myself daily," says Lewis, whose band blazed up the charts in the 1980s with hits including "The Power of Love," "The Heart of Rock 'n' Roll" and "I Want a New Drug."
What has Lewis feeling this way is his latest, seemingly unlikely endeavor: the coveted role of sleazy lawyer Billy Flynn in "Chicago: The Musical," winner of multiple Tony Awards.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd end up on Broadway," he says over coffee at Bond 45, a Times Square restaurant near the show's Ambassador Theatre home.
"I never would have solicited it or even thought about it. I watched the movie 'Chicago' and really loved it but never for the life of me thought, 'Oh, man, I could do that role.' Never, ever."
Lewis, 55, follows in the footsteps of other entertainers who have played the role, including Jerry Orbach, Ben Vereen, George Hamilton, Wayne Brady, Patrick Swayze, Richard Gere, Alan Thicke and Taye Diggs.
"As I've said to the cast, 'I don't have to be the best, but I better not be the worst,' " Lewis says. Plus, he has a special understanding of the role: "I'm in the music business -- I know a lot of lawyers."
Bernard Dotson, the show's dance captain who trained Lewis, says he's been impressed by his student's zeal to master the Bob Fosse material without a Bob Fosse background.
"He's in it to win it," Dotson says. "He really wants to have a great time with it. He really respects the show a great deal, and he sees how hard everyone else is working. He wants to be a part of it."
Lewis became part of it when, earlier this year, producers asked him if he might be interested in going in. He begged off, conveniently citing a touring schedule to promote his band's 25th anniversary DVD.
"When they inquired, my initial impulse was, 'I can't do that. I'm not a legit guy. I don't have the chops for that,' " Lewis says. While visiting his son at New York University, he saw "Chicago" and changed his tune, agreeing to come in this month.
"I was knocked out by the show. I thought, 'I could almost do this.' Of course, what you begin to realize is how actually complicated it is.
