Nicholas Rodriguez Is Arena’s Billy Bigelow

Most people who were there when Arena Stage opened its spectacular new space six years ago with a revolutionary production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma” remember Nicholas Rodriguez vividly.

Back then, before you even saw Rodriguez as Curly, you heard him. You heard a singular and boundlessly confident voice begin to sing “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” with a hugely optimistic style that seemed to express the big, outsized American optimism of the time. His entrance — really a cowboy stride onto the stage — was one of those theater moments that are hard to forget, instantly accessible to the memory, the embodiment of the musical idea that on a morning like this, in Oklahoma and in America, why, anything is possible.

Rodriguez won the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical back then, and he’s returned to continue a fruitful creative relationship with Arena, starring as Billy Bigelow through Dec. 24 in the equally iconic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel.” The relationship has included appearances in “The Light in the Piazza” and a stunningly beautiful “My Fair Lady,” in which Rodriguez, as Freddy, made “On the Street Where You Live” a showstopper.

“That part in ‘Oklahoma’ was such a blessing,” Rodriguez said. “People still remember it, and it’s really gratifying to know that. It’s still one of my favorite parts, period.”

Rodriguez, a Texas native — from Austin, called “the blue dot” because it’s a blue city in a red state, he said — has built a life in the Big Apple. “I’m definitely a New York person. I have my life here, I work here, I sing here, it’s a special place,” he said in a recent telephone conversation.

What’s more, he moved to New York in 2001, just before 9/11. “You know, you move to a new city, a new place, and especially that city, you hope to make a new home. Discover the city, its neighborhoods, and became a part of it,” he said. “But being there then, it was so intense. It’s like you took this emotional shortcut that might have taken years to have those kinds of feelings about the place, that you were truly a part of the city.”

These days, in a addition to sporting a hefty line of credits on Broadway and Off-Broadway — he made his debut as “Tarzan” and toured in “Evita” and “Hair” — plus television and films, he’s also become a popular star of cabaret.

“It’s a totally different experience. There’s no narrative. You’re the story and you have to establish this connection with the audience. It’s challenging and it’s intimate and really exciting,” he said.

He’s also recorded his first album, “The First Time,” in which, if you go to his website, you can find among the selections “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’” — but this version is far from that iconic entrance at Arena. “Sure, it’s more jazzy, it’s got a different kind of energy. It’s a little more playful.

“I’m so glad, though, that we’re finally getting to do this show,” he said. “Molly [Smith, Arena’s artistic director] and I have talked about doing ‘Carousel’ off and on for a number of years, and here we are. It’s an amazing role. It’s such a complicated, emotional narrative.”

Many people — including R&H themselves — considered “Carousel” to be the best work of Rodgers and Hammerstein, a deeply moving and bittersweet love story about a New England mill worker named Julie Jordan (Betsy Morgan) who falls in love with a carnival carousel operator named Billy Bigelow, a charmer and a rough-and-tumble, sometimes violent, lover.

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s work is a turning point in musical theater history, their music embracing and carrying along realistic stories with serious themes. Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones starred in a lavish movie version of “Carousel,” which includes a treasure drove of memorable songs: “If I Loved You,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “June Is Busting Out All Over,” to name a few.

“They set a high benchmark,” Rodriguez said. “To me, this is such rich music, in variety and in emotional power. There’s Billy’s eight-and-a-half-minute soliloquy, which for a singer is like running a marathon. This is a show that’s really resonant. There are issues of abuse, of redemption.

“Billy isn’t an easy guy, but I love playing him. He’s passionate about living deeply. He doesn’t always do the right thing. He’s hot tempered and hot headed. He loves deeply, he’s afraid of being alone. He means well, but it doesn’t always work. Am I like him? Well, maybe a little, maybe sometimes. The passion he has for life, I can relate to that, certainly.

“When it comes to singing, to performing, on the stage or in cabaret, I want to be the kind of singer and performer who leaves everything on the floor. I like to think I perform all the way. Maria Callas is one of my idols. That’s what she does.”

Listening to Rodriguez, you remember that entrance in “Oklahoma.” That same kind of friendly exuberance is in his conversational voice. That’s what he brings to Billy and Curly and everything he does.