Just A Kid At Heart

New Kids on the Block’s Joey McIntyre is ready for his second act on Pop’s Return of the Mac

- Brantley Bardin

His name has been screamed by galaxies of girls since the age of 12, when he signed on as the youngest member of the 20 million-unit-selling boy band New Kids on the Block. As a solo artist, he’s unleashed six albums, including the Billboard top 10 hit “Stay the Same.”

But Joseph Mulrey McIntyre, aka Joey (or sometimes, the manlier “Joe”) McIntyre, has done anything but stay the same.

Although New Kids on the Block disbanded in 1994, the Boston-born singer has stayed omnipresent in music—a fact burnished by the still-roaring reunion of NKOTB, which will be making grown women weep this spring and summer. McIntyre has also racked up a slew of acting triumphs from off-Broadway (Tick, Tick … Boom!) to Broadway (playing Fiyero to Idina Menzel’s Elphaba in Wicked) to film (The Fantasticks) to television (Boston Public and heaps of guest spots). As they’d say in Beantown, this dude has wicked chops.

Now 44, McIntyre is psyched to unveil his new television creation, Return of the Mac, on the Pop network. Producing, co-writing and starring in this meta-as-it-gets, eight-episode comedy series, he plays “Joey McIntyre,” a scripted version of himself, as do his wife of 13 years, Barrett, and his three kids, Griffin, 9, Rhys, 7, and Kira, 5. Much of Return of the Mac was even shot at the multitasking star’s own L.A. home, where Watch! caught up with him for a fun photo shoot and chat.

So where does real life end and make-believe begin? From fatherhood to growing up gracefully to wearing, ahem, a leopard-print Speedo, Mr. McIntyre reveals (almost) all.

Hey, Joey! Or should I say Joe?