"Back to Bing Crosby, it's been happening," Connick explains. "Anybody who is attracted to getting up in front of people and singing would be attracted to the movies. We're entertainers, we're performers... it's clear why we do it. It's another chance to be creative."

And if you've ever seen him on stage, you know that Connick is more than merely creative -- he's a consummate showman. Watch as he cradles the microphone like a lovesick crooner, then glides across the stage, jumps on the back of a chair, topples it over in slow motion and leaps off just as it touches down. Elegant one moment, gruff and gritty the next, he often seems like a little boy in a man's body -- playful, mischievous and highly excitable.

"It feels so right," Connick says of his latest foray. "It's based on theater and it sounds like New Orleans."

He is referring to his high-profile pairing with The Producers director Susan Stroman on Thou Shalt Not, a musical version of Emile Zola's novel Therese Raquin. Though based on the book, the play has been tranplanted to New Orleans just after World War II, and tells the story of a young married woman whose life is changed by a jazz musician who has just returned from the war. Connick wrote the music, lyrics and score, and will also produce the show's cast recording. The production stars The Music Man's Craig Bierko and 42nd Street's Kate Levering, and has already begun drawing audiences to New York's Plymouth Theatre to see if Stroman's winning streak will hold.

"I don't know how it'll go," Connick confides. "It could be incredible or it may be incredibly bad!"

But he can't stop to worry about it now; he has other fish to fry. He has just released not one, but two new albums. A solo piano album dubbed 30, which features guest performances by jazz trumpet great Wynton Marsalis, bassist Ben Wolfe, and late gospel soloist Reverend James Moore, focuses on Connick's New Orleans musical roots. Among the songs tackled are "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "Somewhere My Love," and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans." The second album, Songs I Heard, recorded with his big band and orchestra, features Connick's take on songs from such classic Hollywood musicals as Annie, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and The Sound of Music.

And if that weren't enough, Connick can be seen in the star-studded The Simian Line, an improvisational film by Linda Yellan that features an ensemble cast including Lynn Redgrave, William Hurt, Samantha Mathis, Eric Stoltz, Tyne Daly, and Cindy Crawford. Connick finds himself caught between the attentions of Redgrave and Crawford in this quirky story that throws together a group of wildly dissimilar individuals and sets them on a rocky road of self-discovery. The roles and affections seem to just keep coming for Connick who will share the small screen with everyone's favorite Sex goddess, Sarah Jessica Parker, in the forthcoming Life Without Dick and co-star with Michelle Williams in John Grisham's eagerly anticipated feature film Mickey.

Two albums, three films... is the acting winning out? "I love 'em both!" Connick insists. "They're both ways to be creative, but they're very different, even though there are some similarities. They span a broad range of your artistic abilities, so it's very satisfying to be able to do both."

And while one might assume that Connick is perfectly poised to merge his two worlds through a starring role of his own on Broadway, think again. "I'll wait until I'm older because I don't think I can handle doing the exact same show eight times a week at this stage of my life," he reveals. "I'm having too much fun doing other things right now."

We'd like to leave you with the image of Connick grooving to the sound of Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett or even a little Ricky Martin, but it just ain't gonna happen. "I don't listen to any music at home or in the car," Connick confides. "Other people's music, as great as it is, gets in the way."

Come on? Not even a little La Vida Loca? "Nope. All I do is think about my art all the time," he insists slyly. But, I do his moves in the mirror naked," he adds with a laugh.

Now that we want to see.