Kentucky native Taha Mandviwala has quite a history with the Rock Hall City. Not only does his brother work as a doctor at Case Western Reserve University, but the actor five years ago appeared in two Great Lakes Theater productions. “There’s a lot of history with Cleveland,” said Mandviwala, calling from Washington, D.C. “At Great Lakes Theater, we did ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Witness for the Prosecution.’ It was the first time I got really acquainted with Cleveland’s cold. It was, like, right during the polar vortex.” Mandviwala’s career is quite hot these days. He’s the lead in the national touring production of “Life of Pi,” which runs Jan. 7 through 26 at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace. Already a global phenomenon based on Yann Martel’s best-selling book of the same name, the author’s extraordinary story of family, resilience and survival first was adapted into a film in 2012, which was nominated for several Academy Awards and won four, including Best Director for Ang Lee. In 2019, Lolita Chakrabarti’s groundbreaking stage production — which depicts an unforgettable epic tale and breath-taking journey of endurance, hope and perseverance — debuted in the U.K. before moving to Broadway in 2023. The Tony Award-winning show is acclaimed for its visuals, puppetry and stagecraft. Written heavily around the notion of storytelling and imagination, the narrative finds a 16-year-old boy name Pi — after a cargo ship sinks in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean — stranded on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. Mandviwala said he was familiar with the book, having read it in high school, but, admittedly, was late to the stage production until it arrived on Broadway. Near the end of its run, he auditioned for a swing role. “The day before the audition, I saw the show, just to get some more familiarity with it,” he said. “That’s when I just openly wept because it was the first time I really got to see myself represented as, like, a South Asian. “The density of Asian Americans that were in the cast and the visuals and the puppetry and the movement and everything, it was just sort of this nexus of all of these things that I’ve been exploring for so long. It was mind-blowing.” The Broadway company of “Life of Pi” preforms. The U.S. tour of the show soon will be at Playhouse Square in Cleveland (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade) Mandviwala spent the better part of two months on Broadway before the show closed. He called the experience a humbling affair, the actor the rigors of being a swing responsible at any moment for multiple roles. The stage time also prepared him for the rhythms of “Life of Pi.” That helped when it came time to audition for the lead in the production’s first national tour. “I was drawn to the role from the beginning,” he said. “It was one of those things like, ‘I will do this one day.’ I feel very blessed now to take that experience on Broadway and all the knowledge that came before and into this experience now, which is entirely different and similar in some ways living this crazy adventure that we get to bring all over the U.S.” For a guy who doesn’t necessarily love cold Cleveland winters, Mandiwala now finds himself spending the better part of January in Northeast Ohio. “I surprisingly have adjusted to wintertime,” he said. “As for Cleveland, not to sound too cliché, what keeps me warm is knowing that I have family close by and old friends from various artistic institutions and a wonderful food scene. There’s also so much to do and to explore. “Regardless of whatever the weather throws at us, I’m looking forward to the theater being warm with hopefully lots of filled seats.” “Every night,” he laughed. ‘Life of Pi’ When: Jan. 7 through 26 (times vary). Where: Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, 1615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Tickets: $39 to $119. Info: 216-241-6000 or PlayhouseSquare.org.