 Tired of playing a pretty face, former Melrose Place heartthrob Grant Show finds some Wit Off-Broadway Truth be told, Grant Show often found himself ridiculing Melrose Place. Toward the end of his five-year run on FOX's prime-time soap opera, Show - who played brooding mechanic-turned-bar owner Jake Hanson - would get together with friends to watch, only to wind up mock-shouting at the TV. "He'd say, 'Watch what I have to say!'" recalls actor pal Tim Ryan. "Once, when he punched out Andrew Shue's character, Grant said, 'Yeah, next week I ask him to be my best man.'"
 Since leaving Melrose in 1997, Show, 37, admits, he has steered mostly in circles. "I've spent a lot of time turning things down," he says. "And not getting things." Instead he remodeled his three-bedroom Beechwood Canyon, Calif., home, doing a fair amount of construction work himself. Says Ryan, 37: "He's a regular, blue-collar kind of guy." A blue-collar guy often left with a red face, thanks to Melrose mania. "He was always kind of rolling his eyes at what his character was doing," says Daphne Zuniga, who played love interest Jo Reynolds. On breaks, she says, "he took me on motorcycle rides. He is the reason I got my Harley. We really hit it off." The show, canceled in May, "wasn't as big a part of my life as it may seem," says Show - "just the most visible." Visible too was his three-year relationship with costar Laura Leighton (who played bad girl Sydney Andrews), which finally ended amicably in 1996. Show, who previously had dated actress Yasmine Bleeth for over two years when they costarred on the ABC soap Ryan's Hope in the mid-'8os, says he has learned a lesson: Dating costars "just doesn't work." Still, he's in no rush to settle down. "It's not the principal goal in my life right now," says Show, who is unattached. "I'm an 8-year-old kid: I love to race cars, golf and go fly-fishing."  But for the most part, Show is content to concentrate on his career. Raised in San Jose, Calif., by parents Ed Show, 61, a cop turned mechanic, and Kathleen, 57, a computer analyst (both now retired), Show first began acting in plays at Samuel Ayer High School. (Sister Kelly, 39, is a private investigator.) He then studied theater arts at the University of California at Los Angeles; in his senior year he auditioned for a part on Ryan's Hope "for the practice." When he landed a gig as good-natured cop Rick Hyde in 1984, he dropped out. But rather than look for another soap role when his contract expired in '87, he spent a year at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. "I was," he says, "living off savings." Not for long. In 1992 he beat out 700 actors for the role on Melrose, which became one of the top-ranked shows among gen Xers. When he took the part in Wit - after his second audition - cast members initially were skeptical, if starstruck. "I had to get over [Show's] hunk image," says costar Paula Pizzi. Now she adds, "you would never know he was on a hit show. He totally fit in - no airs." Critical reaction has been mixed: The New York Post praised his "subtle and effective performance," while The New York Times called him "stiff." The character, notes Show, "is not very likable. It's a thankless role." He is due to stay in the play through the end of the year - and hasn't lined up another role. Which is fine by him. Wit "has given me a lot of confidence," Show says, conjuring up an analogy worthy of "Jake Hanson himself. "After years of trying to learn more and more new tools," he says with a smile, "I've been digging in my tool bag, and I realize: I know how to use them." * Dan Jewel
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