‘Murder One’s’ Dream Team : THREE STAGE ACTORS IN THE ABC SERIES ARE USED TO HOT LIGHTS. IN <i> THI</i> S CASE, THE HEAT OF ‘ER’ ONLY MAGNIFIES THEIR TASK ON THURSDAY NIGHTS.

Five years ago, John Fleck made headlines with three other performance artists who became known as the “NEA Four” when they successfully fought the denial of their grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1993, Daniel Benzali and Michael Hayden were appearing in two of London theater’s biggest musical hits. Benzali was playing the role of Norma Desmond’s devoted caretaker Max in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard”; Hayden was starring as the abusive carnival barker Billy Bigelow in the acclaimed revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Carousel.”

The trio are now performing in Steven Bochco’s eagerly anticipated new serial drama “Murder One,” which previews Tuesday in the “NYPD Blue” time slot. The series, which is pitted this season against NBC’s top-rated rated “ER,” follows one high-profile Los Angeles murder case through the entire season.

The actors have varying degrees of experience in front of the camera. For Hayden, 32, shooting the “Murder One” pilot this spring marked his first foray into the world of film.

“I was clueless,” says Hayden, who plays the brash, young associate Chris Docknovich. “Here I am on ‘Murder One,’ it’s Steven Bochco and I grew up watching ‘Hill Street Blues,’ ” he says. “I was a bit awed and a bit nervous because I didn’t know what I was doing.”

And, of course, Hayden adds with a smile, he couldn’t tell anyone--”Excuse me, I don’t have a clue what I am doing. Can we stop this? I would like to know how to do this.”

Hayden, who reprised his award-winning “Carousel” role last year on Broadway, was just grateful to get through the pilot “without throwing up and tripping. Anything besides that was a plus.”

In the midst of shooting his fifth episode, Hayden is feeling more comfortable in Docknovich’s shoes. “You don’t learn [film acting] in a couple of weeks or even a couple of years,” says Hayden, who landed “Carousel” just six months out of Juilliard. “It’s a lifelong commitment. I’m very pleased with the progress I have made in the theater and now I get to make progress here. It’s a constant learning experience. I am having fun now. I’m able to explore and be freer in front of the camera.”

Still, Hayden says, there’s nothing like theater. “You can’t be a great theater actor unless you do theater,” he says. “I’m one of those people ... I’m a bit greedy. I would quite like to do it all. I want to do this and I wanted to do film. There’s tons of theater to be done and there’s time to do it. Right now, I have the opportunity to work here.”

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It’s been more than a year since Benzali, who plays the charismatic, high-powered Los Angeles attorney Ted Hoffman in “Murder One,” treaded the boards in “Sunset Boulevard.” He says he hasn’t really missed the stage.

“I intend to keep doing [theater] whenever I get the chance,” he says, “but I am really very much in tune to working for the camera now.”

Born to Brazilian-Jewish parents in Rio de Janeiro and raised in Brooklyn, Benzali spent the better part of his career working in the English theater. After seeing his idol, Laurence Olivier, 23 years ago in London in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Benzali decided to seek his fame and fortune as an actor in London.

“I just sort of met people and just very quickly after a few months was working in a fringe theater company called the Half Moon Theatre,” he recalls. “I was in their third or fourth production, so it was tremendously exciting. We had a ball. I stuck with them for a year and then I did all sorts of things.” In the early ‘80s, director Trevor Nunn asked him to join the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Benzali, who has guest-starred on such Bochco shows as “L.A. Law” and “NYPD Blue” (as a mob attorney), has been working in film and television for the last 10 years. He appeared as a villain in the 1985 James Bond adventure “A View to a Kill” and played a spy in the acclaimed 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of “A Pack of Lies.”

Making the transition from stage to screen wasn’t difficult for Benzali. “It’s different,” he says. “In the theater you have to project. If it’s a small theater, it’s not such a big problem. But in terms of a larger theater, you have to project what you are doing to the last row. In front of the camera, you have to be incredibly intimate.”

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Fleck, 44, who plays Hoffman’s loyal, hard-working assistant Louis Heinsbergen, jokes that his biggest adjustment was the “6:30 a.m. call” to start work. Seriously, he adds, the major change was focusing on how to “bring it down, since on stage, especially my own work, is about exploding. I adjusted pretty well.”

“Murder One,” though, is not Fleck’s first TV series. He was a regular on, of all things, the short-lived 1987 ABC musical-variety series, “Dolly.”

“I was booked as a regular and then we did the first taping and we all got fired after that,” says Fleck, who is also featured as one of Dennis Hopper’s henchmen in Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld.” ’I played one-half of a Siamese twin in Dolly’s country kitchen. It was a real dumb kind of thing.”

Like Benzali, Fleck has appeared on “NYPD Blue.” It was Bochco’s casting director Junie Lowry-Johnson who asked him to read for the “Murder One” part of high-strung associate Arnold Spivak. That role eventually went to J.C. MacKenzie.

“They really liked me and then I came in and read for Steven,” Fleck recalls. “They offered [Arnold] to a fellow from New York. They said, ‘Are you interested in coming and reading for Lois, his secretary?’ So it was, like, me and five women coming and reading for Lois.” When Fleck got the part, Lois became Louis.

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Because “Murder One” is a serial drama, the actors are learning more and more about their characters with each script.

“That’s one of the things that makes this so much more exciting [than theater] because with each script, each episode, there are different layers,” Benzali says. “It’s always fresh. Even though you are playing the same character, he’s involved in different scenes and different situations. It’s very much like real life. It has a lot of the complexities of real life, which makes it so wonderful.”

Hayden, who has created a history for his character, says he’s just scratching the surface of Docknovich. “No matter how much work you do ... I have been living with this character since the pilot a number of months ago,” he explains. “Every scene you get to learn more. In a play you have an entire history written. You have an entire event on paper. Here, history is changing every week and so you’ve got to come in loaded, but at the same time be flexible.”

None of the actors seem to be too worried about the tremendous hype surrounding the series. “All I heard is great hype,” Fleck says. “It will be interesting to see what we do when we go up against ‘ER.’ ”

“I don’t feel pressured at all,” Benzali adds. “Pressure is when you are in something that you are not sure about. I’m delighted at the reception.”

“Murder One” premieres Tuesday at 10 p.m. on ABC; the move to its regular time slot of Thursday at 10 p.m. was not announced by press time.

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THE CHARACTERS IN (AND OUT OF) THE COURTROOM

Ted Hoffman (Daniel Benzali)

Celebrity attorney is chief legal eagle in a big L.A. murder trial.

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Justine Appleton (Mary McCormack)

The firm’s calculating, overtly ambitious associate.

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Chris Docknovich (Michael Hayden)

Brash, boyish associate at Hoffman and Associates law firm.

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Lisa Gillespie (Grace Phillips)

A bright but inexperienced associate.

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Louis Heinsbergen (John Fleck)

Hoffman’s trusted assistant.

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Lila Marquette (Vanessa Williams)

The firm’s receptionist.

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Arthur Walker (Dylan Baker)

A Los Angeles police detective with a longstanding dislike of Hoffman.

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Arnold Spivak (J.C. MacKenzie)

Hoffman’s insecure, neurotic associate.

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Neil Avedon (Jason Gedrick)

The Hollywood heartthrob who is always getting into hot water. In the the premiere episode, Hoffman resigns as his attorney.

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Richard Cross (Stanley Tucci)

A wealthy and married Los Angeles philanthropist is the prime suspect in the murder of the 15-year-old sister of his current mistress.

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David Blalock (Kevin Tighe)

An ex-cop who is now the firm’s veteran investigator.

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Miriam Grasso (Barbara Bosson)

A successful prosecuting attorney.

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Annie Hoffman (Patricia Clarkson)

Hoffman’s supportive, but concerned wife.