[5] Carver was known for a variety of stage and film roles, including The Wars, Kronborg: 1582, Lilies, Larry's Party, Elizabeth Rex, Millennium, Shadow Dancing, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love.
His stage work involved an extended association with Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the 1980s, including an original rock version of Hamlet,[5] as the lead and later in 2000 as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
In 1992, Carver originated the role of Molina in Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman when it premiered at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto.
He dedicated his Tony win to the late Canadian actress Susan Wright, who had died two years earlier in a fire in his Stratford house, Ontario.
In 1998 Carver returned to Broadway and was nominated for a second Tony Award for his portrayal of Leo Frank in Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry's musical Parade.