Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Earlier today we talked in the green space with some of the cast and the creative crew behind the Tony-winning musical, Hell's Kitchen. If you missed it, we'll be putting it online and sending it down our podcast feed shortly. Be on the lookout in your podcast app or head to wnyc.org in about an hour. Since we're already in a Broadway mood here today, we want to keep that rolling. Let's hear about one of this year's favorites, Death Becomes Her. The play is based on a 1992 surrealist satire film by the same name starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis and Isabella Rossellini. It is a camp favorite. In the Broadway version of Death Becomes Her, actress Madeline Ashton, a 40-something, makes a deal with a frenemy. She's played by our next guest, Megan Hilty.

After availing herself of a roster of plastic surgeons and dietitians, Madeline turns to more mystical means to preserve her looks via a potion that costs her a ton of money, but in return, she will be graced with the fountain of youth. Here's Madeline singing a bit about her desire to look young forever in a song called, For the Gaze. That's G-A-Z-E. Let's listen.

[music- Megan Hilty: For the Gaze]

Death Becomes Her has gotten rave reviews. Critics called it laugh-filled and music comedy magic. It's running now through November 2nd at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. I talked with Megan Hilty, who stars in the show as Madeline Ashton. Let's dive into that conversation.

[music]

I'm going to start with the essay question and then we'll get into the show. This year there have been all of this media and content about women's bodies and about aging. We have the substance. We have your show. Your show makes reference to Sunset Boulevard about an aging actress. Why do you think this conversation is emerging again and again in the culture?

Megan Hilty: I would even add that maybe Gypsy's even part of that too, because Mama Rose is dealing with the fact that she'll never be a star. She's "aged" out of that. I think, unfortunately, it's very, very topical. What I love is that it provides-- If you look at what's happening on Broadway this season, it's all women 40 and above. Just all of these amazing women taking the stage. A lot of these shows are tackling that very topical issue of fearing losing relevancy after 40.

Alison: Did you watch the original movie?

Megan: Oh, I am a huge fan of the movie. It's one of my all time favorite films. I was asked several years ago, I want to say it was about 10 years ago, if there was one movie that I could change into a Broadway musical, I immediately said, Death Becomes Her and rattled off my laundry list of reasons why I thought it would be a really great candidate for a musical. Here we are talking about it today.

Alison: What were one or two of your reasons?

Megan: The biggest reason is that it is so over the top and campy that-- Of course, we break out into song. It's one of those, the few stories where you don't even question that we break out into these huge musical numbers because it drives the story line even further.

Alison: It's set in current times, not in the '90s.

Megan: Ish, ish, ish. It's a nebulous time. Even though we--

Alison: Because there are many cell phones.

Megan: Yes. We do make very current references to Venmo and things like that. Overall it wants to live in a timeless zone.

Alison: When we first meet Madeline, where is she in her career, in her life?

Megan: Oh, she's in the prime of her career.

Alison: She thinks so anyway.

Megan: If you ask her, she's in her-- If you ask Madeline what this show is about, everything's going great until her old friend Helen shows up and ruins everything.

Alison: She has this wild, campy voice. First of all, how did you decide on that voice?

Megan: I don't know that I ever decided on her voice. I will say that I draw on three pre-existing characters to make this Madeline. That is Valerie Cherish from the Comeback.

Alison: So good.

Megan: Lucille Bluth from the matriarch of Arrested Development, and Miss Piggy. I thought my Madeline draws on those three fabulous women with a little bit of myself sprinkled in there.

Alison: How would Madeline Ashton say, "It's nice to meet you. It's nice to be on WNYC."

Megan: "Oh, you're so lucky to meet me today. How wonderful that you got me on my day off to be with you." That's what Madeline would say. I don't know. I think the choice that I did make, is that I wanted her to have two very distinctive sounds from when she's confident and comfortable and feeling fabulous, and when she's at her low point and not feeling herself. I did want there to be two distinct sounds to those parts of her life.

Alison: In the show, when she's in the blue outfit and she's got the mom hair, that's the low point.

Megan: It sits a little lower. It's a little sharper. There isn't a grandness to her voice. She isn't floating on top of everything. It's more defeated and a little more biting.

Alison: The show has so many one liners and zingers in the show. Do you have a couple of favorites?

Megan: Oh, there's one-- It's so unfortunate because all of my favorites are things I would never say in my real life. There's one right in the beginning where I say to Helen, "I have an idea." She says, "I'm all ears. I say, "I begged you to have them pinned back years ago." It's so rude, but it's so delightfully rude that-- I have so many of them, Marco Pennette wrote this incredible script. I cannot believe I get to play this character and say these-- I don't even know how many jokes. If you were to sit down and tally all the laugh lines, you just couldn't, there's too many.

Alison: We were talking before we started saying you might need to go see this two or three times if you can figure out how to, but it's sold out.

Megan: People are. People are coming back and over and over again and dressing up as Madeline and Helen. Oh, it's fabulous. No, it's great. It is one of those shows, as you said you can come back because I guarantee, while you were laughing at something you missed another joke. There will be another-- That's the magic of live Theatre too. You're not going to see the same performance twice.

Alison: My guest is Megan Hilty. She's starring as Madeline Ashton, the fading star who makes a deal to retain her beauty at a cost in the new Broadway adaptation of Death Becomes Her. Your co-star is Jennifer Simard. She plays Helen, who's uptight and sort of normal in the first half of the film, undergoes a major transformation. How would you describe the act 1, relationship between Madeline and Helen?

Megan: Oh, goodness. It drives the whole show. These two women and their constant need to one up each other for some reason. I believe underneath it, it's because there's something about the other person that they love and admire so much that they want to impress each other.

That's where the one upping, there has to be that love underneath as funny and as broad, there has to be some element of truth at the bottom of it. I truly believe that there's something about the other character that they wish that they had, which is why they feel like they need to dominate the other one constantly. Does that make sense?

Alison: Sure.

Megan: I hope it does. I'm holding onto something. How wonderful that I get to play opposite the brilliant Jennifer Simard. Her performance in the show is iconic. I'm just so thrilled that I get to like play this comedic volleyball with her every single day. It's thrilling.

Alison: Let's hear a little bit of a duet of the two of you that you share. This is Alive Forever.

[music - Megan Hilty/Jennifer Simard: Alive Forever]

So interesting, these two big voices. Tell me a little bit about, actually, the rehearsal process, how you would decide who would take the lead, who wouldn't take the lead, how you would mesh your voices.

Megan: It's something that I really-- I love tracking throughout the course of a show because when I did Wicked, it really made sense for me that she started as a high soprano and got more grounded as the show went along. What I love about this is that sometimes you can't tell who's on top and who's bottom. It's not like one's on top and one's on bottom the whole time. We weave in and out. I feel like that's a really excellent symbol of where they are in their relationship. Sometimes one is on top and one's on the bottom, and then we switch it up. It's a pretty even balance throughout.

Alison: We'll be back in a minute with more of my conversation about the Broadway show Death Becomes Her with one of its stars, Megan Hilty. She plays the show's Madeline Ashton. Stick around. This is All Of It.

[music]

You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We've been talking with actor Megan Hilty about the Broadway musical Death Becomes Her, which is adapted from a 1992 film of the same name. Megan stars as Madeline Ashton, the fading star who makes a deal to retain her beauty at a cost. In the movie version, Madeline was played by Meryl Streep, who had some words of violent encouragement for Megan before the musical's opening night. Let's pick up the conversation there.

[music]

I saw that Meryl Streep sent you flowers.

Megan: I know.

Alison: It said, "Break a leg or I'll break it for you."

Megan: Yes. It's so perfect I almost hit the floor when I got them in my dressing room. She didn't just send me flowers. She sent me dried flowers. Just like Madeline Ashton, just like the show, they're dead, but they're alive forever, and I will keep them forever, along with this lovely little note from her.

Alison: We were joking before that everybody gets a little something different out of the show, and the people behind me were like, "Oh, I didn't know she was in the Devil Wears Prada and it happened to Jordan went to see the show and the same thing, your bio in the Playbill, it's Meryl Streep's bio.

Megan: It's Meryl Streep's Wikipedia page. If you go to her Wikipedia page, it's all just pulled from that page. That's why I put at the end, because I knew some people wouldn't get it. I put at the end there's-- It's not a fake Instagram handle because I created the account and it's just pictures of Meryl Streep with her iconic lines from all of her many, many iconic films. There's literally no way I could have done any of those things. And people keep calling Playbill and saying, "Oh, you messed up. You put Meryl Streep's bio in Megan's place." They're like, "No, that's the joke," and they're like, "Oh, that's funny."

Alison: I like that you committed to the joke.

Megan: It was a big swing. It was a big swing. Oh, goodness. I hope she knows that this is just done with respect, in a silly way.

Alison: She's a big fan of WNYC. She definitely gets it. A big thing about the film is obviously there were all of the incredible special effects. You have to re-gauge them on stage. I don't want to give too much away. What was the most difficult trick or effect that wanted to nail that you really knew you had to get right?

Megan: Oh, man. I know that everybody's coming to see how we twist Madeline's neck and how we do the fall down the stairs and how we get the hole in the lady in Helen. I think what they've done is pretty remarkable. What we learned in our Chicago out of town run, is that audiences really loved it when we really leaned into the campy versions.

Anything that was too slick did not go over very well. That's just not the tone of our show. We are big and we are broad and we're doing silly in the smartest way. I also don't want to give anything away, but the fall down the stairs is iconic, like how Christopher Gattelli imagined that, it's just perfect. What I will say is that we did try it with a stunt person where you watch someone actually fall down the stairs.

I have to tell you, when you're in the room live in Person, it's one thing to see it on film, and you can figure out which view you want people to absorb that, how you want people to see that. When you are in person watching someone fall down the stairs, it is horrific. Pretty quickly they're like, "That is not our show. That's not it." I'm really, really thrilled with what they landed on. Pun intended.

Alison: I was thinking about you before the show starts. I thought to myself, "I bet she's having such a good time and she knows that the people in the audience are about to laugh their butts off."

Megan: Oh, yes. What a privilege to be a part of a show where our only requirement of the audience is to check your door or check your day and your troubles at the door and just laugh for two and a half hours. We've created a safe space for people to laugh every day. I feel like it is such a privilege to be a part of that in any capacity.

Alison: What were you worried about when you were doing your out of town shows? You mentioned falling down the stairs. That was like, "No, not going to do that." What other things were challenging that you had to work around?

Megan: Ultimately, because it's really dangerous what we're doing. If anybody saw what's happening backstage, we're literally making magic. I was a little concerned about everyone's safety, myself included, but we are in just the best hands. Our stage management, my goodness. Rachel Sterner, our incredible stage manager, I'm not really joking when I say--

I started out joking, but now it's true. I'm not doing another show without her. She put up Harry Potter. I feel like we are in such good hands with her and her stage management team that I went into it concerned but quickly that went away because of how amazing she and her team--

Alison: What do the stage managers do so people understand?

Megan: Oh, gosh. Our stage manager controls everything. They're the ones that everything is filtered through and they literally manage it.

Alison: From the costumes to the--

Megan: Rachel Sterner is calling the show every night. She's calling all of the cues. She's literally keeping us safe every performance. There are some performances where we do have to stop. There are some times where something goes wrong, but we're not cued to stop the show.

I told her this the other day, I was like, I know that I'm safe to keep going because I trust that she wouldn't let me stay out there if it wasn't safe. We have a pretty strong cue to exit the stage because there are so many huge elements that could go wrong. I don't feel unsafe at all because she's in control.

Alison: I want to read you something that Ryan Reynolds posted online. This is interesting because it's a response that he shouldn't have been paired with Andrew Garfield on the Actors on Actors series. He wrote, "Dramatic work is difficult. We're also meant to see it's difficult, which is one of the reasons it feels visceral and effective. Comedy is also very difficult, but it has an added dimension in that it's meant to look and feel effortless. You intentionally hide the stitching and unstitching." What do you think of that statement?

Megan: I couldn't agree more. I would actually double down on the fact that comedy is way harder than the dramatic stuff. I truly do. Comedy, there's an element of science and math and magic. It's the same thing with direction. If it's directed really well, you're not even thinking about the director.

Same thing with comedy. If it works really well, you should think that it's effortless when in actuality, there is so much work, meticulous work, that goes into crafting each moment. It has to stay fresh in eight shows a week. You can't get stale. You have to do the same thing. It's the same script every night but you can't turn into a robot. You cannot do it the same every night.

That's where the science comes in. There's different elements that you have to weigh in the moment. You're receiving lines differently every night. Your response is different every night, but you need to land the laugh. It has to look like just as easy as breathing. It is incredibly difficult to do comedy, but you should never, ever feel that.

Alison: What happens with the laugh doesn't land.

Megan: We got to keep going, and luckily we have another show where we can figure it out

Alison: That's interesting. Your costumes are wild in this show. How does a costume help an actor?

Megan: It's everything. Not everything, but it's so much-- So much of Madeline, it tells you exactly where she is in her life. I go from wearing every sequin and feather known that you can find on the planet [crosstalk]

Alison: Leopard print out thing. Oh, it's so good.

Megan: Yes. To a blue suit. It says everything, which-- Blue suits are fabulous.

Alison: I hear what you're saying.

Megan: Sequins and feathers, it is not. It tells so much of where that character is in their life, and then she gets back to her sequins and rhinestones. Paul Tazewell, who did the Wicked movie, also did our costumes.

Alison: Oh, I didn't know that.

Megan: He is well versed in how to do grand and fabulous and telling these beautiful stories and showing these characters through what they're wearing.

Alison: There's a hilarious joke about Wicked in there in your show.

Megan: Oh, it's not in the script. I add that every night.

Alison: You just add that?

Megan: Yes. The wedding is sponsored by whatever company I want to make up every night. You just happen to be there-- I've been doing the Wicked movie just while it is open. It has just opened.

Alison: Oh, gosh, that's so funny.

Megan: It's every night. Sometimes it's Skittles Taste the Rainbow or Charmin, Enjoy The Go. It's anything I want to do, and what can you imagine a wedding being sponsored by Charmin Toilet paper. That was another one of Chris Gattelli's yummy little moments.

He was like, I don't want the stage management to know what you're going to say. I don't want anybody on stage to know what you're going to say. You come up with something new every night. I have been doing Wicked for the past-- I retired it on Sunday. I'm going to move on. I might go back just because it gets such a great-- We're both Universal, it's our parent company.

Alison: Of course, you played Glinda.

Megan: I played Glinda. There's a whole lot of layers here.

Alison: That was my conversation with Megan Hilty, who stars as Madeline Ashton in the show, Death Becomes Her. The show is running on Broadway through November 2nd. We're almost out of time for today. Before we go, we wanted to share news of a new addition to Broadway from Off Broadway. Dead Outlaw started at the Minetta Lane Theatre and is now in previews on Broadway. Opening night is April 27th. It tells the real story of Elmer McCurdy, a turn of the century outlaw who was killed in a shootout with police during a train robbery.

After his death, his body was preserved in arsenic, and then became a feature of the sideshow circuit, touring carnivals across the country for decades. The musical tells the story through a live rock band playing and singing right there on stage. When the show first opened last year Off Broadway, the Dead Outlaw cast and creative team joined us in WNYC Studio 5 to play live. This is the 2024 cast of Dead Outlaw with the song Dead.

[music- Dead]

That the cast of Dead Outlaw performing, Dead on our show last year during its Off Broadway run. The show is now running on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre through the end of July.

 

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