Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty, the two leads of Broadway’s “Death Becomes Her,” celebrated their joint Tony nominations in a very special way — by making reference to the accolade in the middle of their show.
When the Tony Awards announced nominations May 1, Simard and Hilty learned they both received nods in the best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical category.
In “Death Becomes Her,” a musical adaptation of 1992 film of the same name, Simard plays Helen Sharp, an author who’s harbored longstanding resentment for her “friend,” successful actress Madeline Ashton, played by Hilty. After Madeline marries Helen’s former fiancé, Ernest (Christopher Sieber), she plots revenge, sending the two of them into the allure of Viola Van Horn (Michelle Williams), who offers eternal youth and beauty.
The show, which was nominated for a total of 10 Tonys, combines powerhouse vocals, dazzling costumes and impeccable comedy (making for plenty of viral TikTok sounds).
Simard and Hilty tell TODAY.com neither of them learned of their nominations as it was announced.
Simard says she was anxious to hear the nominations, experiencing trouble with her cable and exhausted. (“Death Becomes Her” plays six nights a week at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.)
“I wanted it to be just joyful, and I was a little too nervous to watch,” Simard says, adding that she asked her to manager to call her with the results.
Hilty, meanwhile, found out via her husband’s shouts from across their apartment.
“I was pretty certain it was not in the cards for me,” she says. “So I was like, ‘You know what? I need to just clean my apartment.’
“I was in my daughter’s room, cleaning up after my daughter and then I heard my husband on the other end of the apartment going, ‘It happened!’” Hilty continues. “He came running down the hall. I was like, ‘Please don’t hurt yourself.’ He was so excited, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
That very night, before they took the stage for Thursday’s 7 p.m. performance, Hilty says they had a moment together to celebrate.
“We got to have our moment before the show and talk about how meaningful this was for both of us and how wonderful, how wonderful, truly,” Hilty says.
“It couldn’t be any other way,” Simard adds. “I think it was correct. Like Megan’s literally my other half, and I wouldn’t be here without her.”
Megan’s literally my other half, and I wouldn’t be here without her.”
jennifer simard
It wasn’t just the two leads who took a moment to appreciate their nomination amid that night’s show.
“It felt like opening night,” Hilty recalls. “The audience was very aware of everything happening.”
To honor that moment, the show’s producers and director added new lines “just for that night to be extra special,” she says.
While the show is precisely structured and metered out, there are two spots built into the script for an ad-lib. The first comes during Madeline and Ernest’s extravagant nuptials.
“Every night I choose a different sponsor for the wedding,” Hilty says. “And our producer … talked to me about making it American Express. ‘Brought to you by American Express, the official sponsor of the Tony Awards,’ which everybody —“
“ — screamed,” Simard interjects.
Then, at the end of the show — after Madeline and Helen’s knock-down, drag out fight and the realization that they can either spend immortality alone or with another person — Simard gets her own spot of variety.
“When we exit, I say, ‘What do you want to do, Mad?’ And she says, ‘I don’t know, what do you want to do, Hel?’ And my favorite nights are the nights we do callbacks to the ad-lib that Megan comes up with,” Simard says. “And so we did one … I said, ‘Well, let’s go shopping for gowns for the Tony Awards.’”
The moment is made extra special considering very few people know what that night’s lines will be beforehand.
“(Director and choreographer) Christopher Gattelli was very adamant about us not not telling people what it was — not telling stage management, not telling anybody,” Hilty says. “It gives everybody the opportunity to sit up and go, ‘What happened tonight?’”
The remaking of a beloved cult classic
The original “Death Becomes Her” has long been hailed as a cult classic, featuring an all-star cast of Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis.
“Goldie Hawn came, and I think Meryl Streep will make it to see us, and they are the blueprint,” Simard says. “I know when Goldie came, people said, ‘Oh, you must be so nervous.’ I said, ‘Not at all.’ I was thrilled.
The purpose is finding your people, being with your people. And we might be an unconventional pairing, but our love is true, and it’s our own.”
megan hilty on the meaning of ‘death becomes her’
“That woman has given me so much laughter,” she continues. “I’m like, if I could give her one laugh? Mission accomplished.”
When it came to adapting the 1992 movie, Hilty says she’s long learned how to look past pressure.
“If you looked at my resume, that’s all I do, is I take things that other people have made ridiculously iconic, and I’m the only dummy that’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ll try that,’” Hilty says. “I learned a long time ago that you could sit with that weight, but it’ll crush you.”
Like in the original film, the musical asks, in Hilty’s words, “How far are you willing to go to try to chase this youth and beauty goal and obsession?” Both Madeline and Helen take the magic potion offered by Viola that grants them immortality. But immortality does not equate to an indestructible body.
In an extravagant scene filled with body doubles and special effects, Madeline and Helen have a violent altercation over Ernest, boiling over with the longstanding feelings of having been true “frenemies.” Madeline is pushed down the stairs and separated from her head, while Helen is shot in the stomach. (“That was rude,” she sings as she re-enters the stage with a smoking hole in her torso.)
Some of the moments are almost beat for beat from the film. But rather than re-create someone else’s performance, the duo sees their jobs as honoring what came before while wholeheartedly bringing themselves to what is new about the story, including the ultimate takeaway that, “This is a story about finding your person,” Hilty says.
“The purpose is finding your people, being with your people. And we might be an unconventional pairing, but our love is true, and it’s our own,” Hilty says.
“Do you think they can hear me nodding?” Simard adds.
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