Column: On stage in Aurora and in real life, county spelling bees provide lesson in competition
'The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee' is a Tony-nominated production that's been around for 20 years. But the message of this beloved musical comedy that centers on six middle-schoolers vying for a trophy is more relevant than ever – there's a whole lot of pressure on kids to not only compete but to win, sometimes at any cost.
OK, so that's a lot to put on a musical comedy. Especially one as hilarious as this show that's playing through April 27 at Copley Theatre in downtown Aurora.
Yes, 'Putnam County Spelling Bee' is so darn adorable, I laughed and smiled my way through the entire two-hour show that not only features a talented cast of nerdy 'adolescents' and equally quirky adults, but also a handful of brave audience members who joined the spellers on stage as they vied for a chance to bring home a big trophy and represent their county at the next level of competition.
The top-notch caliber of this show is no surprise. That's what we've come to expect from the Paramount Theatre's BOLD Series, which not only manages to entertain but also deliver a message that keeps you thinking after the standing ovation.
This show, I guarantee, will hit home with a majority of the audience. After all, most of us have vivid memories of taking part in spelling bees, whether we were lousy at it, managed to hang around for several rounds or came away with head held high as a finalist, runner-up or champ.
As Director Stephen Schellhardt pointed out in his playbill notes, even with ChatGPT and spell check, 'America's love for this centuries-old spelling bee endures,' in all likelihood because 'competition is a cornerstone of society.'
Turns out, the same week this Copley musical opened, a seventh-grader from Larson Middle School in Elgin, Yahya Mohammed, took the top prize in the spelling bee sponsored by the Kane County Regional Office of Education, which has partnered with Scripps National Spelling Bee – celebrating its centennial this year – for more than two decades.
Young Yahya Mohammed – who nailed the word 'intersperse' after 20 rounds of competition – also won the regional bee last year, and lasted into the fourth round at the national contest in Washington, D.C.
There were 27 schools that were represented in the semifinal of this year's Kane County bee, according to the Regional Office of Education, and those numbers have remained consistent over the last several years.
Like anything that involves kids and/or education, there's been pros and cons written about word-memorization contests – promotes better reading, writing, spelling and confidence versus does not promote better reading, writing, spelling and confidence.
The musical definitely shines a humorous spotlight on the pressure kids are under to excel. But that's true in any youth-related competition, especially sports, where the ante has been upped for this generation, as it takes so much more time, money and family commitment to just stay in the game, never mind excel at it.
What I liked about 'Putnam County Spelling Bee,' however, is that in their angst-riddled pursuit of excellence and acceptance, these youngsters display resiliency, and that, while they realize winning is awesome, in the end, it's really just icing on the cake to the other positives that healthy competition can foster.
As Schellhardt pointed out in his director's playbill notes, the word competition stems from the Latin words COM, which means 'together,' and PETERE, which means 'to seek.'
'What if we were to honor that version of the word more often?' he asks. 'What if, in our pursuit of excellence, we turn towards each other instead of against and celebrate our differences?
'What if we champion the courage it takes to simply show up?'
Turns out those words were echoed by Patricia Dal Santo, regional superintendent of schools for Kane County.
'The amount of effort that students put into preparing for this competition is a feat itself,' she said, noting the 4,000-word study list these kids get to prepare for these spelling bees.
'Simply participating on this stage can be a treasured memory for children and their families,' she added, 'and we take pride in providing this platform for them to showcase their talent.'
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'Getting to Do It for an Audience, It's Like Drugs': 7 Tony Nominees on Jumping Between Hollywood and Broadway
Ahead of the 78th Tony Awards, which will take place on Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall in New York and air on CBS, The Hollywood Reporter gathered seven of the 2024-2025 Broadway season's standout performers for our annual Tonys Roundtable. Joining us to discuss their Tony-nominated parts, as well as hot-button issues like nontraditional casting, gender-neutral awards and screens on stages, were two nominees for best actress in a musical, Audra McDonald (stage mother Rose in Gypsy) and Nicole Scherzinger (aging film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Blvd.); two nominees for best actor in a musical, Darren Criss (a futuristic A.I. 'Helperbot' in Maybe Happy Ending) and Jonathan Groff (Bobby Darin in Just in Time); a nominee for best actress in a play, Sarah Snook (26 characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray); and two nominees for best actor in a play, Cole Escola (a hilariously ahistorical Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary!) and Louis McCartney (a 1950s teen with telekinetic powers in Stranger Things: The First Shadow). More from The Hollywood Reporter Tom Felton to Reprise Role of Draco in 'Harry Potter' on Broadway The Hollywood Reporter Sets Tonys Preshow How George Clooney's 'Good Night, and Good Luck' Is Preparing to Go Live on CNN Two are veterans of the Great White Way: McDonald, 54, has garnered 11 Tony noms and six wins, both records; and Groff, 40, has landed four noms (including for Hamilton) and won last year for Merrily We Roll Along. The other five are Tony-nom first-timers: Scherzinger, 46, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls; Criss, 38, Glee star and Emmy winner for The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story; and Snook, 37, who shot to fame on Succession, for which she won an Emmy last year. Escola, 38, who uses they/them pronouns, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and McCartney, 21, making his professional stage debut, are the season's breakouts. The group was diverse in more ways than one. Criss, at one point, marveled: 'We have a Gen Z from Belfast who's playing an American [McCartney]. We have a Czech-Filipino-Hawaiian girl playing Norma Desmond [Scherzinger]. We have a non-binary person playing Mary Todd Lincoln [Escola], an Australian woman playing several Englishmen [Snook], a gay farm boy from Pennsylvania playing Bobby Darin [Groff], a Black girl from Fresno playing Rose [McDonald] and a white passing Asian-American as a robot [Criss himself]. Like, what the fuck is going on here? That's incredible!' You can watch the entire conversation — or read a transcript of it edited for clarity and brevity — below. Before we dive into your shows, can you talk about a person who provided you with the tools to perform eight shows a week, at the level at which you are doing it, without losing your mind or body? DARREN CRISS I think anybody here with kids has to give full unbridled credit to our partners, because it's a Herculean task to be a parent — a present one — and to have the commitment that doing a Broadway show demands. To quote Wicked, because I'm a theater geek, 'Magic is a demanderating mistress,' and it does not let up. I'd also like to shout out a movement professor I had at the University of Michigan, Malcolm Tulip. He helped to unlock my interest in physical theater. It was just a niche interest for me that I never thought would come up in any other realm in my life. Cut to 20 years later, I find myself in a situation where I call upon the skillsets that he introduced to me. LOUIS MCCARTNEY One of our directors, Justin Martin. He's been one of the people who stepped up when I moved away from home, as a director and being there for me as a bro, just hanging out and keeping me going through the hard times. AUDRA MCDONALD Zoe Caldwell, who I did Master Class with in 1996. I didn't know what I was doing and I was very frightened about working with her, because she was such grand lady and one of the greatest actresses of the theater. But she ended up becoming such a mentor that I named one of my daughters after her. I learned from Zoe by watching how disciplined she was about the preparation for each performance, about knowing everybody's name at the theater, making sure that she was thanking everybody on a nightly basis. I have adopted a lot of her methods, one of which is making sure that I'm at the theater a good three hours before showtime. I don't want the train to be about to take off and I'm just getting to the theater. I'm going to be the one to make sure that the train is ready to go. JONATHAN GROFF Our choreographer, Shannon Lewis, is a prolific Broadway dancer, but Just in Time was her choreographic debut. I've never really danced before this, and she was, 'I got you.' She gave me 10 weeks of dance lessons, three times a week, before the first day of rehearsal. She taught me this thirty-minute physical warm-up of five different songs that she has on a playlist, and I do it every day before doing the show. COLE ESCOLA Darren's wife. [laughs] Actually, there's this great interview where Zoe Caldwell is telling this anecdote about when she stepped in for Anne Bancroft in The Devils, and she's recalling a line off the cuff and turns her head and goes right into character. The lights don't actually change, but you feel like there's a lighting change and a temperature drop — I'm getting goosebumps now just thinking about it. But it reminded me, 'Oh, it's just about having immediate and free access to your imagination.' So, Darren's wife and Zoe Caldwell. SARAH SNOOK The vocal coach that I worked with in Australia, Geraldine Cook. I hadn't done theater since 2016, and needed to get my instrument back into shape and to get the athleticism going for this particular show, with so many different characters and talking for two hours straight, yelling and speaking quietly and all of that. And she was really instrumental in being able to switch them on quickly, and to also know that I have something to go back on when, in the 10th week, you're like, 'My voice is shot. What am I going to do?' NICOLE SCHERZINGER It's not necessarily a person for me, it's a higher power, because it's so much bigger than me — as we all know, it is a lot. So I'd have to say a higher power, and my ancestors. Cole, you'd been thinking about doing something about Mary Todd Lincoln for 15 years. Why her? ESCOLA I had the idea, 'What if Abraham Lincoln's assassination was a good thing for Mary Todd?' [laughs] But it's really a story about someone with a dream that everyone around her thinks is stupid — and that's how I felt about this idea, so it's very meta. It's Mary's story, and then it's my story with the show— SCHERZINGER And Norma's story. ESCOLA And Rose's story. My deep fear is that I'm irredeemably annoying. So I thought, 'Can you root for someone who's completely annoying, with no redeeming qualities? Can you have the audience on her side by the end, even though she's just id the whole time? That was my hope.' Audra, at the age of 10, you were part of a production of at a dinner theater in Fresno? MCDONALD Yes, I was one of Uncle's Jocko's buddies. [laughs] Over the years since, was it even an aspiration of yours to be a part of a Broadway production of it? Where did the idea come from? MCDONALD Gavin Creel [the Tony-winning actor who died of cancer last year just 48], who was a wondrous friend to many of us here. He brought Sara Bareilles to Thanksgiving dinner at our house, and my older daughter was obsessed with Sara, so at one point Gavin said to her, 'Why don't you go talk to her?' And then, as I was nursing my younger daughter upstairs, I heard Sara at the piano and my older daughter, who plays the bass, playing 'Who Made You King of Anything?' I ran downstairs to take pictures, and then Gavin said, 'Oh, honey, I want to talk to you about something! Come here!' And he dragged me into the garage and told me his idea that I should play Rose in Gypsy. SCHERZINGER Wow, that's an amazing story! MCDONALD So it's a tribute to Gavin. He's the one who put it in my head. Jonathan, you portray Bobby Darin from around 19 to 31, and he died at 37. Your association with this project goes back to 2018? GROFF Eight years ago, [producer] Ted Chapin asked me to do a night of Bobby Darin music at the 92nd Street Y. Sort of like you, Cole, part of my inspiration is watching clips of divas singing, so I went home and watched Bobby Darin performing on YouTube, and I had this reaction that I normally feel when I watch Barbra [Streisand] or Judy [Garland] or Beyoncé — it's usually reserved for a female performer, but he was singing for his life. Then I started learning about him, that he was told that he was going to die by the time he was 16, so from 16 to 37 was all borrowed time for him, and is reflected in the primal way that he's leaping, in these black and white clips, off of my computer screen. I read this quote that, 'At the end of the day, he was a nightclub animal,' which is now a line at the end of our show. So at the Y, we started doing his music live, which was really fun, but then all of a sudden, in the space between audience and performer, it felt spiritual. For the last seven and a half years, we've been trying to make it happen [on Broadway]. And now we're at Circle in the Square, finally getting to do it for an audience, and it's like drugs. It's great. Nicole, the world first got to know you through the Pussycat Dolls — you ladies were together from 2003 through 2010 — but from what I understand, your interest in and involvement with theater predated that, and you've been on a quest to get back to it. In fact, I was invited to something at the Pendry Hotel in LA in 2022, and I wasn't sure what was behind it, but I was thrilled to get to see you— SCHERZINGER You went?! Yes. This was an intimate performance that you gave, which sort of connects to , right? SCHERZINGER I got my first job when I was about 14 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky — which, for Louisville, Kentucky, is big time, y'all — and I was in a youth performing arts high school. That's where I found my tribe. I always felt, since I was a little girl, that I didn't really fit in and didn't really feel comfortable in my skin, but then I went to this performing arts school and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, these humans are just like me!' I started out in voice and learned to read music and sang in the choir; and then I went to musical theater. Ms. Mateus cast me in Alice when I was 15— ESCOLA Alice in Wonderland? SCHERZINGER Alice in Wonderland. ESCOLA Okay. It could have been Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. [laughs] SCHERZINGER And that was big-time for me because back then people didn't cast roles like that. I was like, 'Yo, you're casting a Hawaiian-Ukrainian-Filipina girl as Alice?!' So, that's where my love affair began with musical theater. I went on to college and to do a lot more musical theater — summer stock in many different places around the country — so yes, this is over 30 years in the making. In the Dolls we have a song called 'When I Grow Up [I Want to Be Famous],' and we were shooting that music video on Hollywood Blvd. in front of the Pantages, and there's actually a video where I go, 'I always thought I'd end up on that side of the street,' and it pans to the Pantages with Wicked. I was fortunate enough to do Rent at the Hollywood Bowl 10 years ago. Neil Patrick Harris directed it and it had a beautiful cast— CRISS I saw that! It was fantastic. You smoked that. SCHERZINGER Around 2017 or 2018, I was like, 'Can I please audition for things?' And people wouldn't even allow me to audition. So I created my own show and put it on in London, New York at the Django, and then in LA [at the Pendry]. I was like, 'I'm just going to go put it on myself and invite people to come.' It was all the roles that I wanted to be cast in and all the songs that I wanted to sing. And that's what you saw. You obviously achieved your objective, because Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jamie Lloyd approached you about — and I know you sort of thought at the time, 'Is it a great compliment or insult to be asked to play Norma Desmond?' But I think the ultimate compliment came after Andrew Lloyd Webber later said that your performance is the best thing that he's ever seen in anything that he's been a part of, which is high praise. ESCOLA He didn't see me in Cats. [laughs] Darren, is an original musical. How did it get on your radar and how did you wind up bringing it to Broadway? CRISS I think all the best stories that we weren't really prepared to hear — Batman or Star Wars are examples. If you were trying to elevator-pitch any of them, people would be like, 'What the fuck are you talking about? That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.' So it is fun to be part of something so singular. I was telling Audra that I name-drop her every night when people come by to say hello. I say, 'I don't envy the Herculean task that Audra has. First, it's over three hours of ripping your soul out vocally, emotionally, all these things. But because it's such a known piece, people also come in with comparisons and expectations, which isn't fair to her— MCDONALD And singing along! [laughs] CRISS Because I've done shows like Little Shop [of Horrors, Off Broadway] and Hedwig [and the Angry Inch, on Broadway] where people know the material, that can also be an obstacle and something that you have to overcome, for better or for worse. For me, I've never been a part of anything where audience has been completely unencumbered by expectation or experience. That in itself is an obstacle, because now I have to try and convince them that this is something somewhat worthwhile, but it is amazing to feel that the gasp of, 'What is going on?!' But in short, this came to me in 2018, and it was just a matter of being available — the pandemic and then a strike and so many things that happened until finally the stars aligned in a way that I'm so grateful for. Sarah, was never done for the stage until 2020, when it was first performed in Australia. How did you wind up attached to it? SNOOK Kip [Williams, the playwright] and I had a conversation about it around March of 2023. I was about to go and shoot the final scenes in Barbados for season four of Succession. I went, 'This is an amazing thing that's about to end, and this is something else that I could go on to.' The question, first of all, was, 'What's the earliest you think you could do this? We have a theater we're looking at in August.' [laughs] I was like, 'I have a baby I'm currently cooking. She's due in April. So there's no way I can make August work. The earliest I could do it is this time next year.' And so they accommodated that. You're used to having to perform a lot of lines very quickly, between Sorkin's with and , among other things, but doing so while also literally running from one character into another, as you do in , is different. SNOOK It's different. And it's prose that has been turned into dialogue and that has to be spoken in a way that the audience can receive it, to understand it, to be engaged with it — finding places to be incredibly swift with it, because we need to be moving on and get the audience leaning forward, and then also to allow them to sort of sit back for a second and enjoy the pretty pictures. And I think, ironically, that having a baby and doing this show was maybe a good choice because it means that you stay very straight and narrow. You're not going out after the show to have a drink or wind down. It's like, 'No, I've got to go breastfeed in two hours, so I'm going to try to get another hour-and-a-half of sleep now, wake up and feed, and then go back to sleep.' Louis, you're only 21. What was going on in your life when you first heard about ? Were you already a watcher of ? MCCARTNEY I was just moving out of Dublin. My dad and I were doing our little YouTube channel, which is how they [the show's producers] got wind of me, and how my agent got wind of me me as well. I was finishing up season three of Hope Street, which was the soap I did. And then I got wind of this 'untitled Netflix play directed by Stephen Daldry,' and I did three to four months of auditions, and was flying back to Belfast, and finally we got word that it was Henry Creel, so all my focus then turned on Jamie Campbell Bower [who played the character on the TV show] and his performance in season four. I think he's phenomenal — I wanted to emulate that, but also create my own line of Henry Creel because he's a kid in the show, and we're dealing with this idea, 'What if he's a good boy? What if he just wants to go to school and get a girlfriend?' At the start of the process, I judged him and thought that he was a bad kid, but now I think he's a really good kid and it's his conditioning and the people around him that shaped him. But that's the question of our play. It's quite a psychological Greek take on Stranger Things. You've got the mother archetype and you have the tragic hero, very Hamlet, and there's lots of questions to the stars, 'Why me and why am I like this?' But also keeping with the mythology of Stranger Things and honoring the fans. It has now been 10 years since the opening on Broadway of a little show called , which Mr. Groff here helped to bring to life. Jonathan, 10 years later, what do you believe is the greatest legacy of ? GROFF That Lin-Manuel Miranda is a fucking genius and wrote an unparalleled work of art. I replaced Brian d'Arcy James in the show Off Broadway at the Public Theater. He originated the role of the King, so I got this really interesting experience with the show because I always felt outside of it and inside of it at the same time. Lin and I became friends when I was doing Spring Awakening and he was doing In The Heights, and we had stayed in touch, and then Brian had to leave and Lin texted me, 'What are you doing next month? Can you come be in the show that I wrote for a couple months Off Broadway?' I was like, 'Sure.' I went on a Friday and was in the show on Tuesday. When I saw it, I was like, 'Oh my God!' I mean, we all had that experience seeing it. The King is only on stage for nine minutes; when we moved to Broadway to the Richard Rodgers, I would peek through the curtain, watching the show. Lin is such a brilliant performer, he has such an awareness of storytelling and audience, and he knew how to keep everyone's attention for two-and-a-half, three hours. Even when I'm listening to the mashup that we're doing on the Tonys I'm like, 'Oh my God, Hamilton is so good!' Now it's been around for a decade and you're like, 'Oh, yeah, it's Hamilton' — it's the poster and it's 'send all your friends to see it' and whatever. But every time I re-engage with the material, it's just pure genius. Audra, yours is the sixth Broadway incarnation of , and you are the first person of color to play Rose. You've been navigating this conversation your whole life, or at least since you were 16 and playing Eva Perón in . Also, you received your first Tony nomination for , for a part that had been played by white people. Can you take us into your experience with nontraditional casting? MCDONALD I was very lucky growing up in Fresno, California, and having two parents who needed something for their very hyperactive, over-emotional, over-dramatic child who was struggling deeply. They found this dinner theater for me, and I went and auditioned and became a part of the little junior troupe. And once I was a part of that troupe, like when all of us kind of find theater, it was, 'Oh, here I am!' ESCOLA 'Bye, everyone!' MCDONALD 'I know who I am now.' Or, 'I know that there are a lot of people like me,' whether we know who we are or not. But in that theater in Fresno, I at one point was cast to play the Servant Girl in The Miracle Worker — I just ran out and auditioned for it and got the part — and my parents said, 'Absolutely not. You will not be playing that part. We don't need to have you out there perpetuating stereotypes. There are other roles for you.' From then on, it was, 'What role do you think you can play? And make them say no to you.' So when the call came to audition for Carousel, I think that helped me. I'm trying to find who a person is, not what they look like; that's a part of it, but, 'Who are they? And is there something in my soul that can help illuminate who that character is?' And that's what I feel about what's happened with Rose. The main thing with me playing Rose as a Black woman is we are not shrinking away from it. We have not changed a single line. We have not changed any of the grammar. A lot of people come to this show and say, 'Oh, well Rose is saying 'that ain't this' and 'that ain't that' — I'm like, 'That's what Arthur Laurents wrote!' I felt I just knew who she was, and why couldn't it be a Black woman's story? Why couldn't it be an Asian woman's story? It could be anybody's story! Cole, you're a bit of a trailblazer yourself. Over the last few years, there have been a couple of non-binary performers who have been recognized, but not many. Some award shows have adopted gender-neutral awards. That is not the case obviously at the Tonys, so you had to weigh in on which of the existing categories you wanted to be eligible for, and selected best actor in a play. But how did you feel about having to make that call? And is that something that you hope changes? ESCOLA I do hope it changes, yeah. I didn't love having to make that choice. There are arguments, 'Well, women are given so little, and that would take more away from them,' but at the Drama Desks last year, best performer went to Sarah Paulson and Jessica Lange; no men won, and I think the same thing happened in the supporting category. So I don't know, it's such a weird thing, it's almost arbitrary — 'Well, a man couldn't play this same role that a woman can play.' Well, an eighty-year-old couldn't play Juliet — well, I shouldn't say that. An eighty-year-old could play Juliet. But where the lines are drawn, I guess, doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Best director is gender-neutral. Every other category is. ESCOLA Every other category. MCDONALD It makes for a shorter night. [laughs] ESCOLA It makes for a shorter night. I don't know. I just want to do my show and be myself, and I don't want to push people's buttons — well, that's not true. [laughs] I do want to push people's buttons, but not those buttons. Another topic of conversation in the community is the role that technology is playing. Sarah and Nicole have camera rigs on stage with large screens that give us a look into things that people never would've been able to see on Broadway until a few years ago. Louis, some of the effects in your show are unbelievable, and probably wouldn't have been possible pre-, the effects of which were handled by some of the same people who worked on your show and are getting a special Tony for them. In the case of the three of your shows, the technology helps to connect the stories to the world of today, especially for younger audiences, wouldn't you say? SNOOK Yeah, absolutely. Technology is always going to advance — we invent things and we find ways to incorporate them into our lives. And we've always had theater — it's an ancient art form. So inevitably you're going to incorporate technological advancements into theater in some ways. And as long as it has a dramaturgical purpose and an active influence on the audience, I think there's a place for it. This show wouldn't be possible without the camerawork that the camerapeople do, and also the video they record, edits that we've created beforehand. And it's amazing to work inside of that. Nicole, how did you acclimate to acting while there are people with cameras running around you? SCHERZINGER I guess I'm kind of used to cameras with singing, but I didn't have a choice. It makes sense, obviously, because Norma is a film star, that he incorporated that. And we don't have a set or props or anything, so we're able to tell that story on stage and then to be a little bit more intimate when the camera is involved. But yeah, as pop star, this [points to the left side of her face] is my good side. I'm sitting on my bad side [points to the right side of her face] today. [laughs] So I've had to throw all that down the drain. He [director Jamie Lloyd] has taken me out of my comfort zone, but it's what's got me here today. It's supposed to emanate from within, anyway. We've established that unbelievable physicality is demanded of each of you in these roles. Audra, you've said that you've never played a more exhausting part. Darren, I don't know how you don't need a chiropractor walking around with you all day. SCHERZINGER I have several good ones. CRISS I've got to ask Nicole. What do you do for yourself physically between performances? CRISS I'm really militant about contrast therapy. It's this ancient Norwegian stuff. It's being in a hot bath and a cold plunge. I'll do a sauna and a steam. I do this two, three times a week for about a half hour. MCDONALD Do you have a sauna in your dressing room?! SCHERZINGER And a cold plunge?! CRISS I do not. I wish I did. I'll go to a place that has a sauna. I'll do a steam room for 15 minutes, a cold plunge for three minutes, and a sauna for 15. I'll do it in-between shows. It's a meditative thing. It's good for my respiratory system, circulatory system and immune system, and that is how I keep my battery charged. It's a reset. It's my time to just relax. I feel I'm on a beach. I close my eyes and just drown out the world. MCDONALD I would never come for the second show. [laughs] CRISS Well, it's that cold plunge at the very end, sitting in 45-degree water for three minutes. After that I'm like, 'All right, let's go, we've got another one!' SNOOK I just sleep. I think it's so important. I mean, for me, I need eight hours. ESCOLA Between shows? [laughs] SNOOK You've got to have the deep-sleep recovery because it heals your body. SCHERZINGER That's how I feel too. I have to tell myself, 'It's a new day, it's a new performance.' ESCOLA It's reminding me of that Ethel Merman quote: 'Warm up? That's what the opening number's for!' [laughs] I can't rest between shows because then I wouldn't get up. MCDONALD I can't either. Other shows I've been able to, but I can't sleep in between this one. Our show is basically three hours, so especially on a Wednesday matinee, we've got a 2pm and a 7:30pm, so I only have enough time to do PT and then sit down for a few minutes and stare at a wall. ESCOLA Yeah, exactly. The wall stare. You all move back and forth between screen and stage work. When you go from one to the other, what is the thing that you most consciously have to remind yourself to do differently? ESCOLA I don't [do things differently], and that's why I always get told on [a film or TV] set, 'Just less.' [laughs] MCDONALD 'Think louder.' I used to be so afraid of the camera. Once I figured out that the camera is the audience, I realized that I could think louder and the camera will pick it up. ESCOLA Oh, I've got to write that down. SCHERZINGER I'm taking that. Speaking of moving back and forth between the stage and screen, some people will discover you through one and not even know that you do the other. Darren, you told me a funny story about this earlier today. CRISS There's no prerequisite for you to know anything about a person's career. I'll never forget, I saw this queen [McDonald] a long time ago at one of her shows in Los Angeles, and there was a woman next to me who loved Private Practice [the ABC TV series on which McDonald appeared from 2007 through 2011]. We were just small-talking before you went on, and I mentioned Ragtime and all these shows that I've loved your performances in. And she says, 'I didn't know she was a singer.' And I'm like, 'You best buckle up, you're about to get served some serious fucking shit!' [laughs] I just was so moved by that because, again, there's no prerequisite here. Her gateway drug was Private Practice. We take all kinds. We're happy to have you! MCDONALD No, it's true. People who don't usually come to see theater, but come for some reason — 'Well, I love Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls, so I'm coming to see her' or 'I love Sarah from Succession' or whatever — what usually happens is they get bit by the theater bug. They get a taste, and then they want more. Let's close with some fun rapid-fire stuff. Excluding relatives, who's the person whose attendance at one of your performances of your current show has meant the most to you? ESCOLA Elaine May. GROFF Tom Hanks. MCCARTNEY Tom Hanks as well. SNOOK Bette Midler. CRISS Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. SCHERZINGER Glenn Close or Oprah. What's the most unusual thing in your dressing room? ESCOLA Me. [laughs] MCCARTNEY Dried lavender that I have yet to buy a vase for. SNOOK I've got a little crochet doll of the characters of Dorian and Jane from Predestination [a 2014 film in which she starred] and my Met Gala outfit, which this incredibly talented young woman crocheted. I love them, and so does my daughter — she loves to play with them. What's the most annoying thing that audience members are doing at Broadway shows in 2025? SNOOK I don't get particularly annoyed by it because I know the impulse, but I do just want to make a PSA that we can see your phones when they're up. It's a reflective surface reflecting back onto the stage. I can see you filming. [laughs] MCDONALD We can't do anything about phones. It is what it is. But at curtain call, it's almost like no one's applauding anymore because they're all filming! It's the weirdest thing to me. 'Well, then we'll just go.' SCHERZINGER Because they're trying to catch that legacy, honey! They got to get it. [laughs] Also, we can hear you eating. Sometimes with the rustling, I'm like, 'Did you get it? Did you?' Last one. If you could snap your fingers and make it so, what would be the ideal number of performances you would perform per week? SCHERZINGER That is a great question. MCDONALD That is a really good question. CRISS Do you get to decide when they are? Absolutely. MCDONALD Wednesday matinée is gone. SNOOK Yeah, I think seven is good. MCCARTNEY We do a double-double — two on Saturday and two on Sunday — so we don't have a Wednesday matinée. SNOOK The Sunday matinée is not something that exists in London, but it's fantastic. SCHERZINGER Delightful. SNOOK Because then you get a spare night! SCHERZINGER Six would be lush. You could just do it forever then. A version of this story appeared in the June 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Harvey Weinstein's "Jane Doe 1" Victim Reveals Identity: "I'm Tired of Hiding" 'Awards Chatter' Podcast: 'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Finally Reveals What Happened to Tony (Exclusive)
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Four-Time Tony Nominee Jonathan Groff on Eight-Year Journey to Become Bobby Darin and Spitting While Singing Quirk: 'Nothing I Can Do About It'
'It's my first love,' Jonathan Groff tells The Hollywood Reporter, on why he returned to Broadway so soon after winning his first Tony Award for Merrily We Roll Along last year. Now, Groff has received his fourth Tony nomination for playing singer-actor Bobby Darin in the jukebox musical, Just in Time. He has previously been nominated for his work in Hamilton and Spring Awakening. But this time, the experience is 'unlike anything' before, as he's been involved with the project for the last eight years and has learned how to embody the moves and persona of the legendary singer. More from The Hollywood Reporter Ike Barinholtz Jokes He's "Lucky to Be Alive" After Driving With 'The Studio' Costar Seth Rogen How 'Survival of the Thickest,' 'Mo' and 'Shrinking' Are Helping Destigmatize Therapy for Men of Color Tom Felton to Reprise Role of Draco in 'Harry Potter' on Broadway And the Mindhunter star is having a lot of fun doing it. At the top of the show, he introduces himself to the crowd as himself, which was Groff's idea, and even warns the crowd that he might spit on them while singing, poking fun at his saliva-based singing quirk that's become a running joke over the years. This year's best performance by an actor in a leading role category is also nostalgic because Groff is nominated alongside his former Glee co-star Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending), which he says is 'surreal' and the 'great gift of longevity with your peers.' Below, Groff tells THR about how he got in the best shape of his life by prepping for the show, his most memorable crowd interaction and how he creates the 'magic that happens between performer and audience.' This is your fourth nomination. What does this one in particular mean to you? I've never before been involved in a project from the conception. So, eight years ago, my friend Ted Chapin asked me to do a night of Bobby Darin music at the 92nd Street Y, and we've been developing the show ever since then. So to be nominated for this and for the show itself, to get six nominations after working on it for eight years, is unlike anything I've ever experienced. After , why did you want to return to Broadway so soon instead of taking a well-deserved break or focusing more on film or TV? (Laughs.) I love the theater, is the simple answer to that question. I just I love doing it so much. It's my first love. I didn't anticipate that the timing would work out. We've been trying to make the Bobby Darin musical happen for so many years that I never anticipated it would happen, timing-wise, like this. But there is an inertia and an energy and an acceleration to the vibe of Bobby Darin that it ultimately felt like the right thing. What's crazy is, the day after the Tonys last year, which is the last time you and I spoke, the next day, I went with our producers and Alex Timbers, our director, and Shannon, our choreographer, and Andrew, our music supervisor, to the Circle in the Square to do a site visit for the show. This is just the way it worked out, honestly. It was not something that I intentionally planned or scheduled on purpose. It just sort of shook out this way. What do you appreciate about playing someone who was actually alive? And how is this experience different from some other roles you've done? Over the last eight years, I have become such a deep, deep Bobby Darin fan. By all accounts, he was this Oscar-nominated actor and this Grammy-winning recording artist and prolific songwriter and producer, but everyone says he was at the height of his powers when he was at the center of a nightclub floor working the audience. So the most important thing for me, as I was doing the research on him, and for all of us as we were putting the show together, was to honor the spirit of that, of that energy, of that magic that happens between performer and audience. And this was the jumping off point for this conceit of our show that we turn Circle in the Square into a nightclub and where we've got tables on the floor level that you can reach out and touch the performers from where you're sitting, because that's what it was like when Bobby was at the Copa. Also, this conceit that I start the show as myself, so I establish this relationship between myself and the audience in the present moment, and give everybody the sense that like, let's all be here now together and travel back in time with each other to experience the story of Bobby Darin, while never losing that invisible thread between performer and audience that makes you feel when you're an audience member and as a performer like anything can happen on any given night, it's always different. So in playing Bobby Darin, that energy felt like the most essential thing to bring spiritually into the theater. I also took piano lessons. He was a prolific artist in so many ways. He played seven instruments in the show. I played the piano, I played the drums. I have been trying to embody him as much as possible physically as well, in addition to playing the instruments and then working with the writers Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver. There's so much story in his life. You could do a whole TV series about him. He has many books written about him, and so much went on in his life, so [it was about] trying to distill his story down to the most essential beats to really honor and celebrate who he was. You mentioned you're yourself at the beginning of the show. And you do introduce yourself by saying, 'Hi, I'm Jonathan Groff,' before devolving into Bobby Darin. Whose idea was that and what do you think it brings to the show? Yeah, I asked from the beginning if I could do that. It felt like the opportunity to tell the story of Bobby Darin's life in front of a live audience, that's where he was, at the height of his powers. That is the place to tell his story. Even removing the artifice of character at the very beginning and really establishing this connection between performer and audience was the most effective way to celebrate what he did to a room when he was in it. So I wanted to start the show as myself, and we spent years trying to figure out how we would make that work and how we would it. And really, it wasn't until our co-book writer Isaac Oliver came on board, because it's one thing for me to be myself at the top, but someone needs to write that. (Laughs.) A talented writer needs to articulate that. You don't want to just see me talking out my mouth at the beginning of the show. It's actually quite specifically constructed. What I say, how I say it and how I transitioned then into becoming Bobby Darin took a lot of writing and a lot of tries. [Oliver] really cracked the code with this opening monologue that he offered over the summer when we were doing a workshop as well as with this monologue at the end that I also delivered to the audience as myself, once the show is over, as sort of bookends of the experience. That was Isaac's idea. I think it really honors the spirit of who he was as one of the greatest entertainers of all time. You do a lot of dancing, which requires a lot of stamina. How did you prepare for that? And is it still challenging? Shannon Lewis, our amazing choreographer, she [worked with] me three times a week for 10 weeks before the first day of rehearsal. We were in the studio, and she taught me her physical warm-up, which is a 30-minute warm-up, which I still do every day before the show, to get my body ready. It's like training for a marathon physically, this role, and I'm learning a lot about my body, and I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my whole life. (Laughs.) And like you said, it's a daily, I would say it's a daily practice to check in with your body, find out where it is. I've like become friends with our physical therapist at the theater (laughs) who helps me with issues and small injuries as they come up. But it's like being an athlete, kind of, you know, you have to really take care of yourself. I've learned in the last, like, two months that cross-training is really essential for me. Earlier today, I was at the gym doing light weight lifting in order to counterbalance the repetitive motions I do every night while we're dancing. It's a real discipline. You acknowledge that part of the audience may be hit with spit during the performance. What went into that decision to mention that? Yes! (Laughs) This is the brilliance of Isaac, our co-book writer. He really cracked the code with that one. It's an interesting experiment to play one's own self (laughs), and he really helped. He did many things and wrote many amazing parts of the show, as did Warren, who gave so much to the show in so many different ways. But one of the contributions that Isaac made was finding the sweet spot of me, sort of like taking the piss out of myself and declaring who I was at the same time. I'm so grateful that he wrote me in the way that he wrote me. That was all his genius. People online have noticed that you do spit a bit when you sing, what do you make of the attention that it's gotten? It's funny, it started with back in the days of Spring Awakening. People used to ask if I would spit in their programs after the show, because I had spit on them on stage. And then years later, when the Disney+ version of Hamilton came out, and I was playing King George, and I was spitting kind of on myself, like, drool, like it was coming down my face, that became a whole thing. And then last year, during Merrily, Dan [Radcliffe] and Lindsay [Mendez] and I were joking and laughing about it a lot on the press tour. At this point, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm just sort of letting it happen at this point. Fortunately, all of my fellow actors that I've been on stage with are incredibly patient and like loving with me about that, and they don't make me feel too bad about it. What's been your most memorable dance and crowd member interaction so far? Good question. Oh my gosh, it's really fascinating because we're learning with these audiences that it's quite multigenerational. It's really like eight year olds and 80 year olds are both enjoying the show in equal measure. A couple of performances ago, this probably eight-year-old girl was in the front row, and I noticed her at the very beginning. I was sort of like winking at her and smiling at her, and you could tell she felt a little scared or a little nervous, and so I was trying to make her feel relaxed throughout the show and smiling at her. And then at the very end, I reached out my hand to ask her to dance, and she lit up like a light bulb. Her face got so excited, and she took my hand and immediately started spinning around in circles. I wanted to cry. It was so cute. Have you found any similarities between you and Bobby that helped you to understand and connect with him? There's this line I have at the end of the show when it's like in the middle of the very final song that I sing, called 'The Curtain Falls,' which was his famous closing song in his act at the end of his career. And I say, 'doing this,' meaning connecting with the audience in this way, 'Doing this was when he felt the most alive.' And then I say, 'honestly, same,' (laughs) that's the next line. And I really feel that connection with him. This great, deep, profound, primal passion for performing and for sharing that experience with the artists on stage, the cast and the band, and sharing that with the audience, is one of my favorite things in in my whole life. I just I love it so much. That love, I would say, is the thing that I have the most in common with him. This year you're also nominated alongside your former co-star Darren Criss. What does it mean to you that you're both nominated for Tonys in the same category? It's so awesome. It's so surreal. I remember him making his debut on that show, and creating such a sensation, and being such a like fresh, new, exciting talent, and to now see him be a real like, I mean, he's done many Broadway shows. I saw him do Hedwig [and the Angry Inch]. He was one of the replacements in Little Shop of Horrors. I saw him in Maybe Happy Ending, he's exceptional in it. This is the great gift of longevity with your peers, is that we get to go through all these experiences together. Lea Michele came to opening night, and brought her four-year-old son a week and a half later, and he was sitting on the aisle, beaming. It's a gift to be able to go through life and share these experiences with your friends. It's incredibly special. Looking back on your time on that show made so many more people knowledgeable about theater and made it accessible to people who don't have the opportunity to come to New York to see Broadway shows. Have you found that to be true, or have you heard of fans who became interested in musical theater through the show? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, Gracie Lawrence, who is Tony nominated in our show, playing the role of Connie Francis and is a supernova talent. She told me during rehearsal, she was like, 'Oh my gosh, Jonathan, I can't believe I'm doing a musical on Broadway with you, because I used to come home after high school and watch you on Glee and now we're singing together duets on a Broadway stage show. So it's an example of a former Gleek that now we're co-starring in a Broadway musical together. It's so cool. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of . Reflecting on all that's happened in your career since, what would you tell your younger self? I did that when I was 20 years old, and I guess the short answer is, I would tell him to keep following his passion and the thing that makes your heart race. Once you're doing that, once you're locked in with that, it doesn't matter if it's a success or a failure, because I've had both of those experiences throughout the years, highs and lows. But when I'm in touch with what is making my pulse race and what I get excited about, just personally, outside of anyone's perception of what might be good or bad, but just for my own self, the things that make me excited, that's when I'm my happiest. That's how I feel inside of Just in Time. I love Bobby Darin, and I love this experience so much. And getting the chance to live inside of his music and his life, it's pure joy. Just in Time is playing at the Circle in the Square Theatre. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
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Tony Awards: Complete Winners List
Maybe Happy Ending, Purpose, Sunset Blvd. and Eureka Day took the top prizes at the 2025 Tony Awards, winning best musical, best play (in a surprise), best musical revival and best play revival, respectively. The Cynthia Erivo-hosted ceremony also saw The Picture of Dorian Gray's Sarah Snook; Oh, Mary!'s Cole Escola; Maybe Happy Ending's Darren Criss and Sunset Blvd.'s Nicole Scherzinger win the lead acting awards for plays (Snook and Escola) and musicals (Criss and Scherzinger). More from The Hollywood Reporter Tony Awards Snubs and Surprises: 'Death Becomes Her' Goes One for 10 as 'Purpose' Scores Upset Best Play Win Darren Criss Wins First Tony Award for 'Maybe Happy Ending' Tony Awards: 'Maybe Happy Ending' Wins Big, Nicole Scherzinger Takes Home First Tony Maybe Happy Ending won a total of six awards after going into the night tied with Buena Vista Social Club and Death Becomes Her for the most nominations with 10 apiece. Buena Vista Social Club won four awards, while Death Becomes Her only took home one trophy, for Paul Tazewell's costume design, which was presented in the Tony Awards' Act One preshow. The Tony Awards featured performances from the above nominated musicals as well as Dead Outlaw, Floyd Collins, Gypsy, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Just in Time and Real Women Have Curves. There was also a special appearance by 2019 Tony honor recipient Broadway Inspirational Voices. Presenters this year included Goldsberry, Aaron Tveit, Adam Lambert, Alex Winter, Allison Janney, Ariana DeBose, Ben Stiller, Bryan Cranston, Carrie Preston, Charli D'Amelio, Danielle Brooks, Jean Smart, Jesse Eisenberg, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Kelli O'Hara, Kristin Chenoweth, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Lea Michele, Lea Salonga, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Michelle Williams, Oprah, Rachel Bay Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, Sara Bareilles and Sarah Paulson. The first winners were announced during the Criss- and Renée Elise Goldberry-hosted The Tony Awards: Act One preshow streaming on Paramount's free streaming service Pluto TV. Criss was nominated for and won his first Tony for his role in Maybe Happy Ending, and Goldsberry won a Tony for originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton, which celebrated its 10th anniversary with a performance featuring members of the original Broadway cast on the 2025 awards show. Harvey Fierstein received a lifetime achievement award, and Celia Keenan-Bolger accepted the 2025 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for advocacy work through the arts, both of which were presented during the preshow. The 2025 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre were given to Great Performances, Michael Price, New 42 and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Special Tonys were awarded to the musicians who make up the band in Buena Vista Social Club and to the illusions and technical effects team at Stranger Things: The First Shadow. The Tony Awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League A complete list of this year's winners follows. EnglishAuthor: Sanaz Toossi The Hills of CaliforniaAuthor: Jez Butterworth John Proctor Is the VillainAuthor: Kimberly Belflower Oh, Mary!Author: Cole Escola (WINNER)Author: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Buena Vista Social ClubDead OutlawDeath Becomes Her (WINNER)Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical (WINNER)Author: Jonathan Spector Romeo + Juliet Thornton Wilder's Our Town Yellow FaceAuthor: David Henry Hwang Floyd CollinsBook/Additional Lyrics: Tina Landau Music & Lyrics: Adam Guettel Gypsy Pirates! The Penzance Musical (WINNER) George Clooney, Good Night, and Good LuckCole Escola, (WINNER)Jon Michael Hill, PurposeDaniel Dae Kim, Yellow FaceHarry Lennix, PurposeLouis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow Laura Donnelly, The Hills of CaliforniaMia Farrow, The RoommateLaTanya Richardson Jackson, PurposeSadie Sink, John Proctor Is the VillainSarah Snook, (WINNER) Darren Criss, (WINNER)Andrew Durand, Dead OutlawTom Francis, Sunset Groff, Just in TimeJames Monroe Iglehart, A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong MusicalJeremy Jordan, Floyd Collins Megan Hilty, Death Becomes HerAudra McDonald, GypsyJasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The MusicalNicole Scherzinger, (WINNER)Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her Glenn Davis, PurposeGabriel Ebert, John Proctor is the VillainFrancis Jue, (WINNER)Bob Odenkirk, Glengarry Glen RossConrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary! Tala Ashe, EnglishJessica Hecht, Eureka DayMarjan Neshat, EnglishFina Strazza, John Proctor Is the VillainKara Young, (WINNER) Brooks Ashmanskas, SmashJeb Brown, Dead OutlawDanny Burstein, GypsyJak Malone, (WINNER)Taylor Trensch, Floyd Collins Natalie Venetia Belcon, (WINNER)Julia Knitel, Dead OutlawGracie Lawrence, Just in TimeJustina Machado, Real Women Have Curves: The MusicalJoy Woods, Gypsy Knud Adams, EnglishSam Mendes, The Hills of CaliforniaSam Pinkleton, (WINNER)Danya Taymor, John Proctor is the VillainKip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray Saheem Ali, Buena Vista Social ClubMichael Arden, (WINNER)David Cromer, Dead OutlawChristopher Gattelli, Death Becomes HerJamie Lloyd, Sunset Blvd. Buena Vista Social Club, Marco RamirezDead Outlaw, Itamar MosesDeath Becomes Her, Marco Pennette, Will Aronson and Hue Park (WINNER)Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts Dead OutlawMusic & Lyrics: David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna Death Becomes HerMusic & Lyrics: Julia Mattison and Noel Carey (WINNER)Music: Will AronsonLyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park Operation Mincemeat: A New MusicalMusic & Lyrics: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts Real Women Have Curves: The MusicalMusic & Lyrics: Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez Marsha Ginsberg, EnglishRob Howell, The Hills of CaliforniaMarg Horwell and David Bergman, The Picture of Dorian GrayMiriam Buether and 59, (WINNER)Scott Pask, Good Night, and Good Luck Rachel Hauck, Swept AwayDane Laffrey and George Reeve, (WINNER)Arnulfo Maldonado, Buena Vista Social ClubDerek McLane, Death Becomes HerDerek McLane, Just in Time Brenda Abbandandolo, Good Night, and Good LuckMarg Horwell, (WINNER)Rob Howell, The Hills of CaliforniaHolly Pierson, Oh, Mary!Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow Dede Ayite, Buena Vista Social ClubGregg Barnes, BOOP! The MusicalClint Ramos, Maybe Happy EndingPaul Tazewell, (WINNER)Catherine Zuber, Just in Time Natasha Chivers, The Hills of CaliforniaJon Clark, (WINNER)Heather Gilbert and David Bengali, Good Night, and Good LuckNatasha Katz and Hannah Wasileski, John Proctor is the VillainNick Schlieper, The Picture of Dorian Gray Jack Knowles, (WINNER)Tyler Micoleau, Buena Vista Social ClubScott Zielinski and Ruey Horng Sun, Floyd CollinsBen Stanton, Maybe Happy EndingJustin Townsend, Death Becomes Her Paul Arditti, (WINNER)Palmer Hefferan, John Proctor Is the VillainDaniel Kluger, Good Night, and Good LuckNick Powell, The Hills of CaliforniaClemence Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray Jonathan Deans, (WINNER)Adam Fisher, Sunset Hylenski, Just in TimePeter Hylenski, Maybe Happy EndingDan Moses Schreier, Floyd Collins Joshua Bergasse, SmashCamille A. Brown, GypsyChristopher Gattelli, Death Becomes HerJerry Mitchell, BOOP! The MusicalPatricia Delgado and Justin Peck, (WINNER) Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber, Just in TimeWill Aronson, Maybe Happy EndingBruce Coughlin, Floyd CollinsMarco Paguia, (WINNER)David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sunset Blvd. This story was first published on June 8 at 3:45 p.m. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
