{"id":7608,"date":"2025-05-27T15:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/jennifer-simard-on-her-death-becomes-her-onstage-partnership\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T15:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:46:16","slug":"jennifer-simard-on-her-death-becomes-her-onstage-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/jennifer-simard-on-her-death-becomes-her-onstage-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Simard On Her \u2018Death Becomes Her\u2019 Onstage Partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her.<\/em> Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jennifer Simard<\/a> is nominated for a Tony this season, as Best Actress in a Musical. So is her Death Becomes Her<\/a><\/em>\u00a0co-star, Megan Hilty<\/a>. Playing frenemies whose fur-flying ferocity lasts more than a lifetime or two, theirs is, almost, a dueling performance. One character couldn\u2019t exist without returning the serve of the other, which they do with such mastery that it\u2019s been suggested<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0both\u00a0of them should win the Tony, a scenario that Simard tells\u00a0Observer<\/em>\u00a0would be a \u201cdream come true.\u201d After all, she adds, \u201cwe are functioning as partners with this show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The click-click-click of their chemistry was there from the beginning, she beams. \u201cThe first reading we did together was in April of 2023,\u201d Simard says. \u201cThen we did a workshop for about three weeks in August of 2023, and finally Chicago in the spring of 2024. In each incarnation, like any kind of relationship, it continued to grow and deepen. We wallowed and dealt with each other in kindness and respect. We took care of each another. We know, inherently, how important it is to protect our relationship, on stage and off. The off-stage relationship is palpable on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her.<\/em> Matthew Murphy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s perhaps a loaded statement, given the vicious hilarity of that onstage relationship. Hilty plays Madeline Ashton, a brassy, blonde theater star, and Simard plays struggling writer Helen Sharp. They\u2019ve been rivals since childhood, and Madeline\u2014feeling some career-slippage\u2014invites Helen to view what\u2019s left of her showbiz sparkle, stealing Helen\u2019s straight-laced fianc\u00e9\u2014plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Christopher Sieber<\/a>)\u2014in the process.\u00a0 When they cross paths again, Helen\u2019s Godzilla side comes out, and bombastic bitchiness rules the show. Oh, and there\u2019s a magic potion that will provide eternal beauty, so when things turn murderous the two come back to life.<\/p>\n

A twin Tony win for these two would be, as Simarard says, a dream come true, but it is just a dream\u2014this prize doesn\u2019t split, and the competition\u2014including Audra McDonald in\u00a0Gypsy<\/em>\u00a0and Nicole Scherzinger in\u00a0Sunset Boulevard<\/em>\u2014is fierce. Or, as Simard diplomatically puts it, \u201cSo many women could have been correctly nominated this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A recurring Tony nominee, Simard is facing the fate of the super-gifted also-ran. Disappointment One:\u00a0Disaster!<\/em>, the 2016 jukebox musical in which she was Sister Mary Downey, a nun on a floating casino slap-happy over slot machines;\u00a0Hamilton<\/em>\u2019s Renee Elise Goldsberry picked up that prize. Her next nomination, in 2022, was for playing Sarah in the gender-flipped Company<\/em>. \u201cI call that my pandemic show,\u201d she says, \u201cWe did about 12 shows before everything shut down, but we came back and reopened. I was a cover for Patti LuPone, so, when she got COVID\u2014as we all did in March of \u201922\u2014I did about ten days for her. She was my Tony competition, and, of course, she won\u2014rightly. That\u2019s how it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty in rehearsal for Death Becomes Her.<\/em> Jenny Anderson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But never mind. Nightly, on stage, both she and Hilty are winners\u2014dual victory being part of the secret of this partnership. Simard follows some advice given her by Faith Prince, a co-star from Disaster<\/em> currently in Boop! The Musical<\/em>. \u201cI knew this, but she affirmed it,\u201d Simard says. \u201cOne of the worst things you can do on stage as a comedienne is die for laughs. You must throw the ball to your playing partner and let them win sometime. If they win, you win.\u201d<\/p>\n

What keeps Hilty and Simard\u2019s comic engines charging away on all cylinders is that the audiences appreciate what they are doing up there. \u201cOh, yeah, you can feel it,\u201d Simard insists. \u201cThe audience really is with us from the get-go. It just grows as the show goes. They\u2019re not ahead of the jokes, but they\u2019re right there because they know who we are as characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Simard had a bucket list of roles she would like to do, it would come from this bucket. \u201cI don\u2019t have an aversion to revivals, but I love originating new roles. I didn\u2019t see this role coming at all. Originality is my dream. I really want to create something from the incubation.\u201d<\/p>\n

And next? \u201cI do this next,\u201d she says, confident and content. \u201cAfter the Tony Awards on June 8, it\u2019ll be nice to do this gig for a while. It\u2019s a wonderful show. I\u2019m in no hurry to spread my wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buy Tickets Here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Jennifer<\/p><\/div>\n