Megan Hilty Treats Vocal Warm-ups Like Marathon Prep

Few people can nail theatrical musical comedy, with an emphasis on the comedy, like Megan Hilty. A regular on television and Broadway, she earned a Tony nomination for her slapstick performance in Noises Off and led the cult TV series Smash as one of two actresses vying for the part of Marilyn Monroe (go, Team Ivy!). On October 19, she’ll take on another beloved role, this time in a movie-to-musical adaptation of Death Becomes Her. She plays Madeline Ashton, a self-obsessed Broadway star who goes to extreme lengths to stay young. Expect high camp, more slapstick, and dismemberment.

It starts with the shoes. Our costume designer, Paul Tazewell, was kind enough to have these heels for me that are modeled off my own heels, and they’re wonderful, supportive, and sexy-looking and that helps me get into the mind-set. The clothes, especially with this show, really make an impact on the performances. Without them, we’re not as grand as these characters deserve to be.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have a career playing roles that other people have made famous before me, so I’ve gotten to a place where I’m more comfortable with saying, “I know how to pay homage, but I’m a person who will bring something different.” Death Becomes Her is one of my favorite movies of all time, and the performances really struck a chord with me because they weren’t like anything I had seen before: two powerhouse women going at it in every way possible. I’m a woman of a certain age in the performing arts grappling with a lot of the same issues that Madeline is in real time, asking the questions, “How important is holding on to youth and how far are you willing to go to achieve that?” Madeline’s just willing to do a bit more than I am.

I do small vocal warm-ups, but I don’t want to exhaust myself before a show. What’s most helpful is getting enough sleep and being hydrated. I do IV treatments of multivitamins and stuff like that. I get to do a bit of everything vocally in this show. There’s soprano, there’s a lot of mixing, there’s big, broad belting. I have one song, “Falling Apart,” where, because Madeline’s falling apart, I sing in every type of style you can imagine, every placement.

I took up running so that I could literally breathe throughout the course of the show, because I don’t stop moving, and when I’m not onstage I’m doing the quickest of quick changes. I have two dressers, then the hair supervisor, Mark Bailey, does my wig changes. I think I have five wigs over the course of the show. So there’s generally about three people around me at all times when I’m offstage to make sure I get back on with my clothes.

I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Simard [Madeline’s rival, Helen, played by Goldie Hawn on film] for years, and we have friends in common. They told us we’d have a great time together, and they were completely correct. It was just madness and chaos in the rehearsal room when it’s a big, silly show. Then we were at the point in the rehearsal studio where it’s like, “This is making everyone in here laugh, but is it going to translate to people who don’t know us?” So we learned the most from having an audience in Chicago. Our director, Christopher Gattelli, is great at letting us play, so I think coming to Broadway I’ll be even bolder this time around.

I had this magical ENT named Dr. Benjamin Asher who gave me the greatest advice: After a show, go to your costumes and say good night to your character. He said it would be great to do a vocal cooldown, but you really want to make sure that you’re not bringing your character home with you. I love to remember him that way, and I started doing that. Madeline is fabulous onstage, but she does not need to come home to my apartment.