Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard Are to Die for in Death Becomes Her. Meet Broadway's Killer Comedic Duo (Exclusive)

Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon. And now, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard.

The two actresses have officially cemented their names among the pantheon of legendary comedic Broadway duos with their performances in Death Becomes Her, the hilarious new musical which opened to rave reviews on Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City.

Based on the 1992 Robert Zemeckis dark comedy starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, the stage show follows longtime frienemies Madeline Ashton (Hilty) and Helen Sharp (Simard), whose bitter feud gets deadly when the two take a mysterious potion that gives them eternal youth and beauty.

Joining them is Destiny’s Child icon Michelle Williams, in her first original Broadway role, and Tony nominee Christopher Sieber as Ernest, Madeline’s husband (and Helen’s former fiancé). Tony Award-winner Christopher Gattelli directs and choreographs the musical, which features a score from the songwriting team of Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, and a book by Marco Pennette.

Meryl Streep Sends Flowers and ‘Undying Love’ to Megan Hilty Ahead of Opening Night of Broadway’s Death Becomes Her

Megan Hilty, Jennifer Simard, Josh Lamon and Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Ahead of opening night, PEOPLE caught up with Hilty and Simard to discuss their roles, their friendship and how they’ve found deeper meaning in the musical’s themes.

PEOPLE: Congratulations on all the success. What has being a part of this show meant to you?

HILTY: People throw around the term “dream come true” a lot. I’ve been known to do that myself, and not that I didn’t mean it before, but I really, really mean it with this job because it really has been so satisfying. The script is genius. The songs are incredible. The costumes are stunning. There’s just a magic to it where you can feel how uniquely special it is.SIMARD: It’s almost hard to stay in your body when you think about it, because it can feel like it’s happening to another person.HILTY: I find myself every day going, “When’s the other shoe going to drop? This is too good to be true.”SIMARD: For me, to have this opportunity as two women is really thrilling professionally, personally, especially in the macrocosm of theater. It’s almost as if we’re Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler. I hope it’s the start of long, long collaboration.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Jennifer Simard (left) and Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Death Becomes Her Hits Broadway! See the Musical’s Cast Alongside Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Original Film Stars

Megan, you’ve had to create a performance on stage before modeled after a character in a film that people know very well with 9 to 5: The Musical. For both of you, what was the feeling like when you realized you’d be playing characters made famous by two of the biggest stars of all time?HILTY: It can be incredibly daunting at first, especially when you frame it like, “Who do I think I am, taking on a role that the greatest actress of all time made iconic? How dare you!”SIMARD: I don’t think either of us were like, “Yeah, that’s right. We deserve this!” [Laughs] We’re far too humbled by this industry to feel that way.HILTY: But at the same time, I think both of us are just such huge fans of their work and of the movie, we feel lucky to be doing this.SIMARD: Exactly. I love both Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn so much, watched all their movies as a kid, and it’s truly an honor and a privilege to be chosen to be one half of that equation. And like I’ve said many, many times, I couldn’t ask for a better partner in Megan.HILTY: I feel the same about Jennifer. I get to be opposite one of the greatest actresses of our time.SIMARD: [Looks around]HILTY: That’s you, lady! I’m talking about you!SIMARD: I understand that Meryl and Goldie were good friends when they filmed this, and that’s very important to me. I told Megan, “You will be my friend. You have no choice. You’re going to like me or else. You’re going to be stuck with me.” And it’s just been really lovely to play with her on stage.

Megan Hilty in Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

In Death Becomes Her you give us a glimpse of people Meryl and Goldie created and then take those roles to a different place. When you approached the work, were there things Meryl and Goldie did that you said, “I like that choice, I’m going to do it as well?”HILTY: You definitely look at it and say, “What are the things that I can pay homage to and what are the things that I can give an essence of?” It’s that fine line.SIMARD: It’s very good for any actor who’s faced with something like this, or in general, to remember that you have nothing to prove; you only have something to share. And what you’re going to share is yourself and pieces of yourself.HILTY: We’re also not here to mimic their performance. Nobody can, nor should they.SIMARD: Right, this isn’t Forbidden Broadway. And to those who come after Megan and I, they shouldn’t imitate us. Everyone has something special and unique about them, and that informs the character and makes it special and unique to you.

The storytelling is so satisfying for fans of the film. It really scratches the nostalgia itch while also offering so many new things to fall in love with.SIMARD: I like the word “exaggerated” because it is a theatrical experience, it’s not a film. And so we’re not recreating the film, but we also have a mandate to make it theatrical. Hopefully we do it in a way that even when it’s the most exaggerated with broad brush strokes, it still resonates as being honest.HILTY: I always says, this is the same story told through the lens of, “What would happen if they were singing and dancing while they were trying to kill each other?”

Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in ‘Death Becomes Her’ on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

What was that process like discovering the rapport between these two women?HILTY: Comedy is so deceptively difficult. It’s equal parts math and magic. There’s a rhythm and a timing and a certain something that you can’t really describe in words. And I don’t think people really understand how difficult it is, because when it’s working, you shouldn’t feel the work at all.SIMARD: You know that moment in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum has the water on his hand and the water goes this way, and the next time it could go this way? Well, to Megan’s point about math, boy, it infuriates me on the stage when, if the science is not right or the math is not right, then the joke doesn’t work. So it really is that specific.HILTY: I feel blessed to have a partner in Jennifer. We have a really special understanding of that math and magic. And like she said, it really takes partners who are listening to each other.SIMARD: It was easy to find the comedy with Megan because we just listen to one another. We talk with our eyes on stage and we’re very, in my opinion, extremely generous with one another.

These roles are also both incredibly physical.HILTY: It was super fun to figure it all out at first.SIMARD: And we can’t give away the secrets, but the magic and illusions are quite active for us both.HILTY: But the real job is in the maintenance of it and that’s something people won’t really understand. We’re working hard behind the scenes to make it happen!SIMARD: Megan is charged with having to do incredible work in that regard, in my opinion. It’s really thrilling and we have to treat ourselves like athletes. I mean, Megan and I do so much to stay healthy, fit and ready for service.HILTY: If there is a stock in Epsom salts, buy now. Because wow, we are going to be using a lot of it during the course of the show.

Jennifer Simard and Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

This is one of the most exciting new scores Broadway has heard in eons. Did you have that feeling when you first heard Mattison and Carey’s songs?SIMARD: Absolutely. And can you believe this is their first Broadway credit?HILTY: I keep saying, we’re very lucky to be in their first musical before they’re too famous to speak to us anymore!SIMARD: I think every interview I’ve done, and this is no exception, I’ve said the thing that I’m most excited about in this show is how it’s going to change our composer and lyricist’s lives. They’re that good.HILTY: I’m blown away, not only by what they’ve created but how they’ve change it along the way to meet the ever-shifting needs of the show. They’re so smart and so adaptive. And how thrilling to hear them write in all of these different voices, too, and to create a score with levels.’SIMARD: Universal did take a chance on them. It’s a true testament of meritocracy in action. They called for submissions and Julia and Noel submitted the best material, and they got it. And I love that. This is their first big thing and it’s going to be the first of many.HILTY: I’m blown away, not only by what they’ve created but how they’ve change it along the way to meet the ever-shifting needs of the show. They’re so smart and so adaptive. And how thrilling to hear them write in all of these different voices, too, and to create a score with levels.

Should we say nice things about Christopher Sieber?HILTY: [Sarcastically] Nahhh.SIMARD: [Dryly] Pass.HILTY: [Dismissively] Next question!BOTH: [Laugh]SIMARD: No, Chris is truly the best.PEOPLE: He plays the role Bruce Willis made famous on screen and it’s wild how much he feels like Bruce up there.SIMARD: He really does. We actually watched him on stage yesterday — he didn’t know we were watching him just sort something out — and he was so focused and we were just, “Look at him go!” He’s just so lovely and kind and such a sweet man, which comes across in his Ernest. I can’t wait for people to see him try to navigate us two crazies, because so much of his job in this show is listening and reacting.HILTY: And handing us shovels.SIMARD: He’s very good at handling us shovels.

Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her on Broadway.

Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

How Death Becomes Her Reinvented Special Effects in 1992 — and Why Meryl Streep Found the Process ‘Tedious’

A big theme in the overarching story of Death Becomes Her is this unrealistic quest for beauty and youth. As two women in this industry, how have you navigated those pressures?HILTY: Pressures? What pressures? I don’t feel any of those pressures at all. I don’t know what you’re talking about.SIMARD: I’m so obsessed with you.HILTY: [Laughs] No, as a deeply vain person — and one who has been that way since she was a teenager — it’s something that I’ve struggled with for decades. I think, unfortunately, people make a lot of money off of women hating themselves. And so it’s kind of ingrained in our brains and our bodies to constantly want to do more to make ourselves desirable. Especially in this industry. It’s really, really difficult to separate yourself from that.SIMARD: I agree and I’ve spoken with [PEOPLE] before about my own feelings around body image, and sort of the dark places that disease [anorexia] took me to. It’s something many of us have to face every day. I don’t think there’s a person out there who doesn’t understand the pressure of looking their best.HILTY: I identify deeply with Madeline. She’s a woman of a certain age in an industry that is brutal to women. How dare any of us get older!SIMARD: I don’t know how many times, I’ve heard, “Boy, she’s really let herself go.” And conversely, “Ooh, she’s had too much work done.”HILTY: There’s no winning.SIMARD: None at all. We, the collective “we,” are in a lose-lose situation. But at the same time, the best comedy is rooted and pain. And I think we’re both able to really laugh at it through the course of this show.HILTY: Completely. That’s why I’m really, really thrilled to get to tell this story. While it is really funny, it’s funny because it’s based in honest truth. And it asks that question: How far are we willing to go to meet these horribly unrealistic standards of beauty and perfection?

Broadway’s Death Becomes Her.

Franz Szony

Megan Hilty Hilariously Uses Meryl Streep’s Bio as Her Own in Broadway’s Death Becomes Her Musical Playbill

Has telling that story night after night helped you both, in any way, heal some of your own feelings around these issues?SIMARD: In a way. I’ve gotten to a place where, as far as I’m concerned, everyone should do what makes them feel their best. If you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, “I love that person” — no matter what you look like, no matter what you’ve done to yourself or not done? That’s a win, right there. What matters is how you feel. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says, it’s no one’s business.HILTY: I love that answer. And I agree — you know, I have this song in the show called “Falling Apart,” and I love it so much because she’s listing all of the ways she’s tortured herself in an effort to stay relevant and it’s still not enough. She still feels cast aside and worthless. And I think it’s helped me realize just how ridiculous this all is.SIMARD: It really is. You have to just live for you. I mean, I’ve already said it but I’m not going to live this whole year of my life without having a cheeseburger or a slice of pizza.HILTY: Amen to that.SIMARD: The other night I had two slices of pizza and I texted Megan, “I’ll be taking no further questions at this time.” . . . But listen, I laugh but it’s true. I’m not going to make myself crazy to be something that I’m not. And I want to own every curve of my body. I think they’re beautiful and if other people don’t, who cares?HILTY: I feel that about the lines in my face, too. I’m no stranger to treatments. I’ve been doing Botox since my mid-twenties, just little bits to make sure nothing sets in. And there was a point last year where I was like, “I think I’m just going to let it go for a while.” Because, first of all, I need my face to move for the show. And second of all, I wanted to take more control over this. For so long, I fed into this game. And who knows, maybe I’ll go back one day — don’t hold me to it. But at least for now, I’m allowing myself to let go a bit.SIMARD: One of the things I feel by the end of the show is that there’s all kinds of different beauty and beauty standards. And I really like appealing to women of all shapes and sizes. That’s what I hope we succeed at at the end of the day. That’s more valuable than any laugh, or any applause; knowing that we’re helping women see their beauty no matter what.

Tickets to Death Becomes Her are now on sale.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education