Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty Are a Modern Abbott and Costello in Death Becomes Her

The last time Megan Hilty was on Broadway was in 2016, when she starred in the revival of Noises Off (which earned her a Tony nomination). Then after that triumph, Hilty pivoted. She moved to Los Angeles, had her second child, and decided to focus more on screen work and singing.

“Eight shows a week is really, really, really difficult, and it’s a big lifestyle shift,” she admits. “And I had a very comfortable life out in Los Angeles. I always said it would take something extraordinarily special to get me to move my whole family back here and change our whole lives.” Then during Thanksgiving 2022, that something special gave her a call—Hilty was asked if she wanted to star in the Broadway-bound musical adaptation of Death Becomes Her, one of her favorite films. “I looked at my husband, and I was like, ‘Oh, I think it’s here,’” Hilty recalls with a delighted laugh.

Responds Jennifer Simard, Hilty’s co-star in Death Becomes Her, who is sitting across from her: “I think you made the right choice.” Musical theatre audiences might agree. Hilty is currently making her long-awaited return to Broadway in Death Becomes Her, now running at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with an opening night of November 21.

The musical comedy is based on the cult classic 1992 film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, as two rivals who decide to take a potion that promises immortality and eternal youth—with some nasty side effects. Though the film was met with negative reviews when it was first released, in the years since, it amassed a queer fan base, drawn to its campy overtones and shady female leads—with Hawn’s delivery of the line “En garde, BITCH!” and Streep's delivery of "Now, a warning?" the stuff of comedy legend.

“I’ve always thought that this movie would be arguably the best film to transfer to a stage, just because the storyline is so fabulously over the top,” says Hilty. “There are so many instances that lend themselves to breaking into song.” Marco Pennette (whose credits include the comedic series Ugly Betty) wrote the book, with songs by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey.

In Death Becomes Her, Hilty plays an actor named Madeline who, realizing she’s losing opportunities for roles as she ages, takes a potion to preserve her looks. Her longtime friend and rival, writer Helen Sharp (played by Simard), also decides to take the potion to become beautiful after Madeline steals her fiancé.

Simard and Hilty mostly knew of each other before they began working together on the show. They had briefly met in 2016. "It was no big deal. It was just because we both were nominated for Tonys at the same time. Not a big deal," says Hilty, playfully tossing her hair Glinda style (she is a former cast member in Wicked).

Adds Simard, warmly, "It was a mutual admiration society."

Death Becomes Her sees the women going back and forth, verbally and physically and with shovels, for dominance. While the women in the story take every opportunity to attack each other, behind-the-scenes, Hilty and Simard have a more comradely approach. Though they are both sending audiences in stitches every night, they are not trying to one-up each other.

“One thing I love in this show is being what I consider the Bud Abbott to Megan’s Lou Costello,” says Simard, who has two Tony nominations for her comedic work: Company and Disaster! “We respect one another. We hold for laughs. I just think when you’re working with someone as experienced as Megan, for me, it’s just a joy, because I know if I give her the setup, if I throw her the ball, she’s gonna make the basket. And that’s really wonderful. And a lot of the time, because of how we volley back and forth—of who has the power and who doesn’t—it requires her to throw me the assist sometimes. And so there’s such trust built into that. Like an athlete, we’re a team.”

While Death Becomes Her marks a Broadway return for Hilty, for Simard, it marks a milestone in her career. Known as one of the most gifted comedians and character actors currently working, standing out in a variety of supporting roles, Death Becomes Her marks Simard's first time leading a show on Broadway, with her name above the title. Though the actor is taking it in stride, and not letting it get to her head.

"I'm just really grateful for the work and to be in a community that I can keep coming back to," says Simard thoughtfully. "Because I always say this, one day it will be your last Broadway show, and you never know when that will be. You never know. And you have to cherish it. So whether I'm above the title or in the chorus, and now I can say I've done both, it's a privilege."

In adapting Death Becomes Her for the stage, neither the creators nor its leading ladies were interested in replicating the film. For one, in 2024, the sight of two women fighting over a man can seem regressive. Though these two actors weren’t keen on spoiling how the show differs from the film, or even how they achieve the head-turning special effects, they did reveal that the show is deepening the film’s themes—of how women become more invisible and sidelined by society as they age, yet it’s futile to try to hang onto youth.

“As a woman in the entertainment industry of a certain age, you do start to question, how far are you willing to go to try and fit whatever you think this industry wants of you? It just so happens that Madeline’s willing to go a little farther than I am,” says Hilty wryly. “I have this song called ‘Falling Apart.’ It’s a funny song, but to me, it’s also a really heartbreaking song. To me, it’s the epitome of a woman grappling with she’s done everything she could possibly do, and she’s still being discarded. So I appreciate finding the humor in these things. But also, it’s very real for me, and I know a lot of other women in general, you don’t have to be in this industry.”

Ever the quick wit, Simard starts her answer with sarcasm, "For me, at 26, I'm finding it a challenge." Hilty laughs in response, before apologizing, "I laughed too hard at that, sorry."

Jennifer Simard and Megan Hilty Heather Gershonowitz

But more seriously, Simard adds, "Women are often placed in a lose-lose situation when it comes to looks. I don't know how many times I've heard, 'Boy, she's really had too much work done.' Or, 'Wow, she's really let herself go.'...Stop commenting on how people look. This show really does an expert job at riding these kind of complicated issues in a sometimes touching, but also pretty hilarious way, which is tricky to do."

And this new version of Death Becomes Her is running in a moment when the conversations around womanhood and aging is bubbling in the ether. Just two blocks away from Death Becomes Her is the Broadway revival of Sunset Boulevard, which is also about an aging actress discarded by Hollywood. Meanwhile, the film The Substance, about a woman who injects herself with a serum to make her young again, has been much-discussed since September.

Simard and Hilty aren't keen on taking any potions to hang onto their youth. Instead, they've adopted healthier strategies for navigating the ups-and-downs of life and show business. For Hilty, it's her family and having a full life outside of work, saying, "When I was doing Wicked, my life was so consumed with that show, I very specifically went out and got two dogs so I had something else to completely throw myself into that had nothing to do with that job. And it taught me a whole other side of love and responsibility."

Simard says she writes in a journal every day, and meditates. And she takes comfort in how women are now publicly talking about their struggles, making it possible for a show like Death Becomes Her to exist. "Because of conversations like this," she gestures to her and Hilty, "and a lot of women doing a lot of really good using their words, it is changing. I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, and I'm at a perfect age to tell this story, or my part in this story."

After all, none of us can escape getting older. Life’s a bitch, and then you die (unless you’re Madeline and Helen). So, at the end, what truly matters? As this Death Becomes Her makes clear, says Simard, “It’s about, ultimately, finding your person, and that’s not necessarily who you start out thinking it is. And that there are different kinds of love. And finding your ride or die, literally and figuratively.”