Two-Time Olivier Winner Katie Brayben on Finally Making Her Broadway Debut in Tammy Faye

You may not know Katie Brayben’s name, but you’re about to. The two-time Olivier Award-winning actor will soon make her long-awaited Broadway debut in Tammy Faye, the new Broadway musical from Elton John. Brayben first starred in the show in London. Normally, when a musical transfers from London to Broadway, there’s a large chance that the British cast will be replaced—unless the creative team advocates for a performer, making it clear that they are irreplaceable. That was the case for Brayben.

“This is the moment when I want to make a joke and say they made a mistake,” says Brayben jovially. Though speaking to her, it’s astonishing how the soft-spoken, London-born Brayben has been able to transform herself into the larger-than-life, utterly Midwestern televangelist Tamara Faye Messner. But perhaps that’s why the British actor has been so acclaimed for her performance and why she’s bringing it to Broadway—she earned her second Olivier for playing Messner.

“I love that about being an actor, that you can suddenly understand a new perspective that you've never really been able to see into before,” says Brayben, who admits she didn’t grow up religious. She also didn’t know much about Messner before the show’s director Rupert Goold reached out to her about the project in 2022 (the two are frequent collaborators).

Tammy Faye had its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2022. Co-written by Jake Shears and James Graham, Tammy Faye will be the first production at the reopened Palace Theatre on Broadway (previews begin October 19, and it will open November 14). Messner’s story of being a famed televangelist, who was as known for her sky-high eyelashes as she was for her radical (for the time) acceptance of gay people, has been dramatized multiple times before. Bernadette Peters played Messner in the 1990 film Fall From Grace. Jessica Chastain earned her Oscar for portraying Messner in the 2021 film The Eyes of Tammy Faye. This Tammy Faye musical is actually the fifth stage show to dramatize Messner’s life (Kristin Chenoweth was previously attached to a separate musical).

“She came from quite humble beginnings, and then had this incredible rise to the top as a Christian broadcaster,” explains Brayben. “At a time when conservative Christians were not so open and not so compassionate, she made it possible to be an incredibly fierce Christian and yet have open arms. And I think people really resonated with that. She is also a really extraordinary character. For me playing her, what I love is that she's so in the moment—she's always on the edge of an emotion, and I think that is so indicative of her as an empathetic person.”

Brayben thinks the continual fascination with Messner’s life was because she was such an original, a woman filled with contradictions—one who preached charity but also spent extravagantly; she took pride in her authenticity and truthfulness, but her husband, Jim Bakker (played in the musical by Christian Borle), had frequent affairs and was imprisoned for mail and wire fraud. In other words, someone filled with complexity—catnip for an actor.

Katie Brayben, Robyn Rose Georgia Louise, and Kelly Agbowu in *Tammy Faye* Marc Brenner

“She's incredibly complex and fallible, like every human being is,” says Brayben. “I don't find it difficult to align with her in terms of her contradictory nature. I think we're all capable of being many different faceted people at the same time. And the thing that I hold true with Tammy, the thing that is important for me playing her, is her faith—basically, her faith being an anchor for her, that makes sense to me.”

What also makes sense for Brayben: how Messner led her congregation, which was pure theatre. She was not a meek woman behind a podium—her voice was loud, she loved to sing and reached out to her audience as she did so. “Her ability to express herself through song—it lends itself so well to being a musical, especially to Elton John’s songs,” says Brayben. “She got so much energy from people—which is why, when [Messner and Bakker] were brought down, it was so tough on her…I think what people don't realize about Tammy is that she was actually quite a lonely figure.” Like a figurative theatre kid, Messner needed her community.

In the musical, Brayben’s job is to treat the audience as her congregation—to break the fourth wall, grab their hearts, and bring them along to her story, which spans decades. That performer- to-audience relationship is one that Brayben knows intimately—her parents were both musicians, and the performer won her first Olivier for playing Carole King in Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. She’s become something of an expert on playing real people—she also played Princess Diana in King Charles III in the West End (though not transferring when that production reached Broadway).

Now, Brayben will be playing an American real-life figure far from home, under the bright lights of Broadway—and hoping that American audiences will find her Tammy Faye just as riveting as British audiences did. There are new lines and new songs to learn. But the West End star is not worried; she’s intent on enjoying the moment (she's looking forward to taking in some Broadway shows, specifically Stereophonic). When asked how she feels about Elton John writing songs for her voice, she humbly demurs, pivoting to the creative team.

“What I love about working with this team is that there's no stress, there's no pressure. We just want to put on a really, really good musical that people are going to love,” she says. “It's joyous, it's complex, it's so funny…If I was to zoom out, I'd be like, ‘Oh my God, I'm going to Broadway. This is huge!’ But actually, I feel really chilled about it, and I think that's the best way to be.”

It also helps that this run of Tammy Faye will be easier in some ways. When Brayben first performed the show in 2022, she was pregnant at the same time with her son—when the production closed, she was five months along. This time, her 15-month-old son will be waiting at home, bringing her back down after she’s been singing to high heaven. “You're just like, ‘I've got to clean up some poo,’” Brayben says dryly. “So, you just come back to Earth immediately.”