'Merrily We Roll Along' Star Krystal Joy Brown's Backstage Photo Diary
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Before Krystal Joy Brown joined the cast of Merrily We Roll Along–on Broadway through July 7—she says, “I didn’t really know the show.” It was during her tenure in Hamilton that the revival was first announced, however, and when it was, she says, “I took a screen shot of the announcement and sent it to my reps; I didn’t know if there was a role in it for me, but it was a world I wanted to be in. I loved the story of these artists going through New York, making big choices, coming together, and losing each other. It was such a deep story.”
Now, after starring in director Maria Friedman's off-Broadway run at New York Theatre Workshop and a Broadway production that’s been drawing huge crowds since opening in October 2023, Brown knows the piece—with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim—as well as anyone could. Her character, Gussie Carnegie, is a stage legend who finds herself involved with Franklin Shepard (Jonathan Groff), an on-the-rise writer whose success tears at his relationship with his two best friends, Charley Kringas (Daniel Radcliffe) and Mary Flynn (Lindsay Mendez). “I get Gussie,” Brown says. “I did a lot of work creating her and her complexities. That's how she became real to me.”
Here, Brown shares her backstage photo diary with T&C.
"Here I am in my dressing room. When I first got this job, I made a notebook about Gussy and the women I found to be really inspirational in creating the character. You see Dorothy Dandridge, Bette Davis, Eartha Kit, Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, and Lena Horn up there. It helps having them around, it helps me to get into the zone. I look at these images, and they look fantastic and fabulous, but they went through a lot to be where they are, and I think that's a big part of Gussie."
"I do the splits before every show. Before we go on, we do a hands-in—a go-team kind of thing—and then I say, 'have a good show, everybody,' and I go to a corner and do the splits in every direction. I did it in Hamilton, and now I just feel like I have to do it. It's one of those superstitious rituals."
"We had a photo booth for the photos that are in the poster for the show, and our marketing photos. Some of them ended up on the billboard, and the ones that didn't are like our own little memorabilia. There's Natalie Wachen, Talia Simone Robinson, Maya Boyd, and me in this photo; it's all of the Black women in the show and we're just kind of all smooshed up here. This is one of my favorite photos."
“My favorite thing about the show is the two hours and 48 minutes that we're performing. That's my favorite time. This picture was right after a show, when my best friends from high school had come to the see it and they had just met Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe. They're always so happy to meet my people. I have no idea what we're talking about here, but working with them has just been so easy. They're so lovely to be with, and I'll be sad when we wrap this up, but I know that I'll have some true lifelong friends.”
“These are flowers from a fan named Dawn. It's really touching and feels very old school to be sent flowers from someone you don't know very well. I don't really do the stage door because it gives me anxiety, but my favorite part of theater is connecting with the audience and having moments with them. So, I met Dawn on the street out front of the show and we started talking; it was my birthday and she said, ‘I want to send you something for your birthday.’ So, she sent me flowers. I am so thankful for fans who are showing us how this show is affecting their lives, I just find it really touching. And Dawn has the best taste in flowers!”
“Here I am in my ‘blob’ outfit. It’s for a song called ‘The Blob’ when Gussie introduces Frank to the world of New York socialites, she's saying, meet the blob, the bodies you read about, the ones who know everyone that everyone knows. I’m pictured here with [my co-star] Vishal Vaidya, and we’re giving that 1960s mod vibe; I love this number in part because of this ensemble.”
“I took this one night after I was done with the show, and I was walking home. After being this big character in this wonderful show, I put my beanie on, I put my headphones in, and I start walking home—I go back to being just a regular New Yorker. I cross Times Square every day, which at times can be harrowing but is also kind of beautiful. I’m so proud to be able to be in New York with the opportunity to have this career and create.”
You Might Also Like
