Megan Hilty on Her Upcoming Shows, Including Three in Massachusetts

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Two-time Tony nominee will give two concerts in Concord, May 29-30

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Two-time Tony Award nominee Megan Hilty (“Death Becomes Her,” “Noises Off”) isn’t on an official concert tour, but that hasn’t stopped the popular Broadway and television performer from booking numerous upcoming dates including three in the Bay State alone. First up in Massachusetts is the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, May 29–30.

Best known for her starring role as Ivy Lynn on the NBC-TV musical-drama series “Smash,” on which she sang the Grammy Award-nominated “Let Me Be Your Star,” Hilty was on her own route to stardom when she made her Broadway debut as the standby for Glinda the Good Witch in “Wicked.” She performed the role for the first time on October 8, 2004, opposite Idina Menzel as Elphaba.

The Seattle, Washington, native has subsequently appeared on Broadway in the 2008 musical adaptation of “9 to 5: The Musical,” where she played the role Dolly Parton originated on film; the 2015 Roundabout Theatre Company revival of “Noises Off,” for which she received her first Tony nomination; and most recently, the hit musical stage adaptation of “Death Becomes Her,” which, just last season, earned her a second Tony nomination.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Hilty has released albums including “ Megan Hilty Live at the Café Carlyle.” She also filmed her solo concert for the PBS “Live from Lincoln Center” series. The singer has performed with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops, as well as other world-renowned orchestras including the New York Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Houston Symphony.

By Zoom recently from her home in New York, Hilty discussed her upcoming dates in Concord and the concerts she’ll do this summer at Town Hall in Provincetown (July 5) and Barrington Stage Company (July 20) in Pittsfield.

You had a long Broadway run in “Death Becomes Her.” What’s it like being back on the road?

It’s not an official tour, but I’m so lucky to be booked and busy. It’s not like doing one-nighters, going stop to stop to stop. Instead, I’m doing what I love to do, the way I like to do it. I get to travel and see new places and meet new people.

Can you talk a little about your set list for these shows?

I’ve added some newer songs so the concerts have evolved over the 15 years I’ve been doing them to where now there’s kind of a little bit of everything. There’s music from “Smash” and “9 to 5” through “Death Becomes Her” and of, course, “Wicked.” I’ll still be singing “Popular” and “For Good” when I’m 100. There will also be some Patsy Cline, and I have to throw a little soprano in there, too. Nobody has hired me to play a soprano recently, but that’s my actual background.

Would you describe yourself as a soprano?

I would describe myself as a mezzo, because I really enjoy the richer, lower tones. But I really am a soprano, so I think mezzo covers everything. I had training as a soprano and I wanted to be an opera singer, but my career ended up going in a different direction. So to satisfy my soprano side now, I’ll sing something like “I Could Have Danced all Night” from “My Fair Lady.”

Is there a song that you brought to the public’s attention and that is now a fixture on your set list?

Well, I open everything with “They Just Keep Moving the Line” from “Smash.” It’s a Marc Shaiman song, with lyrics by Scott Wittman , that’s perfectly written and structurally built. Marc and Scott are brilliant and, for me, this is one of their best numbers. It feels like a good touchstone for me, to come out and sing this song that feels like part of my bones because it lives so deep inside me. It’s a thrilling song, and it’s fun for people who are fans of “Smash.” They’re like, “I came for that song and you did it immediately! Thank you!” So instead of keeping it to the end, I always begin my shows with it.

What else can audiences who know you from Broadway and television expect when they come to see you in concert?

I’ve always said that the whole point of doing these concerts, or going to these concerts, is to get to know the artist outside of the roles that they play and instead through the songs that make them who they are. Whether you know me or you had no idea who I was when you purchased a ticket, by the end of the night, we’re going to be best friends. And that’s what I want – a real connection. I want people to know who I am, and to hear about all these crazy, wild experiences I’ve gotten to have in my career.

I’ll likely be doing pop, like Don Henley ’s “Heart of the Matter,” country, and both big belting and tender Broadway songs. I may do “Crazy Dreams,” which was one of the covers I did in “Smash.” It’s a Carrie Underwood song that our music producer, Andy Zulla, slowed down a little bit, to make it a pop ballad.

You’ve played strong, singular female characters on stage and television. Is that a conscious choice on your part?

I wish I had the kind of control over my career to be able to choose only these projects, but I don’t. It really has been where my life has led me, but I’m grateful both that when people cast me in these things, they see me as a person who is a champion of women, and for those very rare storylines where we all work together well.

Why do you suppose positive roles for women are so few and far between?

Honestly, I don’t know. I just think that we’re so often fed a narrative that if there’s more than one woman, we can’t possibly get along. We have to fight, tear things up, and be in some kind of competition. In my experience, that couldn’t be farther from the actual truth. You know, all of my best friends are wildly talented female artists, so that’s a narrative that I would like to be a part of instead.

Has that narrative been a part of any of your projects?

It was that way when I played Patsy Cline in the 2019 Lifetime movie “Patsy & Loretta,” opposite Jessie Mueller as Loretta Lynn . How much these two great country singers loved and supported each other was the whole storyline. And in “Death Becomes Her,” Jennifer Simard and I played Madeline Ashton and Helen Sharp, frenemies who were literally trying to kill each other, but still loved each other. That story is about an unconventional friendship, but there is love at the base of it.

There is also that kind of love between Glinda and Elphaba in “Wicked.” Are you comfortable having been for so long a part of the “Wicked” sorority?

I am a proud, card-carrying member of the Wicked Society so I am very comfortable. It was my first job out of college. I had just graduated from Carnegie Mellon, and I came into the Broadway company nine months after the show opened as the standby to Glinda. I ended up spending four and a half very formative years of my life with that company – on Broadway, then two years in Los Angeles, and six months on the road, and later they even let me come back out on the tour, too, to go through my hometown of Seattle.

That show taught me so much about myself, about the industry, and about how to be a leading lady. I’m not saying I’ve learned it all yet, but “Wicked” taught me a lot, and I’ll always be deeply proud to be a part of that enormous legacy.

Is there one Broadway performer whom you consider to be your favorite?

It would be Bernadette Peters for sure. When I was a teenager, my access to Broadway was through CDs and the librettos that went with the music. So I would go to the library and I would check out as many as I could, and then sit down and listen to them, and follow along in the libretto. It was a wonderful way to get to know a show. My husband, Brian Gallagher , who’s a musician, and I say all the time how sorry we feel for the generations after us who just look up Broadway performances on YouTube. They’re not meant to be captured that way. You lose so much of the performance and the quality of the sound.

I distinctly remember the original “Into the Woods” cast album, and the second Bernadette started to sing anything, I sat up straight and thought, “Who is this person creating this sound?” Her voice was literally resonating with me. That’s why she is who she is. Bernadette creates these literal vibrations that are received by people in a very special way.

In addition to being a favorite of yours, is Peters also an inspiration?

Absolutely. From the first time I heard Bernadette’s voice, I became, not obsessed with her, that sounds crazy, but fascinated by her and her career and the more I looked into her, I was like, “That’s the type of career that I want.” Nobody can be like Bernadette Peters , of course, but I wanted the kind of well-roundedness in my career that she has always had in hers.

What was it like for you to work with Peters on “Smash”?

They were looking at a list of people to play my character’s mother when Neil Meron , the producer, called me and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but Bernadette has agreed to play your mother.” I just about died when I heard that.

She’s one of the people who I turn into a total goober around. Even though she is the nicest, most approachable, most supportive person, I still find it hard to act like a normal human being around her. That’s unfortunate, too, because I love her so very much.

What’s next for you? Would you like to do another television series?

I would, if it made sense for my family. The older I get, the more aware I am that it’s not just me I’m making decisions for anymore, it’s all of us. Brian and I have two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son.

What about Broadway?

I would absolutely do Broadway again if it was the right thing. Musicals are such a huge commitment, though, that I do not take lightly, especially after I had to take a leave from “Death Becomes Her” because of a vocal injury. That was a difficult time for me, both physically and mentally. Doing eight shows in some of the musicals being written today is too much.

What I would eventually love to do is have some kind of campaign with my doctor that really educates people on how voices work, and how rest is imperative. And working on Broadway, we are sometimes not allowed to be humans, we are supposed to be robots. It’s not only hard on the voice either. I was working with a physical therapist the whole time on “Death Becomes Her.”

How are you feeling these days?

Great. My body’s reset, my voice is reset, everything’s reset really, and now I get to go and do another of my favorite things, which is concerts. They’re so much fun, and I’m in control of them, you know? I’m the one who calls the shots. Even in the middle of the show, if something feels like it’s not right, we’ll just switch it up, and we’ll do something else. And I feel very comfortable sharing Megan Hilty with the public, and not just behind the shield of a character.

Photo caption: Two-time Tony Award nominee Megan Hilton will appear in concert May 29–30 at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord. Photo by Leah Portis and Laura Matula .

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/boston/article/Interview-Megan-Hilty-Talks-Upcoming-Concerts-at-The-Umbrella-Arts-Center-20260523)._