Megan Hilty excited to give back at benefit
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
On stage, she’s been a “Bombshell, “a gold digger and a good witch. When Megan Hilty performs May 14 to benefit Pittsburgh’s Jewish Association on Aging, however, she plans to just be herself.
It wasn’t always that way, said Ms. Hilty, a 2004 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a Tony award nominee in 2016 for “Noises Off.”
“In the beginning, one-person shows and cabarets really made me nervous. … I always thought, ‘Oh, it has to be a story. I have to have a theme.’
“Until my manager told me, ‘No you don’t. It just has to be that people leave feeling they know you better than when they came in.’
“So, that changed everything. I feel more free to be myself, which is goofier and less stagy than a normal cabaret show.”
Expect a lot of musical theater, perhaps a standard or two at the August Wilson Center, Downtown.
“The money we are raising for that evening is going to the free health care fund for seniors,” she said. “Just knowing that makes me
excited to be part of something that would be giving back to the community that gave me so much while I was there.”
Ms. Hilty recently concluded an extended engagement at Cafe Carlyle in New York City.
When NBC was casting 2012’s “Smash,” a show about the making of a Broadway production about Marilyn Monroe, Ms. Hilty seemed perfect for the role of Ivy. The cast had a decidedly Pittsburgh flavor with major characters played by Fox Chapel native Christian Borle and CMU grad Leslie Odom Jr., who won a Tony for “Hamilton” and has been shooting the CBS All-Access series “$1” here.
On “Smash,” Ivy claws it out for the lead role in soapy fashion with Karen, played by “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee.
Ms. McPhee recently made her own Broadway debut, in “Waitress.”
“When [Ms. McPhee] was getting ready for it, she would ask me about little backstage things and stuff, but she’s got it, she knows. It’s been like she’s been doing it her whole life, it’s just a natural fit,” Ms. Hilty said. “Her performance is so beautiful.
“I’m just so incredibly proud of her, just so happy for her.”
Ms. Hilty made her own Broadway debut playing Glinda in “Wicked” and followed up starring in the Dolly Parton role in “9 to 5,” which earned her a Drama Desk nomination.
She also has worked regularly in television, most recently “The Good Fight” and “Brain Dead.”
On YouTube, Ms. Hilty can be found singing, “They Just Keep Moving the Line,” a song from “Smash.” It’s one people often request, and it’s also one that someday might be sung, for real, on Broadway.
There’s been talk that “Bombshell” might be on Broadway for real, someday. In the meantime, Ms. Hilty said, she’s hoping in a few years to perform a more sinister role, one she’s still too young to play.
“I’ve always wanted to play Mrs. Lovett in ‘Sweeney Todd,’” she said. “I have a couple of years before I’m right for it. Or, the witch from ‘Into the Woods.’”
Well, she has already done the good witch thing.