INTERVIEW: Grace Hodgett Young on bringing a new Betty to ‘Sunset Blvd.’
Photo: Sunset Blvd. features Grace Hodgett Young as the character of Betty Schaefer. Photo courtesy of Marc Brenner / Provided by DKC / O&M with permission.
NEW YORK — The journey that Grace Hodgett Young has been on for the past couple of years has been an engaging and enjoyable one, filled with overwhelming success and many important professional choices. She is currently appearing in the hit musical revival Sunset Blvd. at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, where the actor portrays the character of Betty Schaefer, a key role that is an important part of the overall narrative.
The show, directed by Jamie Lloyd and featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, is a classic Hollywood tale of writers and actors trying to make it in Tinseltown, and how the industry chews up and spits out those performers it deems un-bankable anymore. The current revival, also starring Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis, is a sensation in Midtown Manhattan, gaining headlines for its unique staging, its stunning video projections and an Act-II opener that has never been done before.
Right in the middle of this artistic frenzy is Young, who was with the show in London and traveled to the United States for this Broadway transfer. Now, with less than two months until her journey is complete and Sunset Blvd. closes July 13, she has become reflective of this unbelievable opportunity and how she’s brought her acting talents to such an interesting role.
Here’s how it all began …
“I had an audition for a musical,” Young said in a recent phone interview. “They weren’t actually telling us what the musical was, and the rounds were very quick turnarounds. I had about six rounds for the ensemble, and then throughout the audition process we kind of learned what the show was. On my last ensemble round, they asked me to do some Betty material, and I thought it was for the cover. I thought they had cast everyone, and then they probably kept me in for an hour and a half, two hours. And then Jamie asked if I was free the next day. I said, ‘Yes,’ and I actually wasn’t because I was supposed to be working in the bar that I was working at. Anyway, I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he asked if I would like to come and join him at the Betty finals the next day.”
She landed the part (obviously), and next she needed to learn the material. The show’s music, courtesy of Webber, is iconic and sweeping, and the book and lyrics by Don Black and Christopher Hampton are extensive and challenging. Plus, with no typical set or period costumes, the image of old-time Hollywood would need to be brought to life by the actors on stage.
“It was all very much so new material for me,” she said. “I had heard of the show, but I didn’t know any of the material from it. I hadn’t watched the film, and I still haven’t because I don’t want to let it influence anything that I’m doing on stage. So it’s one of the things that I’m looking forward to doing whilst the show is over is watching the film.”
Young sees Betty as a driven and determined woman. As portrayed in this version of the show, Betty has grown as a character and features a strong backbone.
“I think she potentially was there in the beginning of the show to just be a love interest, and I think through the process of us creating this version of Sunset, we’ve given her a lot more meat to the bone,” the actor said. “She’s got a job to do. She’s really determined to get her work seen, and she just happens to fall in love with this person throughout that story. But that’s not her main storyline. She’s there to get her job done, which I love about her.”
In the musical, Young’s Betty and Francis’ Joe Gillis take a liking to each other, but Joe finds himself caught in the orbit of Norma Desmond (Scherzinger), an actor who used to be in the “pictures,” but has been forgotten about by the industry. Betty, on the other hand, is at the start of her writing career and trying to understand and overcome the strange business of producing movies. Much of this retelling of the Betty character was discovered during an extensive rehearsal process.
“It was incredible,” Young said. “I don’t know if I will ever experience a rehearsal process like this one ever again. It was just absolutely insane, and Jamie would say, ‘I’ve got an idea. Just trust me.’ And then we’d trust him, and we’d try it. It would be amazing, or maybe it didn’t work, and we tried something else. He was massive on doing drafts, he’d call them. ‘We’ll do this draft and see how that works.’ It was a very collaborative experience, which was amazing because it felt like we were all putting our own print on the show and on these characters and making it our own.”
What’s unique about this Sunset Blvd. — well, OK, everything is unique about this version — is that the actors are not only bringing their craft to the stage itself, but their images are broadcast live on an enormous screen that slants toward the audience. Theatergoers have the thrill of being at a Broadway show but somehow also feeling like they are in a movie theater watching a tale of old Hollywood. This creates some unique challenges for the cast because they have cameras catching their every move.
“I’m aware of it in the physical sense,” Young said about the filming. “It doesn’t really change much in terms of the acting style and technique, but you are very much so aware that every single pore is being magnified on that big screen.”
In the opening scenes of the musical, Young’s Betty is seen amidst the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, taking lunches, hoping for meetings, moving from office to office. The actor loves this crazed part of the show, and she credited choreographer Fabian Aloise with the creative choices around the movement.
“He’s so big on making each move relevant to what we’re saying and where we’re supposed to be, and so it really does transport us into that hustle and bustle of that world,” Young said. “And even just the simple standing in a queue, that kind of momentum of waiting to finally pitch your idea or waiting to speak to your boss or whatever, it’s so physically set on the stage.”
When the show met with success in London, a Broadway transfer proved inevitable. Young remembers receiving the call and wondering how she would juggle such a life-changing move across the pond.
“I was in rehearsals for Hadestown when I knew that we were coming here, and so there was a question of whether I’d be able to go, which was a worry,” she said. “The fact that I’d have to move so far away from home — I’m such a home bird — it has been a massive adjustment for me. But like anything, you make it work for you, and it was a lot. A lot of things kind of made it an overwhelming choice, but in the best way because it was kind of like this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And hopefully it isn’t, but with this show, it definitely is. And so, yeah, it was like an overwhelming sense of: This is insane; I have to do it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Sunset Blvd., featuring Grace Hodgett Young, continues through July 13 at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
