Here’s a novelty item the Becky Shaw merch table might want to add to its offerings: a pair of judge’s paddles reading “Team Becky” and “Team Max.” That’s because the buzzy Broadway hit leaves audiences divided on a nightly basis over who the real hero of Gina Gionfriddo’s wryly hilarious and compellingly nuanced dark comedy might be. Is it Madeline Brewer‘s title character, a deceptively innocent young woman looking for love? Or is it Alden Ehrenreich‘s Max Garrett, the cynical financial advisor who gets set up on a blind date with Becky that goes disastrously off the rails?
Even the actors aren’t sure there’s a definitive answer. “With Becky in particular, you can feel how different audiences react to her,” Ehrenreich tells Gold Derby in the latest episode of Awards Magnet. “Sometimes she’s the hero, and sometimes she’s the villain. And sometimes it swaps in the middle of the play! It’s really wild.”
For her part, Brewer says she embraces those wild swings in the audience’s mood. “One of the most enjoyable elements of playing Becky is feeling the audience’s allegiance shift as soon as I say a particular word or give a particular look,” the actress says. “It’s great to feel that energy and allow it to give us another direction to not allow some of the nights where they’re really Team Max to hurt Becky. By the end of the play, if they’re Team Max and they’re laughing at Becky — and not with her — that’s a very different thing. Some nights I can handle it, and some nights I don’t handle it as well.”
Based on the strong reviews for Becky Shaw, both stars have been handling their Broadway debuts very well indeed. A Pulitzer Prize finalist when it premiered off-Broadway in 2008, Gionfriddo’s play is currently in Tony contention for its ensemble — which includes The Pitt‘s Patrick Ball as well as Tony winner Lauren Patten and three-time Tony nominee Linda Emond — and for Best Play Revival. The New York stage and its accompanying awards race is a brave new world for both Ehrenreich, whose film credits include Oppenheimer, Hail Caesar!, and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Brewer, who scored an Emmy nomination for her breakout role in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Read on for excerpts from our conversation with the stars and watch our full Awards Magnet interview above or listen along on your podcast platform of choice. And be sure to send your thoughts, voicemails and pick for your favorite fictional Becky to awardsmagnet@goldderby.com.
On feeling the electricity of Broadway crowds
Alden Ehrenreich: There’s been a consistency of energy from the crowds that’s really surprising. Even those occasional nights where the audience is a little quieter by the end of the show, they’re really all on board. It’s a comedy where so many people are saying so many things that no one is supposed to say to each other— just these horrific things! — and there’s kind of an exhilaration to that right now.
Madeline Brewer: There is some audience participation to the show, because I’m not sure how they could resist reacting to some of the things that I say or that Alden says. But there isn’t a shock and awe to it; we’re saying and doing things that people are not supposed to say and do. They certainly don’t anymore, and I don’t know if we ever were supposed to say and do these things. Especially for Becky as it pertains to her manipulation [of Max], when you think she’s not gonna go any farther, she takes another step, literally. And that’s cause for exclamation
On navigating the rehearsal process
Brewer: For me, it was about having to digest and metabolize some of the things that Becky is saying and doing and to allow myself before we really got into it to judge her and say, “I really hope that I would never do something like that.” And then as I spent more time with her, it was about trying to understand her history, what brought her to this point, and really empathizing with her. I didn’t find easy at first, but now I’m like madly in love with her! I sometimes feel like I’m the only person who is — except maybe for Gina, and sometimes [director] Tripp Cullman. [Laughs]
Ehrenreich: One of the things that’s so rich about this play — and I feel like I discovered this in a much deeper way when we were in the rehearsal process — is that it initially reads like this explosive comedy. But Gina has also created these incredibly deep roots that go back to everybody’s childhood. Things get brought back up, and when you really get into that soup, it’s so thorough in terms of how explains and justifies the way they’re behaving now. It’s amazing when a writer gives you the character’s psychology as explicitly as that, and it justifies some horrific things that I do and say.
On Becky Shaw‘s present day resonance
Ehrenreich: The show is this kind of debate about the merits and perils of being too sensitive versus people who aren’t sensitive enough. We are two poles on either side of that. There’s so much in our discourse now where people are like, “Oh, you’re a snowflake,” and I feel like that’s a generational thing. Every generation feels that the next one is soft, and that’s the debate that happens in this play about where there’s a time to feel your feelings and when is there a time to not do all of those things. And it doesn’t provide any easy answers to that.
Brewer: This is probably going to be a controversial thing to say, but something that Lauren and I talk about quite a bit is the way that people in our culture reward masculinity. We see some of the effects of Max’s more toxic masculinity, but we also see the effects of Becky’s toxic femininity and how identifying so stringently to them is ruining their lives and their relationships. And I can see in the way people talk about the show that the more masculine energy tends to be more enjoyed and rewarded in terms of the laughter for some of Alden’s lines versus mine or Lauren’s lines.
Ehrenreich: That’s really interesting.
Brewer: You should come and hang in our dressing room! We’re just chatting and yapping. [Laughs]
On who “wins” at the end of the play
Ehrenreich: Everybody except for Max and maybe Susan changes [by the end], which is kind of an amazing feat when you really look it. Becky and Suzana’s arc are about empowerment, whereas Max’s arc is about having his personality or identity sort of torn apart, and the nakedness that comes with that before it gets rebuilt.
Brewer: By the end, I think that Becky has finally found a point of view outside of herself. But I have not made a single decision about what happens after the blackout, because that’s not for me to know. One of my friends said to me, “Becky’s gonna be just fine.” That really did mean a lot to me, because most people say, “My God, you were so crazy.” And I don’t think she’s crazy at all. So I’m not worried about Becky — I’m worried about Max! [Laughs]
On Hail Caesar! and The Handmaid’s Tale
Ehrenreich: That was one of the best experiences of my life, doing that movie. I was sort of living what the character was living in a way, because it felt like I was the one non A-list celebrity in the movie, and I was tasked with this big opportunity. But it was great and [the Coen brothers] are two of most brilliant filmmakers in the world.
Brewer: It’s great to have been a part of something like The Handmaid’s Tale that has taken on an entire life of its own. People march in protest dressed as Handmaids! So it’s a very special thing to have been a part of, and I made friends on that show that are friends for life. I grew up on that show — I was a baby when I started! My frontal lobe wasn’t done growing. [Laughs]
