(upbeat music)
- [Tamsen] They are Broadway stars and they're besties.
Tony winner, Matt Doyle and Bonnie Milligan.
He's in "Little Shop of Horrors,"
she's in "Kimberly Akimbo."
Let's check back in with Paul Wontorek.
- So here we are, Matt and Bonnie.
So good to see you both.
And look, we're in Times Square.
This is where you work, Broadway.
- And it's our favorite place to be.
I do remember though, when I was like 15 years old
driving through here and calling my best friend
in California and being like "I just drove by "Aida",
Just freaking out, and now to be able to say
that we actually are part of this
and that we work here is really overwhelming.
I try to remind myself of that every time
that somebody throws you over into the street.
- (chuckling) Oh, Lord.
- You're right down on 45th Street, the Booth Theater
"Kimberly Akimbo," the acclaimed.
- So you're on 45th Street, and on that same block
you were in "Company," won a Tony Award on that.
That's a good block for you.
- That's a good block. - That's a great block.
It's a great block.
- We love 45th Street. - We love 45th Street!
- And Matt, you're off-Broadway but you're just --
- I'm off-Broadway. - You're in Broadway district,
in "Little Shop of Horrors" playing Seymour.
- [Matt] We consider it Broadway light.
- But you two are actually really good friends,
which is why we brought you together.
I wanted to dig into that a little bit.
- Oh, Okay.
(Matt chuckling) But also I wanted to,
there's like some holiday shopping at Times Square.
So like, let's -- - Let's shop.
- Let's head up and sit down
and chat a little bit.
- Cool. - Perfect.
- All right, let's walk this way.
(upbeat Christmas music)
Where did you guys first meet?
What's the origin story?
- We did a show called "Jasper in Deadland" together
on the Upper West side in a church.
- In a church, yeah.
- But also there was just one day,
I think it was on the first day of rehearsals
where somebody was like, "Can anyone sing that?"
And Bonnie was like, "I can."
And then it was like, "Can you sing it a little higher?
Why don't you actually option up here?"
And she just like wailed (laughing).
- Said, "I could do that, sure."
"You wanna, you wanna, okay, great."
- And I just sat on the side like,
(mouthing quietly) I'm obsessed with you.
- But I know that when you're performers in the city
people come in and outta your life
and you do shows and sometimes it's just a one-day reading
and sometimes it's a one-year run
and there's all sorts of relationships.
But what do you think made you two gel?
Because you're real friends. - We are real friends.
- Yes, I think being real with one another.
It's a difficult business.
There's a lot of competition between people.
There's a lot of creating a family and then losing a family.
And that's a very strange part about this.
You have to immediately be friends with your company
and work with them and understand them.
And there's just a few along the way
that you really, really, really get attached to,
to the point that that carries through
to your day-to-day life.
And Bonnie and I, I think just immediately
connected on a much deeper level
that went beyond the room.
In the jokes that we shared, in the not having to say
anything to one another, but a look across the room
and understanding each other fully.
And also in the support that we found in one another.
And we knew how to lift each other up.
And I think we still do that for each other.
I know when Bonnie's going through something
and I don't even need to like ask her.
- Fact, yeah.
Even sometimes he'll send a text be like,
"Well, how are we doing?"
I know, and I'm like, "Whoa, how did you, really like."
(laughing) Are you surveilling me?
Like it's like creepy.
I'm like, I'm behind you.
And I'm like, oh God!
Okay, well I'm awake now!
- And I don't have a lot of friends,
I'm not a social person.
I'm a very close to the chest person
in terms of my actual deep, deep personal life.
And Bonnie, I was like, "Come in."
- I was like, "You're not releasing me, just so you know."
He was like, "Great, I didn't want to, and I'm like, "Good!"
(Matt laughing)
- Well, I'm assuming, especially the last few years,
it's been tough, it's been tough to be an actor.
So tell me how you lean on each other in those times.
- I mean, especially during the pandemic,
I was home with my mother in Ohio for 11 months
and my dad passed at the beginning of it,
so I had been back and forth.
When it looked bad news bears (chuckling) I just stayed.
And I said, "I think I should just wait it out
in case they shut down airports."
And that turned into 11 months
and I texted him every day.
- Every single day. - Every day.
- Yeah, I mean, I still find pandemic videos on my phone
and it's videos to Bonnie or videos that I've saved of hers
that are really you just singing in your garage.
- (laughing) Garage, great acoustics.
- Great acoustics.
You've got a White Claw in hand.
- Yeah, ah-ha, yeah, for sure.
- Didn't we all. - Didn't we all.
- Oh man, and yeah, I think we survived on each other
and survived on giving each other hope
and lifting each other up, it was the most depressing
and confusing time of all of our lives.
And we had just watched so many things
that meant the world to us, whether it be our job
or our family disappear and fall away from us.
And I think Bonnie and I definitely leaned on each other
a great deal throughout all of that.
- Oh yeah.
And everything from like sharing a funny meme or something
to like saying, "I'm having a panic attack right now because
my mother just said 'You're alone, you have no one.'"
Which happened, and I was like, "Oh God."
Just like confronted with so much beyond
like I put everything into my career
and being like "Well, now you have no one, so is that okay?"
You're like, "Ah," like having to go into the other room
and be like, "I'm actually having a panic attack right now."
And he's had them and we both have had them
that we don't have to deal with "I know it sounds crazy,
but I'm having irrational thoughts,"
but like somebody else that just knows.
- I called Bonnie on the first preview back.
So "Company" was a fascinating return just
because we all had a lot of trauma
that we were going through
and it just revealed itself in different ways.
And I do have a panic attack disorder
and there are two people that I call first,
my mother and Max.
- First he calls and I answer, I go, "Hi!"
- And I was like, (gasping) "I'm having a panic attack,
I need your help, (whimpering) I called,
I called several other people, but no one else would answer.
And I was like, "Okay, okay, okay,
let's just breathe together." (Matt laughing)
And I know his list is not long,
so it really made me laugh enough to tell him later.
I was like, "I will say how you opened up is
that no one else would pick up."
- And he's like, "That was two people."
I was like, "I know, but how it came out was so funny."
- Hey, being number three in someone's life is pretty good.
- It's just so rude. - That's really good.
Just right off the bat. - "No one else would pick up."
- "No one else would pick up,"
"Okay, cool, well I did, so let's do this."
- So tell me, what do you say to a fellow-performing friend
who's having a panic attack
at the first preview of the "Company?"
- Well, as someone who has gone through them,
I just said, "Let's breathe together."
And I said, "You are here right now."
Because what happens is your brain just starts going
on all these different scenarios
and it gets freaky that it's like, "Hey, right here,
we're here right now, just breathe with me."
And we just started breathing together.
- As I just sobbed uncontrollably.
- And I'm like "It's okay, let's just do it again, deep."
And that's kind of what we did for a while was breathe
until I could hear his breathing kind of come to a center
and I'm like, "You're great, this is normal."
So, you know there's no judgment.
I'm like, "This is a hundred percent normal.
You have been through a lot, it's okay."
- And I think that's something
that we also have always connected on.
Bonnie and I don't judge each other.
We're able to say everything to each other.
And that is really important in a business
that's all about rejection and your own insecurities
and confusion about how you're presenting yourself
and who you are and what people are going to think.
And we're able to say all of the things that we keep inside
and things that we don't want to admit
and we can connect on that.
And I've never, ever once
felt a sense of judgment from Bonnie.
- There's times I can also text and be like,
"I know this is irrational but here's what I feel,"
I need to get it out of me
'cause if I don't then I'm gonna spiral.
And so I'm, "But here's what I'm going through right now."
And I'm finding that now, especially as I'm going into
this season where it's just like,
"Hey, I know this is a little crazy,
but this is what I'm feeling."
He's like, "This is normal, I went through this too."
So that we can like be a soundboard.
- I usually respond like "50% of this is irrational
and false and the other 50% might be true."
(Matt laughing)
And this is how I dealt with it.
- Yep, 'cause let's face it,
you get presented a fantastic role in a fantastic show.
We all just saw Matt when his Tony Award,
so thrilling, and you are playing Aunt Debra
in "Kimberly Akimbo" and you won Lortel Award off-Broadway.
You've been nominated for other awards.
So suddenly there's a lot of attention.
And suddenly there's extra pressure.
You don't get Covid, don't miss this show.
You never know who's gonna be in the house.
So it is a lot to handle, and I guess
Matt could probably write a book about it.
- And I said to Bonnie as I watched this moment
kind of explode for her especially when the show opened
and she's so outrageously brilliant in it
and it's such a phenomenal role for her.
I cannot really begin to describe
how insane all of this gets.
And I was like, "Please just come to me
with absolutely everything"
because I didn't really have that.
And I did have to be careful at my theater
and you don't want to walk into the theater
asking people constantly like, (pleadingly) what do I do?
- Yeah. - How do I get a Tony?
- Yeah, yeah. (clapping hands)
- Like gimme more advice, so I'm grateful that I'm able
to kind of bestow a little bit of the knowledge
of that insanity onto what she's going through right now.
And all the (high-pitched speaking) attention she's getting.
I'm so happy for her.
- [Paul] So what was that like watching Matt win?
- Oh my gosh. - On that crazy night in June.
- So emotional, I mean when they did
the Tony nomination announcements
I was stuck in Mexico with Covid, and I had like,
it's the funniest, if you look at my Instagram,
I did a post of excitement for him
and it ends with a video of me with the squeakiest
velociraptor voice like, "Ah," into sobs.
- [Announcer] Matt Doyle.
- [Bonnie] Ah! (Bonnie sobbing)
and FaceTimed him and I could like barely speak
because we, oh, I might cry now,
we have been through so much together for so many years
and I've seen him work so hard.
And I've seen him take jobs that didn't pay as much
because it stretched him as an actor.
And he just wanted so desperately to show everything
that's within him, which is so much.
And sometimes people are like, you're so pretty,
which he is, but like he's, but you are,
you know what I mean, like, some people put us in boxes
and you're so much more than that.
And I think maybe that's where we've connected too.
People wanna put us in a certain place
and we're like, "No, no, no, no, let me show you more."
And so I've seen him take risks
in his career, stretch himself.
We've been through the highest of the highs
and the lowest of the lows, I couldn't be more proud.
And also like everything, (chuckling) it's like,
oh, thank God that there's good in the world.
We are awarding this human that should be awarded.
- And I know you've been waiting for Bonnie
to have a moment like she's having right now.
- The hardest worker I've ever met my entire life.
I know that we connect on that because we both are here
because we love it more than anything.
And get very frustrated with other people
that are in the industry that maybe are here
for the wrong reasons and don't have the same insane love
and passion that we feel for the craft --
- And you connected on that. - Yeah, we connect on that.
But also I've watched Bonnie overcome so many
different hurdles that a lot of other women
in this industry don't necessarily have to overcome.
Bonnie is just one of the most gorgeous people
I've ever met in my life but isn't necessarily a type
that is going to fit into the ingenue,
and has had to go up against
so many prejudices from not just the community,
but also from the journalistic side of the community.
And just has bravely faced all of it
and proven that it is not your size, or what your type is
that it ultimately is your heart and your talent.
And that's what she's doing right now
with Aunt Debra and that's so exciting.
And I watch her just break down barriers,
watching her sing "Beautiful," a song
about being absolutely gorgeous, and a princess on stage
during "Head Over Heels" was thrilling.
And now just to see her owning the stage right now
and the entire community recognizing her worth
and her power, there's nothing like it.
- You both live extremely openly about yourselves
and you both are just very,
"This is who I am, this is what I have to offer."
And so I think you probably connect on that level too.
- We're blunt.
(Matt laughing) - Yeah.
- We're blunt people.
And I cannot believe you just made me cry so hard.
(Matt and Bonnie laughing) (clapping hands)
- (singing) Sorry.
- Matt, you are playing Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors."
- I am, come see it. - Which I know is a dream role
and I know you love doing it with Lena Hall,
but I'm pretty sure you would also --
- Oh gosh.
- I feel like you have a dream
- We've discussed it. - We've discussed it.
For years we've been talking about it.
♪ Suddenly Seymour ♪
♪ Standing beside me ♪
- We're still looking
to make that happen. - We need to make that happen,
- But please, not anytime soon.
- No, I don't wanna close my show.
Let's put that in the world, she's busy.
- She's booked and blessed. (clapping hands)
(clapping hands) - People are busy.
(upbeat music ends)