Places, please for ELLE’s theater column Showstoppers, where theater’s biggest stars reflect upon the moment in their career where the famous phrase “the show must go on” became a little too real. When things don’t go according to plan onstage, here’s how the pros react—and what they take away from it.
This month, Eva Noblezada, who stars as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, a new Broadway musical based upon the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name, discusses how the classic theater cliché trickles into her own life. Here, in her own words, she shares her warmup routine, her growth as a performer, and how actors must trust themselves.
Eight shows a week is crazy. I think after COVID, “the show must go on” means something different to me. There’s a difference between perseverance and overwhelming your body because of lack of boundaries, and sometimes you have to have boundaries, even though it’s your job, even though you love it so much. If I wake up in the morning, and I’m like, “I’m sick,” any normal person would call out, but we, as theater artists, go, Oh, I can’t because of the pressure from the producers. You don’t want to miss a show, you don’t want to put that pressure on your cover. Maybe you have friends watching that day, people come from thousands of miles around the world to see you perform live. There’s always a constant pressure to be on.
As I get older, I’ve realized that I’m going to need a lot more time in the day to slowly warm up my voice. When I was younger, I used to show up to work and sing Beyoncé’s “Love On Top,” and that would be my warm-up. I’d just scream it out. Now, it’s different. It’s day-to-day. If I feel like, Ah, I need a long, stretched, vibrating exercise that brings my cords together, then that feels really nice. Sometimes I go, Ah, I’ve actually been pretty quiet for the last 18 hours. I talked a little bit. My voice sounds pretty fine. Let’s just take it easy. It really is about knowing your body, knowing your voice. That’s a very good first step to make a decision of what to do next. The more I know how I feel in the moment, the more I know what I need to do next to get ready for the show. Because it’s essentially like our whole day is dedicated to [thinking], okay, have you rested enough?Are you able to do the show in the way that you’d like to tonight?
Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada in The Great Gatsby
So, in that way, I actually now feel like the show must go on in my own life rather than work, because if there’s one thing that Broadway performers are going to do is show up and fucking slay. I think that what we have to be able to do, and at the ease that it looks like we’re all doing it, it’s a very niche group of people who can do that.
We should just trust ourselves. We’re so hard on ourselves. To achieve such a high standard of perfection and high standard of like, I haven’t missed a show in X amount of months, I can’t do that. Sometimes I really need to pick a day off and reset. Our schedules are so crazy. We can’t see other people when they’re in town or go for brunch or birthday dinners, just because we want to make sure we’re absolutely ready to do the show, our job. So, that to me, is “the show must go on.” Keep living your life and keep doing your best to maintain those healthy boundaries with yourself.
Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Jeremy Jordan and Eva Noblezada in The Great Gatsby
Talkback
“I don’t think she’s mine, I think she’s public domain. It’s all about context for me, it’s all about information. I don’t want to see it as playing a character, because then I feel like I become rigid, and I feel like my idea around the human that I’m playing becomes way too structured in a way where I can’t add any heart or flesh to it.
“I just ask questions: Where was she born? How was she raised? What was she allowed to do? What was pushed on her? How did that conflict with her personality? How does she see herself in the world? How does she move in the world? Little things like that help set apart [Daisy] from my own life. I can start to really create this flesh and blood and spirit that I’m able to just step into when I’m on stage. She’s so used to wearing expensive clothes. She wouldn’t walk around like she’s got four books on her head, but she probably absolutely took elocution classes. She’s a modern woman, but she’s also old money, which means that there’s a certain way that she looks at the world. It’s not exactly nose up, but it’s very much like, ‘Yes, and? I’ve seen it.’ But there’s also a deep self-pity about her. There’s a deep carelessness that ends up turning into recklessness with how she views people and things in her life as pawns to appease her boredom.”
“I’ve done a lot of roles that are very ‘survivor’ in my career, and I was excited to do something different. I was excited to challenge myself, my artistry, and my craftsmanship. It is and was an absolute challenge, but it’s a very fulfilling one because you can’t stay in your comfort zone. That’s not where growth lies. I also saw the team and I was like, ‘[Composer] Jason Howland? [Choreographer] Dominique Kelley? Sign me up.’ It just was a kismet thing. I’m really grateful to have been asked to audition, and I’m so freaking excited and happy to be in this production. Because I’m so exhausted, it’s a sign that we’re all working our ass and titties off, because we want it to be so good. It’s a great carousel of feelings.”
“That show was everything to me, and that was a great example of how to start creating boundaries for myself in that first year. When you open a show just in time for the Tony Awards [eligibility deadline], it’s crazy. The pressure is not only on, it’s turned on all the time at 1,000 degrees. You just have to be mindful of the fact that there’s going to be a lot of voices of people watching the show and going like, ‘Oh, these are my opinions.’ It’s hard to be in that position.
“With Hadestown, I think because no one knew what the world was going to be, no one really had the expectations that people have of Gatsby, which was great for us, so we just took that and took the work that we were doing and took the story and just ran with it. I’m so grateful to have been a part of that show, it really changed my life, and I met friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life in that show. I love that it’s still going strong, and I hope that the people who see it and that are involved remember the themes of the show and how we can really apply those to our life in a way that pushes humanity forward in a way that’s positive, uplifting, and hopeful.”
“Know when to say no. When you’re younger, I feel like the excitement and the passion sometimes, for me at least, it overrode my ability to go, ‘I don’t think that’s good for me.’ That conversation you have with yourself, I ignored that, because I cared about the producers being happy, the director being happy, the show being good, way more than I cared about myself. When we start to treat ourselves like that when we are not only exhausted, but unhappy. I would say to anybody don’t be too hard on yourself, just have fun, and remember how much you wanted to be on stage when you were a kid. Honor your younger self.”
“Reeve Carney, absolutely [who starred opposite of me as Orpheus in Hadestown]. He means everything. He’s the most incredible person I’ve ever met and will ever meet, and to be able to know him and witness him in close proximity in all categories of life, music, art, he is somebody that I’m constantly learning from. It almost feels unfair, because I’m given an unfair advantage because of how much wisdom he just naturally gives out. When you’re around someone like Reeve who is full of kindness and full of fierceness, there’s just a natural calmness that you get in your body and a natural desire to want to be kind. And yeah, loving that man is the greatest honor of my life. But for sure, he’s my ‘green light,’ without a fucking doubt.”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Eva Noblezada currently stars as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby at the Broadway Theatre. Tickets can be purchased here.
