For Erika Henningsen, Broadway Is A Family Affair

Erika Henningsen had been working alongside Jonathan Groff in their new Broadway show, Just In Time, for weeks before she learned why he was so famous for spitting on stage. Two days before jumping on Zoom with Bustle, she was finally “anointed” by what fans have called the Tony winner’s “holy water.”

“The next day in rehearsal, he goes, ‘Erika, I cannot believe the fountain of saliva that came out of my mouth,’” she explains. “And I was like, ‘I can't believe it hadn’t happened yet.’”

Opening April 23, Just In Time stars Groff as Bobby Darin, the ’60s pop star who gave Elvis Presley a run for his money before passing away at 37 in 1973. While the show sheds light on Darin’s career, it highlights how women defined his story, like his mother, grandmother, first love Connie Francis, and his wife, movie star Sandra Dee, played by Henningsen.

To portray Dee — a Golden Globe-nominated actor who got her start in modeling at just 12 before becoming a movie star at 16 — Henningsen watched endless interviews with both Dee and today’s child stars, who navigate a tricky transition to adulthood in the public eye.

“Sometimes you see Millie Bobby Brown in interviews and think, that’s a young woman. But she is an adult and has grown up really fast,” Henningsen says. “That's what I wanted to infuse Sandra with. There are some great interviews of her where she’s 24, eight years younger than I am, and she's got a kid in one arm and a husband on the other, and she’s working the room at a big Hollywood event.”

The last time Henningsen, 32, was on Broadway in 2018’s Mean Girls: The Musical, she played the teenage lead, Cady Heron. This just happens to be where she met husband Kyle Selig — her Aaron Samuels — who’s currently unpacking groceries in the background. The two are still on the same Broadway schedule, albeit in different shows, but given how often they collaborate onstage together, it likely won’t be long until they’re in the same theater family.

Until then, Henningsen reunites with Mean Girls creator Tina Fey in their new Netflix series, The Four Seasons. Fey created and stars in the show alongside Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Will Forte. The series, based on Alan Alda’s 1981 comedy, is interested in the complexities of family and marriage.

On set, the vibe was familial, too: “Steve Carell bought us all these gorgeous, linen-embroidered Christmas shirts from the hotel gift shop. Kerri Kenney-Silver invited us over to her hotel room for a late-night glass of wine, and we all wore our matching tropical Christmas shirts and took this great family photo on the staircase like we were in The Brady Bunch,” Henningsen says.

“It’s one thing to be proud of your work. It's another thing to be a part of something where you’re proud of other people's work,” she adds, praising both her Just in Time and Four Seasons co-stars. “I feel very, very lucky to feel such pride for my collaborators and what they've pulled off.”

Below, Henningsen opens up about her “embarrassing” pre-show playlist, her and Selig’s adorable post-show routines, and the star she’s nervous to see in the audience.

On her pre-show playlist:

My co-star is Gracie Lawrence, and when we got cast together, my pre-show playlist was all [her band] Lawrence’s music. That has changed. It's a little embarrassing listening to the person who's sitting right next to you doing their pin curls. We share a dressing room, listen to Carole King, and impersonate Jonathan onstage because we can hear him through our loudspeaker.

On her first-act downtime:

I am a second-act surprise. People were like, “Are you going to write or read [during the first act]?” I've been reading, I haven't been writing, and I've been meditating a little bit, which is wild because I normally hate meditating. But because we’re in the basement, I get the thing that nobody has in New York, which is a quiet, dark room. Gracie goes on for her Act 1 arc, and I'm left totally by myself for 25 minutes. That never happens in my life.

On winding down from a show:

If it’s not crazy the next day, I’ll have a glass of wine at Vanguard or Ardesia. Kyle is on the same Broadway schedule, so he'll pick me up at the theater, and we’ll walk home together, take the dog out, and make something to eat. I'm a big fan of a grilled cheese or toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I used to watch The Office reruns when I got home. Now it feels weird because I’ve worked with Steve, so I’ve been catching up on Severance and The White Lotus.

On her Broadway relationship:

We're really happy. I feel like I had to carry the show in Mean Girls because I didn't leave the stage, and Kyle really had to carry Water for Elephants. In these shows we're doing, we are supporting, and there's something nice about that. It makes you feel like you can have a life and see friends after the show. His [Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends] cast is full of all these wonderful Brits, and he's loved getting to meet Gracie and Jonathan. It's just been two work families combining.

On the star she’s nervous to perform for:

I normally don't like to know who is in the audience. Because some of the fancier seats are right in front, I have mentally prepared myself for the day when I walk out and see Daniel Radcliffe. I know I’ll meet him because he's going to come and support Jonathan. He is the person that I'm like, “Oh, my God. I need to breathe deep.” So, I try not to look directly into anyone's eyes until the very end of the show.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.