Jennifer Simard’s Tony nomination for Death Becomes Her marks a chemistry-driven partnership that has captivated audiences, with her duet partner Megan Hilty equally poised to take home the award.
Jennifer Simard is nominated for a Tony this season, as Best Actress in a Musical, alongside her co-star Megan Hilty in the hit show ‘Death Becomes Her‘. Playing frenemies whose fur-flying ferocity lasts more than a lifetime, theirs is a dueling performance that has been suggested could be a dream come true for both of them. After all, she adds, ‘we are functioning as partners with this show.‘
Jennifer Simard is a Canadian actress, singer, and comedian.
She is best known for her performances on Broadway, where she has appeared in numerous productions, including 'The Producers, Hairspray, and Disaster.' Simard won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Ursula Buffay in 'The Addams Family.' She is also a singer and has released several albums.
Simard's career spans over two decades, with numerous awards and nominations to her credit.
The Early Days: A Partnership Born
The click-click-click of their chemistry was there from the beginning, Simard beams. ‘The first reading we did together was in April of 2023,’ Simard says. ‘Then we did a workshop for about three weeks in August of 2023, and finally Chicago in the spring of 2024.‘ In each incarnation, like any kind of relationship, it continued to grow and deepen.
A twin Tony win for these two would be, as Simard diplomatically puts it, ‘So many women could have been correctly nominated this year.’ However, facing the fate of the super-gifted also-ran is a reality she’s familiar with. Disappointment One: Disaster!, the 2016 jukebox musical in which she was Sister Mary Downey, was another nomination that slipped away.
The Secret to Their Success
What keeps Hilty and Simard‘s comic engines charging away on all cylinders is that the audiences appreciate what they are doing up there. ‘Oh, yeah, you can feel it,’ Simard insists. ‘The audience really is with us from the get-go. It just grows as the show goes.‘ They’ve learned to throw the ball to each other and let one another win, a mantra they attribute to Faith Prince, a co-star from Disaster currently in Boop! The Musical.
As for Simard‘s bucket list of roles, originating new parts is at the top. ‘I don’t have an aversion to revivals, but I love creating something from scratch,’ she says. With Death Becomes Her, that’s exactly what they’ve done – a deliciously wicked duet of comedy and drama that has captured audiences’ hearts.
