Tammy Blanchard on Her Big C Broadway Threesome and Saying Farewell to How to Succeed

Tammy Blanchard is only a few shows away from retiring as office bombshell Hedy La Rue as the revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying readies for its final performance on May 20, but audiences can still get a taste of Blanchard's sex appeal thanks to her current guest turn on TV's The Big C. Blanchard is playing Giselle, an unihibited Pilates teacher, and she even had a recent onscreen threesome with Broadway veterans Brian d'Arcy James and John Benjamin Hickey! Broadway.com spoke with Blanchard about moving on from How to Succeed and into bed on The Big C.

“It’s hysterical, Brian, John and I call ourselves ‘the thropple,’ because we’re a threesome,” Blanchard said. “Brian’s my husband and we decide to try out swinging.” On Blanchard's first episode her character and husband welcomed Sean Tolkey (Tony winner and The Big C series regular John Benjamin Hickey) into their bedroom for some fun. 

“It gets a little…you know,” Blanchard said with a laugh of shooting the sex scenes. “We have some under-the-cover movements going on where we’re pretending to have sex. We were all pretty much naked [during shooting], so we’ve all seen each other naked! You try not to look, but sometimes when someone’s getting up from under the sheets you get a glance. We were all uncomfortable, but at the same time we were just loving each other so much that we were just going with the flow.”

Although Blanchard had never met Smash star James before their big love scene, the duo quickly became friends and reunited as presenters at the Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards on May 13. “I will never look at awards shows the same way again,” Blanchard said of her experience at the Allen Room. “I will always try to bring that spirit and that energy and humor to every awards show I go to. It was so much fun, I had a blast.”

As the curtain comes down on How to Succeed, Blanchard is fraught with emotion. “You’re sad, you’re worried and it’s a rough time,” she said of the show's closing after 504 total performances. “But once you get past those emotions, the gratitude and the realization of what the show has done for your career and the other cast members, this whole week now is just fun. The show has changed my entire life and my career. I’ve been really, really lucky to be there.”