Shereen Pimentel on Quarantine Hobbies, Her Whirlwind Work with John Mulaney & Staying Close with the West Side Story Cast

Shereen Pimentel is used to being busy. When she wasn't starring in the Ivo van Hove-helmed West Side Story revival as Maria, she could be found in rehearsal rooms and study halls working for her final semester at Juilliard. Now, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pimentel isn't splitting her time as stage star and student and can focus on one thing: graduation. The young star chatted with Paul Wontorek on Broadway.com's #LiveatFive: Home Edition about working with Sondheim, collaborating with John Mulaney and her  graduation ceremony.

"I'm graduating from Juilliard with a Bachelors of Music, which is crazy," Pimentel said. "It's been a lot of Zooms and makeshift assignments because nothing we do in senior year can really be done remotely. It's very performance-based and not academic. I'm with my parents in New Jersey, so it's been very interesting to see how everything's coming together, but I'm mostly just turning in final assignments and preparing for commencement. I also have a small surprise for those attending our virtual commencement; it'll be really fun."

While that surprise is reserved for Juilliard graduates and their families, fans can get a healthy dose of Pimentel's talent by checking out John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. In the children's comedy TV special created by Mulaney, Pimentel appears in a musical number that poses a very important question; Do flowers exist at night? "That was probably the craziest experience work-wise that I've ever had," Pimentel said. "Within 24 hours, somebody told me that I was doing this, sent me the track and sheet music, and told me that a car was picking me up at four in the morning to take me to Brooklyn. I get there and they throw me into a fitting and give me this wig of long hair, it was before West Side Story, and I'm sitting there like, 'What in the world is happening?' John Mulaney was there and we played Heads Up on set the whole time. It was from 4AM to 10AM and then it was done. I was eating lunch like, 'I kinda want to live a life like this forever.' It was just so exciting."

Although Pimentel is looking for ways to enjoy quarantine (she's "taken up a new hobby every week"), she can't wait to be back on the Broadway stage. "Our cast is really tight-knit. We've been through so much together already, and you can really feel the love," she said. "And having Sondheim be so involved is exciting. I'm putting it out there that he his hilarious. He's just so funny, and we're all still starstruck around him. I did Roadshow with him in the summer, and I still freak out every time he walks into a rehearsal room. I mean, it's Sondheim!"

Watch Pimentel talk about her West Side Story audition and more in the full episode below!