Madeline Brewer Knows It’s Her Time in Becky Shaw on Broadway

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Gina Gionfriddo’s play Becky Shaw made its New York premiere off-Broadway at Second Stage in 2009. Returning to Second Stage, this time on Broadway at the Hayes Theater and directed by Trip Cullman, the razor-sharp dark comedy about a blind date gone awry stars Madeline Brewer in the titular role. Brewer sat down with The Broadway Show host Tamsen Fadal at the CIVILIAN Hotel's Starchild Rooftop to celebrate the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“I've wanted to be on Broadway since I was seven years old,” Brewer tells Fadal. Making her Broadway debut after back-to-back off-Broadway performances as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors and Julie in The Disappear, Brewer confirms “it's a dream come true” to lead Becky Shaw's Broadway premiere. “And to be playing this character—this enigmatic, rabble rouser—you don't really know what to expect from her.”

Based on the character Becky Sharp from the 1848 novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, Becky Shaw “just wants to be like anyone else,” says Brewer. While the original character might be a relentless social climber, this reimagined version only shares her “ambition and the relentlessness.”

Brewer, recently married, hasn’t dated for a while. Her connection to her character had to come from a different place. “In the end, truly, for me it comes back to that very basic and primal need of acceptance and love. I keep trying to remember that that's really what she's after. She just has a very bizarre way sometimes of going about it.”

Becky Shaw, a straight play, is not exactly what Brewer initially envisioned for her career. “I always thought that I would be doing musicals,” she admits. “That's what I went to school for. That's what I wanted, and then straight acting became what I was called to.”

After a run as Sally Bowles in the hit West End production of Cabaret, Brewer reflects on the similarities and differences between these powerful women. They both share “the need and want and desire to be loved, to be accepted,” she says. “It would look incredibly different for each of them; what that love means. Sally, in her way, rejects it. But Becky wants it, and she wants it so bad. She's white knuckling it. Yet it somehow still slips through her fingers.”

In her own way, Brewer can relate. At the age of nine, she auditioned for Annie but did not receive the role as the redheaded ragamuffin. Looking back, Brewer advises her nine-year-old self to “just take it easy. It all happens in its time.” That experience helped her to develop a life philosophy. “I am a big, big believer in that what's supposed to happen is going to happen. I believe in the conspiring of the universe to give you what it is you ask for. That coupled with a lot of really, really hard work and very solid friendships and relationships. But it all happens in its time, I think, in the way that it's supposed to.”

The way Brewer’s Broadway debut was supposed to be has been in the cards for a while. “I auditioned for Lobby Hero years ago, and Trip Cullman has been on my radar for a long time,” she says. “To be doing my Broadway debut in a show directed by Trip is very special to me.” This kind of full circle moment gave her the clarity to finally say, “It's my time.”

Watch the full interview below:

Get tickets to Becky Shaw!