Tony Nominee Alden Ehrenreich Found the Perfect Broadway Role in Becky Shaw

Alden Ehrenreich, a first-time Tony nominee, has been looking to make his Broadway debut for at least a decade. Gina Gionfriddo’s Tony-nominated revival of Becky Shaw finally brought him to the stage.

“I have this weird background with [theater] where I’ve always loved it,” Ehrenreich tells Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek. “I almost feel like an animal who was raised outside of the tribe, but now I’m getting to come back.”

Ehrenreich may have been too young for Becky Shaw when it debuted in 2008, but the play found him at the right moment. Now he delivers Gionfriddo’s sharp dialogue on the Hayes stage each night. Ehrenreich’s friend commented on the heightened impact of the language at the show’s opening night. “The play is much more shocking now than it was in 2008, because in 2008 people still kind of talked like this,” Ehrenreich says. “It wasn’t as shocking. Now our standards of conscientiousness and sensitivity are such that the things people say in the show are much more jarring and beyond the pale. I think there’s a kind of shock value and an exhilaration to hear these characters say everything you’re not supposed to say.”

As for what comes next, Ehrenreich is open to another stage role if the right project comes along. “Now that I’ve broken the seal, and understand the basic life of what the span of it is, I have a much better sense of what it entails,” he says. “I’m excited to find the next right thing.”

Watch the full interview below!

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