Alex Brightman Is Finally Playing a Normal Guy in Broadway’s Schmigadoon!

It’s a measure of Alex Brightman’s versatility that the same person who unleashed a comedic tsunami as the title ghost in Beetlejuice is now the wry recipient of everyone else’s craziness in Schmigadoon! Cast as the reluctant-to-commit orthopedic surgeon Josh Skinner, Brightman finds himself trapped in a musical theater fantasy town with his longtime love Melissa Gimble (Sara Chase). Amid homages to a heaping helping of Golden Age tuners, Josh and Melissa face romantic temptations and get embroiled in town politics, a box-social auction and other beloved musical tropes.

Before playing Josh in this year’s Tony-winning Best Musical, Brightman nabbed Tony nominations for his leading roles in Beetlejuice and School of Rock. His Broadway credits range from a two-year stint as Boq in Wicked to brief runs in Glory Days, Big Fish and the 2023 Spamalot revival. Offstage, he has collaborated with composer Drew Gasparini as the book writer of several musicals and penned a solo show for Double Dare host Marc Summers. The California native chatted with Broadway.com about the secrets to a successful musical and his satisfaction in playing “a human who acts human” in Schmigadoon!

Josh Skinner and Beetlejuice feel like characters from different planets. What’s fun about being the eye of the hurricane in Schmigadoon! rather than the hurricane itself?
Nothing about theater is easy, but I would say that after School of Rock and Beetlejuice, this is as easy as I’m going to get. It’s a wonderful new skill set to just listen and not be the one talking all the time, to learn the art of reaction and nuance, something that, obviously, from my previous work, I have never shown. [Laughs] It’s been really satisfying to play a human who acts human. I wouldn’t say it’s not challenging, but there is an ease to it.

Your deadpan responses help the other characters’ nuttiness come through. That must feel good.
I’ve been having a great time being part of what I call the symphony of the show: Where is the laugh? What is the timing? It’s an intricate algebra, the comedy we’re trying to do, which makes every night feel different. I was just saying that this is the most murdering murderers’ row of comedians I have ever worked with, and collectively the nicest people I have ever worked with. The fact that we trust each other and love each other is why the show is so funny.

There’s a show clip of you and Sara Chase riffing about Taylor Swift’s engagement. Was that improvised?
It’s the only improv moment in the show. We got a rewrite during [Broadway] rehearsals for the basket scene, where the women are being auctioned off, that said, “Nasty insult here.” I thought it was a placeholder, but [Tony-winning book writer] Cinco [Paul] said, “I’m curious what you two will come up with because you guys know each other so well.” Sara and I have been friends for more than 20 years, but I thought going off the path would be at our peril because the show is so brilliantly and tightly written. But by then, the audience trusts that we are lost in this world and mad at each other, so it works. We change it a ton, and it’s fun to pick that moment apart.

Then, at the end of the show you get the most sincere ballad imaginable, “You Make Me Wanna Sing.”
I love it. This is the first time I’m singing with my own singing voice. Truly! Even in community theater, I was always cast as non-people—demons and creatures—so it’s really satisfying to sing vulnerably, with my own voice. It feels earned, it’s extremely emotional, and I look forward to it every night. I thought I would be nervous because it’s such a big moment, but from the top of the show, I can’t wait to get there because I find it so satisfying.

It’s amazing that Cinco Paul received such acclaim for his first foray into musical theater. What’s special about his work?
Anytime a person can get people to laugh without using a single swear word, I find it an unbelievable feat. It’s easy to use derogatory terms to shock people into laughter, and there’s merit in that, but it would have taken this show in a completely different direction. Cinco wrote Despicable Me and The Lorax, a lot of kid-slash-adult movies, so he has a real handle on tone, which, in my opinion, is the most important thing in storytelling. I don’t think it’s the words or the way they’re structured—if you can stay on tone on every page, you’ve got a show, and Cinco does that better than anyone I’ve worked with. He also treats the audience with intelligence, and that’s why the jokes hit even more. The audience is rewarded for being smart.

You don’t have to get every reference to shows like Brigadoon and Oklahoma!, although it’s fun if you do.
Absolutely, and if you don’t, come on back and see it again. I’m still finding stuff, and I’ve been obsessed with musical theater since I was seven.

So, which old-school musical would you like to do?
Guys and Dolls? I think I would be a killer Nathan Detroit.

Great idea! You’ve been in hits like Wicked and Beetlejuice and also shows that closed quickly. At this point, can you predict when a musical is going to be successful?
I don’t know if I can 100 percent, but three days into rehearsal for this production, my wife [casting director Jenny Ravitz] called me, and I said, “I think two things are going to happen: Sara Chase is going to get nominated for a Tony Award, and we’re going to win Best Musical.” I remember watching things come together on day three, and it just felt like our show was sophisticated in a way that Best Musicals are. I said it out loud, and my wife and I wrote it on the calendar.

I have to ask about The Shark Is Broken [a 2023 play inspired by the challenges of making the movie Jaws], one of the strangest Broadway shows in recent memory. What was that experience like, and did Richard Dreyfuss react to your performance?
I had a ball doing that show, from top to bottom. I never felt more important as an actor, that everything I said was being listened to and thought about. There were only three of us [including Colin Donnell as Roy Scheider and Ian Shaw as his father, Robert], and it was so nice to feel respected for my choices. Richard Dreyfuss came to see the show, and he didn't love it. [Laughs] He let me know that, pretty explicitly.

In person?
Yes. It was a difficult moment, but with some distance from it, I will say that if I saw a show I was being portrayed in, I don’t know if I would love it either. It didn’t hit him the right way, and I have empathy for that. At the time, I had a “I want my mom” moment, but at the end of the day, it was cool that I got to meet one of my favorite actors. The Goodbye Girl is a humongous movie for me, and he is someone I would love to emulate career-wise. I would be nicer, though, if I saw a show I was in. [Laughs]

Fans may not realize that you’ve written the book to several musicals. Is there a push-pull between your work as an actor and your writing career?
I’ve become extremely enamored with writing. I started writing with a purpose around 2013, and learned a lot by reading books and scripts, watching videos on structure and movies written by people I love. As an actor, I know how lines will sound, which is a helpful skill as a writer. The push-pull is that I wake up every day wanting to write. I don’t know if I wake up every day wanting to perform. I love being in control, and I’ve become more skilled at writing because I’ve been in so many things.

Musical books are misunderstood…
Agreed!

What do you enjoy about taking on that challenge?
I love the editing process. A big thing that turns me off is overstating and restating, especially when a person says something and then sings a song about the same thing. I love going through and seeing how concise we can be, turning an entire scene over to my writing partner and saying, “I think this is a song.” I have a Google Doc for what I call my “unhoused” jokes. If I take something out of a show, I put it in this document so I can steal from myself later.

Do you have a show that you would like to see on Broadway?
There are two: one musical and one play. The musical, which we just did at Vassar, is called It’s Kind of a Funny Story, based on a novel and a movie, although we’re staying closer to the novel [by Ned Vizzini]. My writing partner, Drew Gasparini, and I have been working on it for more than 10 years, and we’ve got a bit of a following because it’s a funny, off-kilter look at depression and anxiety. I’m in love with the show, and I hope we can get it up at some point. I don’t care if it’s Broadway or off-Broadway.

What about the play?
The play is something I’ve been developing for six or seven years with Cynthia Nixon, titled Everything Is Fine. It’s about an atrocity that an 18-year-old boy committed a year prior to the events of the play and how his mom, dad and brother are redefined by that. It’s interesting to me to look at the idea of inherited identity. The family still lives in the town where the event happened, and they’re trying to get along and see what’s possible for them.

What a contrast to the lightness of most of the pieces you act in.
Big time. I tend to skew to more dramatic, dark and heavy stuff in my writing. I have a lot of fears, and I like to put them in my writing because it takes the stomachache away.

So, write serious stuff in the morning and watch people sing “Corn Puddin’” on Broadway at night?
Yes, please! Can you imagine if I was writing my shows and then had to do a three-hour Les Miz? I don’t know if I could survive that. I need the Schmigadoon! palate cleanser, and I’m very grateful for it.

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