From the Stage to the Stage Door: Rachel Bay Jones Explains the Importance of the Fansens

There is not a dry eye in the Music Box Theatre after Rachel Bay Jones performs Heidi Hansen's heartbreaking "So Big, So Small" in Dear Evan Hansen. Her emotionally raw performance has earnEd Jones her first Tony Award and she told Richard Ridge why it and the show and the 'Fansens' mean so much to her.

In speaking of the big 11 o'clock number, Jones comments, "I think everyone who's been a child or who is an adult child and especially mothers, it's providing all of us who are participating in it or those who are listening to it and witnessing it an opportunity to understand the struggles of motherhood. It's really powerful."

She also went on to mention what it's like meeting the fans after sharing such an emotional time in the theatre, "Everyone is so moved for their own personal reasons, and they want to share that with you. And it's really intimate, because we're so exposed on stage, and they're exposed in the audience. When people cry we hear them; we feel the emotional ride they're going on, and we're all in it together. I think a lot of people want to let us know how they've been touched by it. And it's always this gorgeous and raw and awkward thing that happens after the show where you've both been through something and although you don't know each other, you do so intimately."

Check out the rest of the interview here.

Jones was recently seen on Broadway in the break out role of Catherine in the Tony Award-Winning production of Pippin. Additional Broadway credits include Hair, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Off-Broadway and Regional/National Tour credits include Dear Evan Hansen (Drama Desk Nomination) at Second Stage, First Daughter Suite, Hello Again, A Christmas Story, Pippin, Sylvia, and The King and I. Rachel can be seen on ABC's "The Family" and on the FX series "Louie."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos