Megan Hilty Talks 'Mentally Exhausting' Role in Broadway's NOISES OFF

Megan Hilty is currently starring in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Michael Frayn's beloved comedy, NOISES OFF. The show marks the first time the 'Smash' star has appeared on Broadway since 2009's 9 TO 5.

In a new interview with ET, the actress explains the physical and mental challenges she faces as she performs the slapstick farce eight times a week. "It's more mentally exhausting if anything, especially on two-show days," she tells ETonline. "By the end of the day, we've technically done the play within the play six times in different ways. By the end of the night, you have to really, really be focusing. You can't let your mind wander, otherwise you'll lose tiny cues."

Throughout the show, timing is critical as the talented cast puts on the same act of the show-within-a-show 'Nothing On' three times during the performance. "It was not easy," she says of learning the complicated staging. "It's all mechanical. There's a rhythm to it and the play is very, very precise." And as Hilty admits, all does not go smoothy sometimes, including a performance when she was unable to grab the axe being thrown up to her on the two-level set. "Stuff like that happens all the time. That's the beauty of it. It kind of goes along with the nature of the show that it must go on and you have to figure it out." She adds, "It's even better to see people panic along the way."

Hilty portrays Brooke, a sexy but not too sharp actress who stumbles her way through her lines and her cues in the fictional play. At some moments in the show, she is wearing nothing but skimpy lingerie and spiked heels. "The hardest thing about doing the show was telling myself to be confident in whatever state my body was in," says the actress who gave birth to her daughter only a year ago. "I did a lot of work up until when we opened to get myself physically in shape for this. Right before our first audience, I really had to come to terms with -- everybody feels insecure, certainly when they're showing this much skin -- but I really had to come to terms with being confident with wherever it is that my body is right now."

Read the article in full here.

Roundabout Theatre Company's Noises Off is now playing through Sunday, March 13, 2016 at the American Airlines Theatre (227 West 42nd Street).

Photo credit: Joan Marcus