(Stuart Emmrich’s article appeared in The New York Times, 6/3; via Pam Green.)
On most Wednesdays, in the roughly three-hour break between the matinee and evening performances of “Dear Evan Hansen,” the Tony-nominated musical playing at the Music Box Theater, the actor Mike Faist usually slips out for a walk down to the Hudson River. (“It’s nice to get outside and maybe get some semblance of nature,” he says.) Then he grabs a light snack and a quick nap back in his tiny fourth-floor dressing room.
“We’re just constantly tired,” Mr. Faist said of the eight cast members, seven of whom have been with the show since its out-of-town tryout in Washington in 2015. “We try to live like nuns as much as possible and save our energy for the show.”
But this past Wednesday, Mr. Faist had a more pressing matter: A fitting downtown for the suit he planned to wear at the Tony Awards next Sunday. For his role as the troubled high school senior Connor Murphy, Mr. Faist, 25, has been nominated as a best featured actor in a musical, one of three cast members to earn a nomination. The show itself is up for nine awards.
So around 4:45 p.m., Mr. Faist quickly changed out of his onstage outfit of a zippered hoodie, skinny jeans and a well-worn pair of combat boots and into a baggy, Japanese-made T-shirt, a different pair of skinny jeans and a well-worn pair of Merrell boots. He then tied his shaggy, shoulder-length hair into a ponytail, tucked it under a hat and put on his sunglasses. “My disguise,” he said, explaining that he hoped to get out of the theater without being recognized by any fans waiting by the stage door. He needed to get downtown fast, to make sure he would be back in time for the 8 p.m. performance.
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