Broadway favorite Mary Michael Patterson is starring as Meg Giry in the touring production of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns
Patterson recently popped into the Broadway.com studios
to talk about playing the formidable role, and why this Phantom of the Opera sequel
is a must-see for theater-goers across the country.
Mary Michael, we're so excited to have you. --Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining us. I really want to dive in and learn about
everything I can about Love Never Dies, but first of all, how excited were you
to find out that you'd be playing Meg int the North American premiere of this show?
--I was very, very excited. I did Phantom here in New York for a little while
and when I got the audition I was a little bit confused. But, I was excited
because it's such a different kind of role.
And she really gets to go on a crazy journey and express all kinds of emotions and sing all kinds of
songs.
I was really, really excited about it, and the more I got to know it, and the more
I went in for the team
It felt like a really good fit, so
So, it's exciting to get to do it.
--I was going to say, you joined the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera
in the midst of its 25th year I believe it was celebrating.
--Yep.
--How was playing Christine for a long time and then sort of to switch over into the head of
Meg? How has that process been for you?
--They are so different. And
And especially in Love Never Dies world, we get to look more closely at the characters, and
and Meg Giry in Love Never Dies is very different than Meg Giry in the original.
But, it's really cool because it's still the same world. It's still the same
vocabulary, and the same style, and musical elements are very similar in a lot of ways,
so, it's a fun a challenge and it's not normally something I get to do. I do a lot of
stand and sing and... --Right, right.
--Park and bark kind of roles, and Meg is very different. She gets to dance a lot
which is something I was excited to do.
And it's a little bit of a darker role, which
is fun. --And I want to get into that with you, but first, for anyone
who isn't familiar with
it, where do we pick up with Meg when we get started in this show?
--Yeah, so it's 1907, and 10 years have gone by since we've seen them at the end of Phantom.
And she is in Coney Island and she is the lead show girl
, essentially, at the Phantom's vaudeville stage, essentially.
And lots of different musical acts are performing, but she is the head of that team.
So, she's a show girl, she gets to do a lot of really fun burlesque style
numbers, and that's kind of where she is. And then when Christine comes
, they get to see each other, which she's so excited about because she hasn't seen her in
10 years and they were the best of friends dancing together in the core.
It's really exciting to do.
Yeah, and at the end of Phantom if I remember correctly, Meg finds the Phantom's mask
on his chair, so she's excited to have followed him here to Coney Island.
--Absolutely, yeah. --And to be performing.
What's an asset of Meg's, or a quality of hers in her maturing growth
over those ten years that you really admire about this character?
She's really resilient.
She puts up with a lot, and she does it in good spirit a lot of the time.
I think the Phantom is sort of a fatherly figure to her ina lot of ways and she
really wants to please him and do these numbers that he's written for her as best as
she can, and so it's a really sort of heart-warming story about how we work hard for our mentors
and we do certain things for teachers because we want so desperately to please them.
And I think that's a really admirable quality, and sometimes doesn't serve her
[laughs] but you know it is still a lovely side of her. She's really dedicated and loving toward
him and what he's created.
And I certainly don't want to give anything away, but Meg, as you mentioned
does have a very dark journey that she goes on. What did you make of all of that as you
were reading it and getting familiar with that?
Were you surprised? Did it sort of make sense for you that this was the character's journey?
I think at first I was very surprised.
but the more I spent time with it and with the amazing direction of Simon Phillips
and sort of what we've talked about together in our rehearsal process
it's a story that we hear a lot, right? It's a story that makes sense
And sort of she's been tossed aside one too many times and what that ends up creating
some animosity, some jealousy, and we've seen that in stories time and time again.
So, it's fun to get to play that. It's a familiar story, but it's very deeply examined.
Like it's a really beautiful look at what people will do for attention, love, all those things.
--And since you've spent so much time in the head of Christine,
and now you're getting to spend the time in the head of Meg
do you have a different appreciation for those characters on the other ends of those
characters?
Is it hard to switch to now I have to be super jealous of this, is that challenging
or fun? --It's very fun.
Yeah, because I spent so long singing that music and being in her head,
She's such a sweet character, but she's always at the center of it.
Everything happens to Christine. In the original and in Love Never Dies, really.
She's sort of what brings everyone together, so it's sort of this, she's almost like a magnet
for the story. And it's fun to get to b=play a character that's more, I don't want to say
active, but a little bit more. There's more that she can kind of go through.
It's less things happening to her, and more
and more she is driving the story.
--Right, and as Christine in Phantom, you have to spend so much time, not alone, but
only like with one other person. --Totally.
--But you would leave the stage just before everybody else would come on to the stage.
--And even in dressing rooms, you're on the other side of the stage in the New York
theater, in the Majestic, so you only really see the Phantom and Raoul.
And that's who you see on stage, and so it is very isolating, and Meg in Love Never Dies
is totally different. She gets to do all of these big, fun production numbers and see the ensemble
--She's a part of this troupe. --Yeah, and
she gets a lot of time with Madame Giry, and even the Phantom.
So, it's really neat. It's much more, it feels more inclusive.
--I think I read somewhere that your favorite moment in Phantom of the Opera was
the Don Juan sequence, right? Like the
opera within the opera.
Is there a moment in this show that you're really excited for people to see?
It can involve you, it doesn't have to, but is there a moment that you're super excited
for people...
I mean, the opening of Love Never Dies is... it takes my breath away.
And I've seen it. I saw it all through tech, I sat in the house and watched it.
But, hearing the orchestra doing what they're doing, and then against that see what the actors
are doing, it's one of those moments that I don't think people will ever forget theatrically.
And then I think also the final scene, which I will not give anything away,
--Right. --But it's such a, the stakes are so high, and it's beautifully played by everyone
in the cast and so I think that they'll leaving feeling satisfied by that.
When audiences across the country come out to see Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns,
what kind of a night are they in for? What kind of experience are they going to have at that theater?
Oh, it is two and a half hours of romance in the best way, not in a sort of sappy way,
and not in a surface level way, but it's really a close examination at love.
And I think it's really a needed piece of theater right now
because it sort of reminds you, it leaves you with this beautiful thing of... at the center
of it all, we should just be loving one another, and for all of our flaws and faults and differences
, which I think is just such a beautiful message and I think it will reach people across the country in
different ways, but I think it's something that everyone understands at their core.
--Totally, and spending a night with the freaks! --Yes!
Exactly! And it's dark and it's funny. I mean there are funny elements
and so I think they're going to get a little bit of it all. I'm excited for people to get to see it.
They're in for a great treat. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Make sure you go see
Love Never Dies: The Phantom Returns with Mary Michael Patterson and their whole incredible
cast. Tickets are on sale. Thank you so much again Mary Michael. Good Luck --Thank you.
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