This past weekend, I had the privilege of seeing actress Krysta Rodriguez come to my college (The College of New Jersey, aka TCNJ)! Krysta originated the role of Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family Musical on Broadway, as well as Casey in First Date with Zachary Levi. Other significant roles in the theatre include A Chorus Line (Bebe and later Diana Morales), In the Heights (Vanessa), and the Deaf West production of Spring Awakening (Ilse). TV credits include appearances in Gossip Girl, Chasing Life, Married, and Younger. She also starred as Ana in the TV series Smash.
Since the musical theatre group at TCNJ is putting on The Addams Family, who else could be better to help improve the production other than the original Wednesday Addams herself? I mean, the original Gomez (Nathan Lane) or Morticia (Bebe Neuwirth) would be great too, but having Krysta here was an incredible experience! I got to see her work with the cast, and she was so funny, intelligent, and insightful.
Later on, Krysta did a performance which was open to the public. The improv comedy troupe kicked off the performance, then Krysta came out and sang three songs: "Pulled" (The Addams Family), "Crazier Than You" (The Addams Family), and "What I Did For Love" (A Chorus Line). Since "Crazier Than You" is a duet with Wednesday's love interest, Lucas, Krysta had the boy playing Lucas in TCNJ's production come up and sing with her, which was super cool! In addition, she had the cast of Addams at TCNJ come up and sing "What I Did For Love" with her, which was so touching, especially since A Chorus Line is one of my favorite musicals of all time.
After Krysta's performance, there was a Q&A session. She truly is an amazing woman and role model; she fought through breast cancer and is still continuing to perform after that. She talked about her start in theatre, her experiences in different roles on stage as well as on TV and just life in general. There was one story she told that really resonated with me. She was talking about when she was in the Deaf West performance of Spring Awakening. Everyone was doing physical warm up exercises, and she had gotten out of chemo not long ago. Initially, she felt like she was't well enough to do these exercises but she saw a girl in a wheelchair doing exercising, and she thought then "well if she can do it, why can't I?" Then she started doing push-ups. This shows how strong of a woman she is and how she didn't let her cancer treatment get in the way of anything.
During the Q&A session, I was lucky enough to get to ask her what her favorite part of performing is! Her answer was that she likes to explore different types of people that are unlike herself, and explained how theatre can help us better understand one another. I totally agree with her, and learned a lot from her. Even being in her presence was amazing, and hopefully I will get to see her on Broadway in the future!
