Madeline Brewer balances comedy with vulnerability in 'Little Shop of Horrors’

An Emmy nominee for The Handmaid's Tale, Brewer makes her NYC stage debut in a role that both builds on her TV work and lets her explore different themes — and a different look.

Summary

• Madeline Brewer discusses making her NYC stage debut as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway
• Brewer talks about the similarities between Audrey and her past roles of Janine in The Handmaid's Tale on TV and Sally Bowles in Cabaret on stage; plus Carmela Soprano in The Sopranos
• Brewer talks about her history studying and performing in musical theatre since childhood

Ever since Madeline Brewer wrapped filming on the final seasons of two major TV shows, The Handmaid's Tale and You, earlier this year, she's spent a lot of time on the other side of the screen, binge-watching The Sopranos. Call it research for her latest role: Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway.

Carmela Soprano's mob-wife aesthetic — loud prints, heavy makeup, and, especially, long nails — feels "Audrey-related," Brewer explained. The Little Shop character similarly sports tight dresses, stiletto heels, done-up '60s hair (that's when the show is set), and even, in one scene, a leopard-print arm sling. That detail more closely evokes Brewer's TV characters: like Handmaid's Tale's battered Janine and You's final girl Brontë, Audrey suffers abuse before finding her way to Seymour, her goofy coworker at a flower shop that happens to house a man-eating plant. (Stage veteran Nicholas Christopher played the role at the beginning of her run, and she's now starring opposite Gossip Girl's Thomas Doherty through December.)

But since Little Shop is a fantastical horror comedy, Brewer also gets to do a little more "clowning" than usual as Audrey, which she likes balancing with the darker side of the show.

"It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it has such has some really important themes and allows these characters to be really vulnerable [...] in this really extreme and heightened world — with a talking plant," Brewer said.

She also gets to make her long-awaited NYC stage debut, having done musical theatre since she was 7 and trained in it at the city's American Musical and Dramatic Academy before her TV career took off. Brewer's first stage return since was in 2022, when she played Sally Bowles in the ongoing Cabaret revival in London (where she met her now-husband, whom she married in July).

Brewer's had a busy few years and shows no signs of stopping, but between rehearsals, she sat with New York Theatre Guide to discuss her screen-to-stage leap and why those Carmela Soprano nails are vital to her Little Shop performance.

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Congratulations, firstly, on your wedding. Were you able to bask in the honeymoon period for a little before jumping into Little Shop?

No! I mean, we had a really nice, four-day mini-moon in Cornwall in England. We relaxed, we stayed at this beautiful hotel club, the Scarlet, and then I went right into rehearsal, and I've been Audrey ever since.

Why was this the time to return to theatre, right after getting married and wrapping two major TV shows?

I actually had my sights set on coming back to New York over two years ago, and as soon as I put New York into my brain, I then booked You, which shoots in New York. It was the spring and summer, and it was beautiful, and on a show I loved so much.

I finished You, and then I finished the last season of The Handmaid's Tale, and then had press for both, got married. And luckily, somewhere in there, my agent was like, "Would you want to go do Little Shop?" Which I'd been telling him about because I'd seen a video, actually, of [former Audrey] Joy Woods singing "Somewhere That's Green," and that has started my obsession with Joy Woods.

I just thought, it seems like they're allowing Audrey, in this production, to really show her vulnerabilities through that song. And her performance was just so beautiful. I was like [...] I want to dig my nails — my long nails — into that.

Aside from the comedy, Audrey feels similar to your characters on those TV shows.

She's suffering at the hands of men and not losing herself to it. That's especially true of Janine and Audrey: still finding beauty and hope and a place for dreaming in that.

What I love about Audrey is you see all of these stereotypes of womanhood. She's hyper-feminine. That's why I insisted upon very long nails, this idea of femininity, this performance of femininity. But her true beauty is within and lies in her dream world and her kindness and her generosity and her confidence.

I love that you got input on Audrey's nails. To be able to make costuming choices as an actor can be rare, especially in an established production.

I'm a nail girl anyway. I enjoy having my nails done. Actually, this is not the first time I've played a character with very specific nails. I do tend to be a very physical actor. It all informs the character to me: the body, the clothes, the shoes, the nails, the hair, the lashes [or] not lashes. All of it is a choice.

Also, Audrey has an abusive boyfriend, but he makes good money, and maybe he pays for her nails. Maybe that's how Audrey keeps holding on, just a little bit: "I'm getting something out of this. I'm getting this acceptance, and I'm also getting a great, fresh set of acrylics every two weeks." I don't know, but it's all lore.

Now that brings Sally Bowles to mind.

Also a character with very specific nails! I'm telling you, these women are so similar: purple eyeshadow, very specific nails, not a great boyfriend. Something tragic happens at the end.

In a different interview, you said you channeled a decade's worth of feelings about theatre into Sally. What were those feelings, and have they since changed?

I did musical theatre my entire upbringing. I went to school for musical theatre. I only ate, slept and breathed musical theatre for over a decade, and then right out of college, I started working in TV, which is amazing [...] but my heart and my home has been theatre.

I took all of that feeling and I put it into my first opportunity on stage in 10 years, and that was more than Sally could handle, and it was more than I could handle, and I've learned a lot from that experience. There are a lot of things I would do differently with Sally now, but Sally's no longer mine. RIP.

I take a lot of my characters with me for the duration that I'm playing them. I joke with my husband that he fell in love with Sally, he didn't fall in love with me. He gets me now, though. No, actually, right now, he gets Audrey. I'm not Method, but I take them on to a degree.

[Now,] I do have a lot more confidence, and I'm a lot more at peace with my place in the world of theatre and [I know] I belong and I am accepted.

In addition to doing theatre, did you have any early experiences going to Broadway shows, or to Philly theatre, that fostered your love for it?

My mom [...] took me to see Mamma Mia! at the Winter Garden. I was done. I was in. And I also just really love ABBA.

It was a part of me before I even knew it was a part of me. My family's very musical. My dad had been an actor, had done some plays and things when I was a kid. He's a singer. My grandmother was a singer. My mom is the most supportive and encouraging person. So it was going to happen.

Do you hope to stay in New York after your Little Shop run is over?

I kind of live in London; I kind of live here. I like L.A. too. I go where the work takes me, and I go where the character is, the best opportunities. I do like New York because I'm close to home, I'm close to my family, so they're not getting rid of me quite yet.

Are there any shows you're hoping to see while you're here?

I'm excited to see Jinkx Monsoon, a fellow Audrey, as Mary Todd Lincoln [in Oh, Mary!], and then Jane Krakowski after her. I'm also really excited to see Dylan Mulvaney's show at the Lucille Lortel [...] The Least Problematic Woman in the World.

Do you have any dream roles in theatre or otherwise? Especially as many of your characters have similarities, do you hope to do something different?

I mean, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I like the roles I've played. I like playing more roles like them — not necessarily the parts in which we're being beaten up by men or they're trying to kill us or something. But a common denominator among all the women I've been fortunate enough to play is that they're vulnerable, but they are very strong, as a lot of women are, and I think I am.

I also would love to play — I need my Carmela Soprano. I want it. I need it. But also [...] I'd love to do something that's really a story surrounding just women, and not women at the hands of men.

I want to do, also, a cabaret show where I get to just sing a bunch of songs I love with my friends. There's a lot of things I want to do, and I'm far from finished.

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This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Top image credit: Madeline Brewer. (Photo courtesy of production)
In-article image credit: Madeline Brewer and Thomas Doherty as Audrey and Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. (Photos by Michaelah Reynolds)