Interview: Sarah Stiles Talks World-Premiere Musical ICEBOY! at Goodman Theatre

Two-time Tony award nominee Sarah Stiles shares a preview of what’s to come in Goodman Theatre’s new summer musical Iceboy!, or The Completely Untrue Story of How Eugene O’Neill Came to Write “The Iceman Cometh.” She talks about what it’s like working on a world-premiere musical, getting back to her musical theater comedy roots with her character Lambert, and sharing a stage with co-stars Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, and Grey Henson. 

Iceboy! is a world-premiere musical. What's it been like returning to the process of rehearsing and getting ready to stage a brand-new show? 

I always forget how exhausting it is. I forget that I need lots of naps, and for my nutrition to be on point, and my therapy scheduled. It's been awesome. It's just a lot of work, definitely, for sure...The Goodman is great. I’ve never worked here before, but Chicago's amazing. So it's nice to be out of town, and just focused solely on it, you know? 

What excites you most about returning to musical theater comedy? 

That's my heart and soul. It's where I learned how to be funny and really how to act. It was the first thing I ever did, and I think it is such a fun and collaborative and exciting art form. It feels so good to be in front of a live audience and also be singing again. It's just been great. 

How did you find your way into musical theater comedy? Because I feel like you have such a unique flair for that specifically. 

I started when I was a kid doing community theater back in New Hampshire. I played Annie like a million times. And then I'm dating myself [but I had] cassette tapes of Cats and Les Mis and all of that that I would listen to until they peeled out of their plastic cases. 

I fell in love with it as a child, and then I went straight from high school to New York, and I started at AMDA because it felt like the quickest way to get my bearings. I spent a year and a half there, and then I was, all of a sudden, living in New York and going to open calls.

That takes me to one of my other questions: What was the musical that made you say musical theater was for you?

I had a VHS tape growing up when I was little that my parents recorded off of the TV. I have to get the order because I feel like that's important. It had Annie, Flash Dance, and The Wizard of Oz, which I think pretty much defines my career. It shaped me. I think [the musical that really shaped me] was probably The Wizard of Oz, honestly. That’s a movie musical, but, then when I found out you could do it on stage, that was it! 

And Les Mis was pretty...incredible. And then Rent came out and I was like, “Oh my god, this is really so cool.”

I mean, the art has changed so much over the years, but I love all those classic, old school musical theater Broadway shows, and then I love the new stuff that everybody's doing, too. And we're definitely doing something very unique here [with Iceboy!] 

What's your history with Eugene O'Neill? 

God, I have no history with Eugene O'Neill! I will say this: You don't need to know about Eugene O’Neill to really enjoy Iceboy!...If you do, there are some fun nuggets in here if you know The Iceman Cometh and Eugene O'Neill and all that. But you don't need to know it. 

How do you physically and mentally prepare for this process of doing a new musical?

I always try to figure out what part of the character emotionally and physically I identify with, and then I do a lot of investigation into the why's and how's of that. Then I try to just put it under a magnifying glass and just blow it up. 

For Tootsie, it was incredibly easy because I am, unfortunately, pretty close to that kind of neurotic. I will say playing [Sandy] was really hard to do for a year and made me a little bit insane. I knew that when I got offered the role. I remember my manager and agent were on the phone with me telling me I got the offer, and I said, “I think this role is gonna change my life and really help my career, but I also think she's gonna make me crazy.” And she kind of did. 

With Hand to God, there was a stillness and an earth and a real intelligence — an emotional intelligence — about [Jessica] that I also do possess. And so living in her was like a dream. 

Theater has always been [like therapy] because you live inside one moment over and over again. It's such therapy [when] you're really working through whatever that one thing is that the character is having to battle and deal with. And so the closer it is to things you have to do in your own life, the more work you get out of it, but also have to do. 

So with Iceboy!, it's come to me in the most incredible of times....What's been beautiful about this experience is that [what my character Lambert] is going through — she’s having all these symptoms and having all these experience, which is really difficult, and she's really weighed down by it [Interviewer’s Note: You’ll have to watch Iceboy! to find out about Lambert’s condition — No spoilers here!] But then she also gets to fall in love and move through it...I feel really lucky to be doing this right now. 

And...what I will say is that roles come to you. I'm very “woo woo” about all this kind of stuff. I think the roles find you, and they give you what you need in the moment. And truly, I can look at my career and see the growth that I've made as a result directly from playing those roles. Art is very deep for me, you know? 

On the record, what can you tell me about Lambert [your character in Iceboy! - the assistant to star Vera Vimm, played by Megan Mullally)? 

Lambert is Vera's right-hand girl. She's her support system. She is her maid. She is dealing with some struggles in her own life that keep her frozen in a way that we're all kind of frozen. So that condition that she has, which I don't want to spoil, is keeping her locked in this place where she can't really move forward. And throughout the course of the play — the journey for all of us in Iceboy! — is thawing.

What's it been like having Megan Mullally and Grey Henson as scene partners? 

Incredible! I've been a fan of Grey's for a long time. Working with him is truly the easiest, funnest, most loving experience. He's just a delicious human being, who's so talented and so open and earnest and vulnerable and funny and generous. Working with him has just been incredible. 

Megan is someone who I have always admired and looked up to and been inspired by, so actually working with her has been an absolute dream come true. She is so generous on stage and so collaborative...She really is the best. She's a giant, comedically. And her understanding of musical theater and storytelling and song — it's a masterclass, and so being able to spend this time with her is just such a gift...I feel really lucky. And Nick [Offerman is] incredible and watching them together is incredible. I know everyone's sick of saying how in love they are, but, really, they're so in love. It's crazy. It's a beautiful thing to watch. 

What's your process for memorizing material, especially when it comes to a show like this where it's going to change throughout rehearsals in previews?

I find that I really need two sleeps to be really there. On one sleep I can say the lines, but on two sleeps, I can also act at the same time. So that's what I learned about myself. 

Sometimes you don't get that opportunity. We had to perform at the Goodman gala, like we weren't even at rehearsal for a week. Grey and I were just like holding on to each other in fear, trying to remember all the words. 

It's just one of those things. It's such a muscle. On TV, you have to do it pretty instantaneously. I mean, you can cut so that's nice. But you also don't want to be wasting everyone's time.  

It's like lifting weights. And we're lifting a lot of weights in this show. 

What do you hope that audiences take away from the show? 

I hope they are in physical pain from laughing so much...The world is pretty dark right now. There's a lot of bleakness. And people are not super happy. And I think this show is two hours to just forget about everything and really laugh. And be surprised, constantly. I mean, we are laughing through all of the rehearsals. We're in tech, and we're still laughing at each other. I mean, we've seen some of these jokes a million times, and they're still surprising us, and they're still making us do that huge, wide-eyed, guffaw. I hope people just get to really have fun.

See Sarah Stiles as Lambert in the world-premiere musical Iceboy! starting June 21 at Goodman Theatre.