Aaron Tweet wearing Todd Snyder
Photo: Kakie Kirk
Your performance as Freddy Trumper chess Amazing, and while you make it look easy, I have to imagine it’s a very hard job, physically and emotionally. Freddy is angry, sad, manic and scheming – whenever he’s on stage, he’s basically either singing or screaming. He is also the only lead character in the show with a big dance number,”A night in Bangkok.“How did you get into Freddy’s mind?
I was really, really interested because I was starting to work on Freddy and thinking about Freddy, and I was really curious about his trauma, and also where the mental-health issues were arising from. This is the child who came into limelight at the age of 11. He was US champion at that age. And so what does that look like? In “Pity the Child” we learn that his home life is very broken. He has no support system.
Photo: Kakie Kirk
How does this compare to your own experience of being in showbiz from a relatively young age? You were only 20 years old when you joined the touring company Rent as Steve, and three years later you were starring in spray on Broadway.
When I found success at a very young age, I suffered from the craziest impostor syndrome you can imagine. But I had a support system to help me, and I had people I could talk to and trust. And also, I’m really, really lucky. I grew up about an hour away in the Hudson Valley, so when I moved to New York City to start working as an actor, all of my friends from home basically lived here and had nothing to do with the entertainment industry. And so, if that makes any sense, my life hasn’t changed that much. It gave me a lot of perspective, but I can very easily imagine having success at a young age and not having a support system.
I know you have a very small child. How do you manage the demands of being on this show and living a normal life with all the demands of a family?
My daughter just turned 1, so this is the first show I’ve done with a kid at home. The sleep factor is a big question. I come home from the show at 11 o’clock and I get wired and somehow I get to bed at 12 o’clock. My wife is already in bed and I’m trying to sleep, and then the baby hopefully sleeps as long as she can, but she likes to get up at seven, which I know is late for a lot of people, but I’m praying for eight o’clock. My wife loves getting up with her in the morning, so I can get a little extra sleep.
Anytime you’re doing eight shows a week, there have to be a little sacrifice. This show in particular is the hardest show I have ever done. This is certainly the most vocal demand. I’m yelling and raising my voice and just working in this extremely intense 12-out-of-10 place. Music is very difficult. when i first learned chess And listening to it in college, it was one of those things that people said, “Oh, no one ever sings like that. It’s all so hard.” And now we’re trying to do it eight times a week. If I try to put baby down for an afternoon nap and he doesn’t want to go down, I’ll grab him and we’ll nap together. And I try to capture those moments as much as I can – I can spend time with her, but we can also both relax. I think any parent with a 1-year-old would do this, but I’m also doing it to prepare myself to get back on stage.
Is there a preshow ritual you like to do an hour before a performance?
When I go to the theater, I like to be physically a little warm. After that, I really love going on stage every day, while the house is still open, just to have a moment to look at the audience and just be in the space for a bit. It’s something I’ve always done. Because a night at the theater is so unique, I like to think: Well, that’s where we are tonight. We’re here to try to make something happenThen maybe I’ll eat a little something, I like to eat fruit before the show, And then I play a blitz game on chess,com, I am not very good,
How did you choose your outfit for this? chess Opening-night party?
Everything I wear on stage is black-and-white, etc. chess Marketing is black-and-white. So I definitely wanted a little bit of color. Todd Snyder offered to dress me for the inauguration, and I was very fortunate to be a part of their fall campaign this year and build an amazing relationship with them. And then I also work with an amazing stylist named Jason Rembert, and he and I talked about color and the idea of a monochromatic look. And then once Todd and I started sending some ideas back and forth, it was something I saw in their runway show last year, and I loved the idea of it. And it also points to a little bit of pink in it chess Artwork. And I thought it was a great combination of all those things.
Okay, now for something completely unrelated chess, Thanksgiving scene from gossip GirlIn which you play Trip Van Der Bilt, goes viral around this time every year. Do you have any special memories of shooting it, or any sense that it will still be with us years later?
I enjoyed working on that show. That scene was the first time basically every character was in the same scene. It was like all the different stories that were happening, all the characters, all the regulars, all the people who were guest-starring at the time, we were all in the scene together. And then when it aired and we heard the music they put on that scene… everything just came together perfectly. And it’s back in my life because some of my nieces are teenagers now and they’re watching gossip Girl For the first time and they have all these questions about it, which is really funny. It was a great moment in time, and it was a great show to be a part of New York.
Photo: Kakie Kirk
<a href=