Culture
The Tony nominee, who plays Fritz in Steven Sondheim’s last musical, takes us through her pre- and post-show routines.
Micaela Diamond knows her way around a kitchen. The Tony-nominated Broadway star — who’s currently onstage at The Shed in Steven Sondheim’s last musical Here We Are — is also a culinary-school graduate. As she gears up and cools down from playing Fritz, a sexually confused revolutionary, she begins and ends her days with a bite.
Before the show, a hearty breakfast “usually makes for a good matinee,” Diamond tells NYLON. Afterward, you can find her down the street at Ci Siamo, or at Vic’s in NoHo enjoying a whiskey and onion torte nightcap.
Here, the rising 23-year-old chef-turned-Broadway star takes NYLON behind the scenes of her getting-ready routine before a Thursday-night performance of Here We Are.
What are your pre-show getting-ready routines?
I’ll do some sort of workout in the morning right when I wake up. Usually it’s The Class by Taryn Toomey. If I don’t do this within the first 15 minutes that my eyes are open, I will not work out for the day, which is fine, too. I have a short-but-necessary skin care routine that brings me great joy. It involves the same benzoyl peroxide I’ve been using since I was 15, sunscreen, and a pumpkin oil from Savor Beauty that makes everyone fall in love with me. Actually, it just makes my makeup not pill. And then I eat. I went to culinary school, so I am a very good eater.
Describe your getting-ready process.
I get to the theater an hour before curtain. I do my makeup, which is Brooklyn grunge: a little smudgy, a little rebellious. I’ll listen to something like Fleetwood Mac or Barbara Streisand’s memoir (equally thrilling) while I put on blush with my fingers. And then I warm up in a small, dark closet because I share a dressing room and don’t want my colleagues to hear me blow through a straw and stretch my tongue. These are intimate tasks one should do on their own. Then I throw on my strawberry mullet and my fuzzy green sweater and we hit the deck.
What's your favorite song in the show?
My favorite song is a short duet I sing with the Soldier in Act II. It’s called “Double Duet” because it used to involve two couples and then it changed, but the title did not. It’s sung while my character, Fritz, and the Soldier are tipsy and horny. The world is ending, she’s had so much Champagne, and she wants to go out f*cking a hot dude in the closet even if she is actually gay. (This will make more sense if you see the show.)
Do you have a favorite place to hang out post-show?
We call it the Rabbit Room, which is just a fancy name for the boys’ dressing room with a shaggy white rug. Al Pacino came and sat in there with us last week, so it’s been blessed. If I’m not there sipping on a whiskey, I am at Ci Siamo. I worked on the line at chef Hillary Sterling’s last restaurant, Vic’s, and I think she is very, very good. Get the onion torte. I’ll probably be at the table next to you. Al Pacino, probably not.
What time do you go to bed at night?
I try to go to bed at 12:30 and fall asleep by 1 a.m. I can be pretty wired with adrenaline from the show. And if I can’t sleep, I wake up my boyfriend and make him tell me the plot to a TV show or movie I would find boring. He loves it. And that’s why I love him.
