At the 2025 Tony Awards, Kelli O'Hara chats with THR on the red carpet and describes the interaction between actors and audiences as the most special part of a live production. Plus, she reveals how she prepares for eight shows a week.
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00:00Do you have a pre-show or post-show ritual that kind of re-centers you between shows?
00:05You know, I find that doing eight shows a week is when I'm the best version of myself.
00:09And I know that's crazy, but I think there's a personality that goes into this business,
00:14and you either have it or you don't.
00:15And I have an addiction for theater.
00:17I haven't done it since last spring, and I miss it like crazy.
00:21But because what it does is it, before the show,
00:25I center myself in a way that I try to get back to when I'm not doing shows,
00:29but that meditative moment when I'm just with myself, there is meditation,
00:35there's bodily stretches, there's a focus that happens in my life.
00:40And then I go and I share this moment with human beings, real human beings.
00:46And I think that it's such a drug, and I love it.
00:52It's just who I am.
00:54And that interactive element between performer and audience,
00:58is that the most special part of live theater for you?
01:01Absolutely.
01:01It's the energy that we give to each other.
01:05Whether it's, you know, complicated, there are questions.
01:08Whether it's filled with joy or tears or sorrow.
01:12I feel like when we're, the more and more we get used to, I do too,
01:17feeling and going through things myself, on my own, across the screen, or whatever it is,
01:21it's never going to be the same as a room filled with this sort of shared energy
01:27and where we're all feeling something at once.
01:30You know, back in the olden days, everybody would tune into the same show all across the country.
01:34It doesn't happen anymore.
01:36We're all in very different places.
01:38This is not so with live theater.
01:40You come in and you have a shared experience.
01:42And it might be only 800 people or 1,000, but it is incredibly,
01:48I think it's a beautiful gift to give yourself,
01:50whether or not you're in the audience or on the stage.
01:52You come in and you're in the audience or you're in the audience or you're in the audience.