Illustration: Ryan Inzana
Performing in eight reveals every week for Broadway’s Simply in Time means Erika Henningsen doesn’t all the time get an opportunity to socialize throughout common hours. For starters, she says, “I’m not doing dinner on Friday night time with my buddies.” Her offstage hours now embody recording voice-overs for Amazon’s Hazbin Lodge and selling Tina Fey’s new Netflix present, The 4 Seasons. However this week, Henningsen nonetheless discovered time for the necessary stuff: luxuriously gradual meals together with her husband at I Sodi, gossip over portobello fries, extra-dirty vodka martinis at Joe Allen, and a semi-regular, deeply passionate fling with string cheese.
Monday, Might 12
It’s my day without work, which suggests we are able to sleep in till 9! Luxurious. Properly, that’s if our tiny puma of a rescue canine — a German-shepherd–cattle-dog combine — doesn’t get up early. We acquired her from Muddy Paws Rescue through the pandemic. She was speculated to be a foster, however she was in such excessive demand on the adoption website that we had been like, “We are able to’t give her up.”
I do know I’m supposed to begin on daily basis with a glass of water, however I don’t should sing at the moment, so I make espresso with half-and-half. I don’t know once I was influenced out of nondairy milk. I was an oat or almond milk form of lady, and I simply keep in mind going to the grocery retailer in the future and spontaneously shopping for just a little carton of half-and-half. Someplace alongside the best way, I should have been Inception’d by the meals TikTokers and Instagrammers of the world.
My Mondays had been so totally different once I did my first Broadway present. I didn’t take into consideration what I ate. I didn’t fear about how a lot I used to be ingesting. I simply lived life very arduous and quick as a 20-something in New York, so my days off could be in recuperation from no matter I had finished on Sunday night time. Les Miz was a very large solid of a bunch of British folks, and British folks positively know the best way to have a superb time. Nowadays, Mondays are much more about ensuring that there are groceries within the fridge and that my husband, Kyle, and I’ve had time to truly speak about what’s occurring in our lives.
I’m getting bangs at the moment. I spend most of my life in costume, so it appears like a secure time to attempt one thing. Once I was in Imply Women, I dyed my hair purple; it was … a glance. My buddies had been very type about it on the time, however once I switched again to my pure shade, they had been like, “Good name.” Bangs really feel safer. My hairstylist all the time gives a bowl of peanut-butter pretzel nuggets to munch on whereas I’m within the chair. It’s okay to ask for refills on the hair salon.
It’s nice to have Monday nights off, as a result of even at I Sodi, my husband and I are capable of stroll in and seize seats on the bar. It’s time for cheese, carbs, and spice. I order pancetta-and-pea orecchiette. I Sodi is without doubt one of the few locations the place generally, if we all know the employees member, we’ll simply say, “No matter you assume we should always positively attempt, please add it.” And it’s all the time scrumptious.
The menu isn’t overwhelming. Laminated booklet menus give me hives (I’m speaking to you, Cheesecake Manufacturing facility). In addition they serve a white negroni that individuals ought to write poems about. Our honeymoon was in Italy, and we couldn’t recover from how calm the eating expertise was — not rushed, not about expedience. I Sodi provides us that feeling. We sit there for 2 hours.
Tuesday, Might 13
Breakfast is eggs, turkey bacon, and avocado on Ezekiel bread; a smoothie with spinach, blueberries, and a scoop of protein powder. I do greatest with a big protein overload within the morning since I’ve to eat much less because it will get nearer to showtime — Nineteen Sixties corsets and heavy dinners usually are not a contented match.
I began actually tuning in to vocal well being throughout Imply Women as a result of that present was so intense; it’s most likely the toughest factor I’ll ever do except I play Elphaba in the future. (And to cite my greatest pal, Gray Henson, “You’re not a Glinda. You’re not an Elphaba. You’re a Nessarose.” Which lower me to my core. However he’s appropriate.) Once I was enjoying Cady, I lower out every thing — dairy, spice, something “dangerous” — as a result of I believed I needed to. However I missed having cheese. I missed pizza. Finally, I began working it again in and realized it didn’t have an effect on me in any respect. Nowadays, I really like a cheese plate earlier than curtain.
I head house for dinner. I don’t wish to eat on the theater as a result of it makes me really feel like I dwell there. One thing about consuming a meal at my dressing-room desk is so unhappy and darkish to me. I eat dinner like a canine with giardia once I’m on a Broadway schedule: candy potatoes, hen, rice, and black beans. I’m at present obsessive about the cilantro model of Bitchin’ Sauce and put it on every thing.
Just a few castmates and I head out for a postshow nosh. My castmate Gracie Lawrence and I like Joe Allen. The martinis are completely soiled — I would like mine to style just like the ocean — we are able to all the time get a desk submit–curtain name, they usually serve precise late-night meals meals. I get ceviche and French fries, however generally a JA’s burger at 9:45 p.m. actually does hit the spot. It’s develop into just a little little bit of a convention.
Wednesday, Might 14
It’s a two-show day, so I attempt to begin on the precise foot. A smoothie with spinach, blueberries, banana, flax, half an avocado, and the protein powder I’m obsessive about. Usual vanilla Nespresso with half-and-half due to our trusty De’Longhi. It’s not even our De’Longhi. We wouldn’t know the best way to choose one in every of them out as a result of they’re all so fancy. However my husband was in Water for Elephants, and the man who performed the half earlier than him, Grant Gustin, lives in L.A. and acquired one for his dressing room in New York. When he left the present, he was like, “I can’t take all this again with me.” So we inherited his very good espresso machine. Thanks, Grant Gustin. That was very good of you.
I cease by Westerly on the best way to the matinee. Westerly appears like a health-food hoarder’s paradise. The aisles are too small, the cabinets are too excessive, they usually have far too many types of sauerkraut. I like it. I often find yourself leaving with one thing additional that I didn’t know I wanted. At present, that’s sliced pineapple and a cup of their to-go lentil soup.
I do our first present of the day and discover out that The 4 Seasons acquired picked up for season two throughout intermission. I’m within the dressing room in my pink corset costume once I get a textual content from the solid that claims, “Glad season-two pickup.” I don’t know what to do with myself, so I purchase a $9 matcha. I don’t even drink matcha.
My husband suggests we go to Instances Sq. Diner between reveals for the matzo-ball soup, as a result of nothing says “calm your nervous system” like moist bread and salty broth. Instances Sq. Diner is straight between our theaters; it not too long ago underwent a flowery redesign. I really feel like Cosmic Diner was a spot for my 20s. Instances Sq. Diner is a spot for my 30s.
I all the time exit between reveals. I can not keep in that theater all day. It simply feels just like the twilight zone to be underground for that lengthy. There aren’t any home windows. There aren’t any indicators of life. If an apocalypse occurred, we might do not know. The theater is Broadway Severance, and my Innie wants out.
At present is what would have been Bobby Darin’s 91st birthday, so our producers carry cannoli to the theater. I shovel two into my mouth whereas doing pin curls earlier than the second present.
Thursday, Might 15
I do my similar morning smoothie. I’m recording voice-overs for the Amazon animated present I star in, Hazbin Lodge. It’s quite a lot of screaming and yelling, so I depend on pineapple for its anti-swelling properties and beef-jerky bites to remain energized.
I additionally seize an Rxbar to have mid-session in case I begin fading. The function is tremendous–excessive vitality. My character is principally on the verge of getting an bronchial asthma assault in each single scene. I believe animation requires extra vocal dexterity than even dwell theater does. All it’s a must to inform the story is your voice. I might like to do a side-by-side comparability of the vocal waves from my roles on The 4 Seasons and Hazbin Lodge. 4 Seasons could be fairly regular. Hazbin would appear like I used to be a bunny on cocaine.
I file earlier than Jeremy Jordan, who’s at present enjoying Floyd Collins. He’s doing a manner more durable job than I’m. Any time I go away the voice sales space and he’s coming in, I’m like, “Good luck, babe.”
My Hazbin co-star Tom is on the town from L.A. I gave him an inventory of three Hell’s Kitchen eating places whose meals I do know received’t upset my voice or abdomen. He chooses Imasa Nori, and we catch up for an hour and a half over scrumptious yellowtail sashimi and king-crab rolls earlier than I head to the present.
Friday, Might 16
I get up and it feels a bit like, Oh gosh, I’m beginning a marathon. I’ve a two-show day tomorrow after which I’m flying to L.A. proper after the Sunday matinee. I’m flying out for a fast Netflix FYC occasion for The 4 Seasons. I’ll take the red-eye and one other red-eye house the following day to make it again in time for Tuesday night time’s present. Am I insane? Possibly.
My husband and I do some batch-cooking at the moment to get forward of the loopy weekend. We aren’t good cooks, however we’re proficient at feeding ourselves. I believe we all know what works for us. We are likely to eat purple meat provided that we’re out, so protein is often salmon or hen rubbed in a selfmade dressing of lemon, olive oil, dill, flaky salt, and just a little little bit of Dijon and black pepper. He handles the meat, and I roast a ton of veggies (candy potatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, and broccoli) to have with a tahini sauce. I really like tahini. I combine two spoonfuls with a little bit of lemon, garlic, and olive oil and drizzle it on every thing.
I head to the theater and restock our dressing-room fridge with string cheese. Gracie and I are form of obsessive about it. We’re on the lookout for a mozzarella-cheese-stick sponsorship. It’s the proper mid-show snack. My relationship with string cheese is an on-again, off-again affair. I overlook about it for months at a time — out of sight, out of thoughts — after which, all of a sudden, growth: It’s again in my life (fridge).
After the present, I’m going to Ardesia. It’s such a stunning little wine bar. They stayed open through the pandemic by doing roadside wine service, principally. We’d come down from our house in Harlem and simply drink wine on the sidewalk as a result of we wished to verify it stayed open. I all the time get the portobello fries; I share them with Kyle, Gray, and Gray and I’s Imply Women co-star Krystina Alabado. Ardesia is just a little farther away from the insanity of midtown, so it’s good for after we need to actually have the ability to simply shoot the shit and gossip with out anybody overhearing.
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