'It's one of my dreams,' Rose Byrne says of her comic turn on Broadway

Rose Byrne received both an Oscar and a Tony nomination in the same year, with the Oscar tied to If I Had Legs I'd Kick You and the Tony nomination tied to Fallen Angels on Broadway. If I Had Legs was an intense independent film about a mother unraveling under escalating caregiving demands for her ill daughter, showcasing Byrne’s dramatic range. Byrne is now returning to comedy in a revival of Noel Coward’s 1925 play about two wealthy women who learn a man they each previously knew is coming to town. She aims to reach the back row without microphones, describing the performance as physically demanding. She credits Coward’s writing and stage directions, praising the language and vocabulary that she continues to rediscover backstage.

"Rose Byrne is one of the few actors to receive both an Oscar and a Tony nomination in the same year — the former for the film If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, and the latter for Fallen Angels on Broadway. If I Had Legs was an intense indie film about a mother falling apart as she struggles to keep up with ever-increasing caregiving demands for her ill daughter. Byrne, who previously starred in blockbuster comedies like Neighbors and Bridesmaids, was praised for showing her range."

"Now, she's returning to comedy in the revival of Noel Coward's 1925 play about two wealthy women who find out a man they were each previously involved with is coming to town. "I had long wanted to do a true comedic piece onstage, like it's one of my dreams," Byrne says of Fallen Angels. "We are trying to reach the back row, so physically, ... I felt like I was screaming when I first got up [there], because we're not wearing mics either.""

"Byrne's Fallen Angels character gets progressively drunk and increasingly loud throughout the play. She credits Coward's "brilliant" writing and stage directions with guiding her performance. "The language he used, the sort of linguistic gymnastics and the extraordinary vocabulary of Noel Coward is a delight," she says. "I never tire of sitting backstage and I'm constantly rediscovering the words that he peppers throughout.""

"Interview highlights On her role in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You Mary Bronstein wrote this incendiary screenplay and I just did not want to mess it up. It was such a creative opportunity. ... We hit it off and had a real experience, one of those experiences in life that, creatively, has kind of changed me. [The film] defies generalization or description, because it's sort of like a fever dream, in a way. It has gallows humor in there. There's horror tropes in the film, too."

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