Not only tonight Helen J. ShenFirst time attending Tony Awardbut she will also be on stage to perform her show Maybe a happy endingwhich includes 10 nominations, including the best new musical.
“Every new echelon of this process is surprising,” Shen Yu told me by phone a day ago. She rests between Saturday’s drama and evening performances and has to wake up early to attend the dress rehearsal of the awards ceremony.
For Sunday’s special occasions, Shen and her designers, Ashley Afriyiethe character Claire, wants to make sure that he feels like a heavy person, is an auxiliary robot with them on the red carpet. “Often, a lot of things I tend to have a rock edge, which is the opposite of Claire,” Shen said. “But what I learned from playing Claire is that fragility and softness have a lot of power. That’s why I was attracted to this Pamela Rolland dress, which has a very feminine, soft silhouette and color. I’m really happy to be like Claire like I did on the red carpet.”
Calm her beautiful appearance has the same idea (hair stylist Tianjin And makeup artist Yoshi Sekimoto): She hopes the freckles she shared with Claire will have a moment in Tonys too. “The freckles that Claire has are actually the moment when I want to bring Claire and Helen together,” Chen said. “I have natural freckles and I always cover them up when I grow up. I feel like they are something imperfect — but as an adult, I learned to love them and embrace them, and it’s so cute to do that on Broadway.”
Her overall goal is to make all the little girls look up: “My face has always been round, and I love seeing people with round faces,” she said. “So, part of Little Helen is really excited to lead the Broadway show to be a romantic comedy, to be the main character of the romance and knowing that I don’t look like I think I need to play those roles and embody that kind of role.”
