Between Ptown Dates, Megan Hilty Has a Very Busy Year

Megan Hilty has had quite a year since she was last in Provincetown last August. First she moved to LA for a featured role in the Sean Hayes series "Sean Saved the World," then she married musician Brian Gallagher in a surprise Las Vegas ceremony in November. Two months later - on Gallagher's birthday - she took a pregnancy test and learned the couple was having a baby.

This week she returns to the Art House for a series of performances - four where she'll be accompanied on guitar by Gallagher and two she'll be share the stage with Seth Rudesky (as she did last year). This isn't the first time she's been in New England this year: in May (at Symphony Hall) and in July (at the Fourth concert on the Esplanade) she sang with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops in sets that reflected the chapters in her career.

Hilty's first break came fresh from college (Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon) when she snared the role of stand-by as Glinda in "Wicked," which she went on to play for a year on Broadway and on the road. From there she co-starred in the musical version of "Nine-to-Five" where she played the role Dolly Parton made famous in the film. For the role she was nominated for numerous theater awards, including the Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Award.

Her breakout role, though, came on the NBC series "Smash," where she played Ivy Lynn, an aspiring actress seeking the role of Marilyn Monroe in an imaginary musical based on the movie star's life. What was unique about the series, which ran two seasons and today is a cult hit, is that it incorporated covers and original songs as it followed the long haul of bringing a musical from workshops to an out-of-town tryout to Broadway.

But Ivy's insecurities and dark side seem light years away from the ebullient Hilty, whom EDGE spoke to last week as she was preparing for her second visit to Provincetown.

Seriously pregnant

EDGE: How did you like Provincetown last year?

Megan Hilty: It was magical. It feels like you're walking in this alternative universe where everybody is happy and carefree. It's a really wonderful place to be, so we're excited to come back.

EDGE: What will be different about this year's show?

Megan Hilty: Well, to begin with, this one is with my husband, Brian. He plays the guitar and sings. Four of the shows, it's just me and him; and two of the shows it's me and Seth Rudetsky, which was the same format as last year. Brian's an amazing musician, if I do say so myself. He's coming out with an album in a couple of months. And even though it is an acoustic set, it's still going to be stuff that I've done before, like songs from 'Smash' and Broadway tunes and by Dolly Parton. We'll bring it down some. That's the nature of our set - just Brian and a guitar - it's going to be a smaller, more intimate set. I don't hold back much, though. I'm still pretty loud.

EDGE: And you are seriously pregnant...

Megan Hilty: And I am most seriously pregnant. The show might as well be called, 'Come and See if The Water Breaks,' or 'Is There a Doctor in the House?'

About 'Smash'

EDGE: Were you reluctant at all at performing at this stage in your pregnancy?

Megan Hilty: No, but I've had people say you won't be able to sing because she's taking up so much room; and I've also heard the opposite. Some people record albums when they're pregnant because their voices are so lush. I've had, knock on wood, no problems. And I've really enjoyed being pregnant. And I think it's fun to see a lady in that time of her life up on stage. It's great to guilt trip the audience into buying my CDs. It's for the baby, it's for her college fund...

EDGE: You've picked a name, but won't reveal it - why not?

Megan Hilty: Because we don't know if we are going to stick with it, so we don't want to be held accountable. Plus we don't want people to say, 'oh, really?' Funny, I joked that I was going to name her Ivy on Twitter and people wrote back, 'no way' and 'don't you dare.' I was only joking.

EDGE: Does 'Smash' seem a long time ago now?

Megan Hilty: I didn't think of it that way, but yes. It was only just a little more than a year ago that the show finished up and since then I did a whole other sitcom - 'Sean Saves the World' - and moved out to LA and got married and got pregnant; so I've had a lot happen. I feel like a whole lifetime has passed since 'Smash' ended, which is too bad because we had such a great time making it.

EDGE: And though the show's been off the air for a year, it has an incredibly loyal fan base. Has that surprised you?

Megan Hilty: Oh, yeah. But one of the producers I was talking to lately brought up a good point - he said that the fan base is even stronger and bigger now that's it is gone. It's grown into something bigger than when it was on air. That certainly seems like that to me, especially on social media and on the street where people come up to me to tell me how much they miss it. And now that it is being streamed, people are now discovering it and binge watching it; and say to me on social media, we want more!

A classic belter

EDGE: Initially, though, it wasn't musical theater you were interested in, but opera?

Megan Hilty: Yes, but that was very early on. When I was a teenager and started training, my voice teacher wanted me to go into opera and trained me accordingly. I went to opera camp and everything. What I found was that opera required much more discipline that I was ready to give. It didn't fit my personality. Musical theater is a more natural fit.

EDGE: Would you call yourself a Broadway belter in the way you sell a song?

Megan Hilty: I guess now. I didn't start that way. I went into college thinking, 'This is great, I've trained classically, so I can be the ing�nue in these musicals.' Then I saw what musicals were being produced, and nobody was singing like that anymore. It was rare. Everybody was screaming to the rafters. So I thought, I need to learn how to do that. So I focused on that through college. I feel totally comfortable singing, or belting, in my range. But I think a lot of contemporary composers like to make women scream. I don't really do that. I think I am I like to think a classic belter - an old school kind-of-sound. I'm not one of those contemporary scream-as-high-as-you-can kind of singers. I think some singers are under a lot of pressure to sound a different way, but I think I needed to stand back and say this is what I sound like. I know a lot of people are doing this, but this is what I do, which is to be honest to myself, which is best for everybody.

EDGE: Are you based in LA still?

Megan Hilty: No. My husband and I moved back to New York after 'Sean Saved the World' ended and we got pregnant. It just made sense to be back in New York because that's where the work is. I would really love to be back on the stage, in musicals, hopefully. And Brian's family is from back here, so it is nice to have all the family support with the baby coming.

Career choices

EDGE: You have said in the past that on numerous occasions you've done workshops where producers said that you were exactly right for the part, but it required someone with more name recognition. And that left you a bit bitter. How do you handle that kind of disappointment?

Megan Hilty: It is something of a dissonance and it did hurt a few years ago. But then I stepped back and asked, 'what can I do about it?' Then I looked at those artists whose careers I admired and it looked like the ones I wanted to emulate cracked the code on longevity in this business and that seems to be the answer, to diversify what you're doing. I like to joke that I love working, no matter what it is; but everything I do is to support my theater habit. So if they need someone with some name recognition, I'm going to out and do some television and do concerts and voiceover work. All of that stuff can only help in so many different ways. You learn so much by stretching yourself and going into these different mediums and making yourself uncomfortable. I just think, work begets work.

EDGE: Are you the happiest when you're on the stage?

Megan Hilty: I guess so. But I find happiness in so many things. It's not just performing. But I am happiest when I'm busy, which doesn't mean just working. I think I am about to enter a very busy stage of my life with having a baby, which makes me so happy too. So it just doesn't have to be performing to make me happy.

Playing Lorelei

EDGE: Do people confuse Megan Hilty with Ivy from 'Smash'?

Megan Hilty: All the time, which is strange because I am nothing like her. I do identify with her. It's my job to do so. But what I loved about the part was I got to and say things I would never to in my real life. I like to play complicated characters, and Ivy was very complicated.

EDGE: Now that you're back in New York, are there any theater roles you want to do?

Megan Hilty: I was fortunate to do 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' at Encores, and there's been some talk about doing it on stage. It's just the matter of getting everybody's schedules together. I would love to it. But when I did 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' at the Boston Pops on the Fourth of July, I got some flack from someone on Twitter who was mad for all the wrong reasons. And I just wanted to say, did you listen to the lyrics? She thought that the song was about a money-grubber gold digger; but that is not the case if you know the context of the play. 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' is set in a time where women didn't have any kind of power; so here's a woman who found some way to dupe everybody and actually be in charge and use the system to empower herself. And she's winking at the audience with the song. So you can't please everybody.

EDGE: Do you read comments about yourself on Twitter?

Megan Hilty: I read most everything on Twitter. I don't Google myself. I did that once and found out the hard way not to. I will never do it again. People can be awful, but you can't respond to negativity like that; but people hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see, and me getting in a fight with them on social media isn't going to change anything. It stings sometimes, but what can you do?

EDGE: And you have a substantial LGBT following ?

Megan Hilty: I think so, which is fantastic. I am huge supporter of the LGBT community, so it is great to get love back.

Megan Hilty appears at The Art House, 214 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA on August 13 - 18, 2014. For more information visit her website.