Gaten Matarazzo Compares Broadway Return to 'Getting On a Motorcycle' | Playbill

Video Gaten Matarazzo Compares Broadway Return to 'Getting On a Motorcycle'

The Stranger Things actor appeared on the June 29 broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Stage and screen actor Gaten Matarazzo appeared on the June 29 broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to chat about his return to Broadway in Dear Evan Hansen and the forthcoming release of the final two episodes of Stranger Things season 4.

The talkshow host asks the actor, who previously starred in productions of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Les Misérables, if returning to the Broadway stage was like "riding a bike." Matarazzo answers, "If that's riding a bike, this is kind of like getting on a motorcycle."

The Connecticut-born performer adds, "I haven't run in a show long-term, consistently, since I was 12." Seven years have since passed. "That was before my voice changed. I was only doing four shows a week then. Now I'm doing eight."

Matarazzo will be stepping into the role of Jared Kleinman beginning July 19. Addressing the show's vocally-challenging score, the SAG winner tells Fallon, "This show is not kind to most of the performers in it." Watch the full video above. 

The Tony-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen plays at the Music Box Theatre and currently stars Zachary Noah Piser, Talia Simone Robinson, Jessica Phillips, Christiane Noll, David Jeffery, Manoel Felciano, Jared Goldsmith, and Phoebe Koyabe, and Linedy Genao, Nathan Levy, Mateo Lizcano, Dan Macke, Jane Pfitsch, D’Kaylah Unique Whitley, Asa Somers, Josh Strobl, and Nicole Van Giesen.

In addition to Matarazzo, the company will welcome the return of Ann Sanders (The Music Man, Frozen) as Cynthia Murphy, Noah Kieserman as Connor Murphy, and Ciara Alyse Harris as Alana Beck. Kieserman and Harris come to Broadway from the musical's national tour.

The musical won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical and will play its final Broadway performance September 18. At closing, the production will have played 1,678 regular performances and 21 preview performances, making it one of the 50 longest-running shows in Broadway history.

 
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!