Why Julia Lester Has Such a Big Appetite for New Plays
The Tony nominee takes on three delicious roles in the dark comedy Hungry Women
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Julia Lester knows how to be a showstopper without being a scene stealer. Her unconventional yet always authentic acting choices elevate every project she does.
She applies that same unexpected approach to her career. After her breakthrough role as Sara Bareilles-obsessed musical theatre kid Ashlyn Caswell in Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, she earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut (fatefully opposite Bareilles) as a refreshingly self-assured Little Red in Into the Woods. Soon after, Lester had the chutzpah to put her own delightfully old-school Brooklynese spin on Barbra Streisand’s star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in a revisal of I Can Get It for You Wholesale at Classic Stage Company.
But over the past two seasons, she has pivoted to plays, originating complex roles in a series of shows featuring all-women casts. In All Nighter, she played a hilariously chaotic narcissist disrupting an end-of-college study session. In the harrowing immigrant drama Queens, she portrayed a young Ukrainian woman searching for her long-lost mother. Now she’s headlining the fiercely feminist Hungry Women, which runs at Soho Playhouse through August 30.
Directed by Daniella Caggiano and written by up-and-coming playwright Melissa Maney, this time-hopping dark comedy won the 4th Annual Lighthouse Series competition at Soho Playhouse last year (the same contest that helped launch JOB to Broadway). Over three centuries, four sets of disparate yet cosmically connected women navigate a world without men. Initially scared, they soon start to embrace their new freedom. But the literal death of the patriarchy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
TDF Stages spoke with Lester about why she loves originating roles, why she keeps her fiancée in the dark about her projects and why she hopes Hungry Women makes audiences “uncomfortable.”
Raven Snook: Many people recognize you from TV: in addition to High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, you have a riotous recurring role on The Four Seasons as a college student who takes out her anger on her father through experimental theatre. But theatre lovers know you from your impressively diverse NYC stage appearances. Hungry Women is unlike anything you’ve done before. How did you get involved in the show?
Julia Lester: I believe our amazing writer, Melissa Maney, had seen me on TV, and it was her idea to reach out to me. I love receiving scripts. It’s truly the greatest gift, getting to read anything. And this one grabbed me from like the first two pages. There was never a moment when I wasn’t thinking, oh my god, what’s going to happen next? Who are these people? Why are they saying these things? That was an indicator that I needed to do it. I felt so grateful that it came to me and that I connected to it so fiercely. All the characters are so complicated and nuanced and layered, and there’s so much to just—for lack of a better term—bite into. It was an immediate yes for me. I’m so glad the timing worked out. Melissa Maney is such a singular voice, and I’m so excited for her future and all the things she’s going to write after this.
Snook: Reading the play, I could see you portraying any of the four women. That speaks to your versatility as well as the fact that every character is, in her own way, a showstopper. I was surprised you told me you play “the R track:” three women who, in their respective time periods, seem reluctant to embrace revolution. I pegged you for the V track—she’s always the radical.
Lester: Honestly, I felt connected to all of the characters as I was reading it. It’s gritty, it’s messy, there are so many complicated layers that get to be showcased in every single part. So I would have been down to do any of them. But there’s something so specific about R’s track in the show and the different kinds of people that she plays in each part. It’s been really fun to—I keep using these insane puns—sink my teeth into this one. She goes on such an incredible journey three different times as three different people. R was definitely the one that reached out from the page and grabbed me.
Snook: You come from a long line of performers: your father, Loren Lester, is a busy character actor, as was your grandfather, Peter Mark Richman. Your ancestors even ran a Polish traveling theatre in the 19th century! The stage is clearly in your DNA.
Lester: Yes, theatre is my first love; it will always be my home, my happy place, the place that I go back to. I love acting in any medium, but theatre, there’s nothing like it. The collaboration, the family that you build, the rehearsal process is my favorite. I love being in performances, don’t get me wrong. But going to rehearsal every day and building the show and just being wild and free is the best part of the process. I really try to soak in every moment because that’s the part that brings me the most joy. If I get the privilege of doing theatre in general for the rest of my life, I will be so, so happy. This is everything that I wanted growing up doing community theatre. I’m thrilled to be back Off Broadway and working at Soho Playhouse, such a historic landmark theatre.
Snook: Save for your part in Queens, most of your roles have been humorous. But Hungry Women requires your comedic and dramatic chops. I also love that it’s not agitprop. While it’s unabashedly feminist, it’s also the embodiment of the saying: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Lester: I really love that you say that because, yes, the show is being told through a feminist lens, and we’re four women on stage with a female writer and creative team. But as much as we talk about women in the show, at the end of the day, it doesn’t have to do with gender. It’s about unchecked power. The show isn’t trying to shove any sort of narrative at the audience or tell you what to think. It’s about systems of power and government and politics. If there are parts you don’t agree with or make you feel uncomfortable, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. It takes such unexpected twists and turns. I was saying the other day, the one reason why I wish I wasn’t in the show is because I want to be in the audience! I’m jealous of their perspective.
Snook: It’s been a busy summer for you professionally and personally—just last month you got engaged to writer Ilana Wolpert. Do you run the scripts you’re considering by her?
Lester: It’s funny you ask that because usually, I play this little game with her where I keep everything a secret, so she gets to experience shows I’m in as a raw audience member with no preconceived notions. I didn’t tell her a word about Queens; the only thing she knew was that I was doing a Ukrainian accent. But this time around, I wanted her to see what excited me about Hungry Women. So she did read the script and, just as I suspected, loved it just as much as I did. She read it in one sitting and immediately was like, “Yes, yes, you have to do this!”
Snook: I assume she and your family will come see you?
Lester: Always. It’s really amazing having a theatre family because they get it. I never have to explain my job or myself to them. I also have two sisters who are in the industry, and we just adore each other. It’s a really beautiful thing to feel so seen and supported. The first people that I want eyes on what I’m doing is my family.
Snook: I read that Next to Normal is one of your dream projects. Since the rumor is P!NK hopes to do the show with her daughter on Broadway, what other roles are on your wish list? I could totally see you in Oh, Mary!
Lester: Oh my god! Thank you. That’s a huge compliment. I think what Cole Escola did with that show and that character is so iconic and revolutionary. Something like that would be amazing. I feel like I sort of took off in the New York theatre scene with revivals. But originating characters in new work is a really cool process. I think there are definitely dream roles out there that have not been written yet, and I’m open to anything and everything. And I love collaborating.
Snook: In addition to being a theatre maker, you’re a theatre lover. Are you a TDF Member?
Lester: Yes! And so are my friends! So many of them were able to see Queens because of TDF. And then I saw my Queens costar Andrea Syglowski in Dog Day Afternoon through TDF. We had amazing seats. Getting to see friends on Broadway lights up my soul. My parents are die-hard TDF fans. It’s made things so accessible and easy and has given me the opportunity to see some things that maybe I wouldn’t have been able to.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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