Death Becomes Warren Yang: Meet the Ensemble Performer Slaying the Stunts

Elphaba isn't the only one defying gravity on Broadway.

In Death Becomes Her, ensemble member Warren Yang performs crazier splits than a drag queen and tumbles down majestic stairs, in slow motion, in a performance The New York Times called "astonishing." As the musical's leading ladies murder each other — over and over — Yang steps in as the stunt double for aging star Madeline (Megan Hilty), bewigged and blonde, a choice in lockstep with the production's campy style. 

“It’s really easy to have fun in a show like this,” Yang told Theatrely. The director “Chris Gattelli gave me a call and asked if I would be interested in throwing this person down the stairs in the most acrobatic, fantastic, slow-motion, ridiculous way possible — and that was how I was brought into the production.”

It’s quite the opportunity, and a feat as unique as Yang’s own path to Broadway. “I did not do any theatre as a kid,” the performer said. “My sister [Broadway’s Ericka Hunter] was always doing theatre, I was doing gymnastics. I didn’t really think theatre was a potential career option for me until I was asked to audition for Miss Saigon.”

The 2017 revival marked not only Yang’s Broadway debut but his first theatrical production. 

Competing on Team Canada, Yang’s gymnastics background proved to be an asset for theatre. In Miss Saigon, he performed in a trio of acrobats for a choreographed number, “The Morning of the Dragon,” conceived by Bob Avian for the original production.

“It was quite athletic,” Yang said. “I was lucky to be shown in such a great light in that show that I was asked to audition for others, so that was how I fell into performing.”

Physical and choreographic feats followed: he won a Chita Rivera Award for King Kong and appeared on two seasons of the TV spoof-ical Schmigadoon!, which features Gattelli’s choreography. With such a particular skill set, did Yang predict he’d keep being asked to use it?

“If you asked me a year and a half ago, did I think I’d be throwing myself down stairs in the most ridiculous way possible? No. Is it fulfilling? Absolutely,” Yang said.

While Yang makes his splashy moment in Death Becomes Her look easy, it is the fruit of great ideation and experimentation.

“I was not part of the musical’s labs and workshops, and I think they were trying to crack the code for a moment in the show: how do we make this fall as big and theatrical as possible?” Yang said. “Chris’s concept was so crystal clear; he knew exactly what it was supposed to look like, so it made it easier for me to go into a studio with a set of stairs and start playing around with some ideas of how Madeline Ashton falls down stairs in the most glorious way possible.” 

For research, “anything was game because of how ridiculous the prompt was,” Yang said. He watched Cirque du Soleil videos, gymnastics, the Nicholas Brothers’ iconic staircase routine in Stormy Weather, and, yes, the Meryl Streep staircase scene from the film upon which the musical is based.

The product? “We are using these gymnastic movements while incorporating dance, underground ballroom, and ballet,” Yang said.

In that stunt scene and others, Yang is also doubling Hilty’s physicality as Madeline.

“She’s such a clear actor physically that it was kind of easy for me to figure out,” Yang said. “Her character is so well developed and she’s been a part of the project for a long time that I was able to pick up those movements watching her throughout the process. It gave me extra reassurance that when I’m falling down the stairs or running after someone to pull their hair out that I can give it as much physical energy as she does.”

That physicality is demanding. “I spend a lot of time at physical therapy,” Yang said, but scenic designer Derek McLane “did such an amazing job with the set, making the fall repeatable every night as the stairs have quite a bit of cushion to them.”

As Yang falls down stairs, his career soars up: a relative newcomer to performing in theatre, he’s taken classes to “close the technical gap,” as he says, in singing, dancing, and acting. The work has paid off; in under a decade, he’s scored three Broadway shows. Nonetheless, “I like to be in the moment,” he said. “This show feels unique, it’s very much me: it uses all of the skills I’ve used in my past.”

That experience leads to a convincing performance: when Yang exits the stage doors post-show, audiences rarely know he was the stuntman.

“It’s a little bit of a sense of pride that I can pull it off,” he said.