Dylan Mulvaney Is Ready To Conquer Off-Broadway

A hit at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Dylan Mulvaney’s solo show The Least Problematic Woman in the World is coming to the Lucille Lortel Theatre later this month with an opening set for October 7th. 

I had a chance to speak with the multi-talented Internet sensation and actress about the genesis of her solo show and what it’s like being a queer theatremaker today. 

Our conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

Theatrely: So how's your summer been?

Dylan: Oh my gosh, honey, I was over in London for a lot of it and that was great because I got to see theatre and God, the Brits just…I feel like they just get it. So that was really fun. I went back to LA to finish the show a little bit because I work better when I'm just in bed and not being distracted by the West End musicals. And then I've now been in New York for about two weeks and it's been a big shift for me, but I'm so happy to be here and this is actually my third day of rehearsal, so we're just trying to pull everything together.

So tell me how the show came to be.

Sure. Okay. Well, I obviously kind of accidentally went viral about three and a half years ago on TikTok. But prior to that, I was doing the Book of Mormon and I'd gone to CCM for musical theatre. And as I started growing on the internet, I realized the thing that wasn't bringing me satisfaction was that instant gratification of connecting with people in person. No matter how many likes I could get, it just never felt the same way of even just getting to sing or perform for, like, 10 people in a room. I was craving that so desperately.

To celebrate my one year mark, I did a big show at the Rainbow Room here in New York and it was so much fun and I didn't realize that my content creation skills of making all these videos kind of lent itself to longer form content. I was like, "Oh, well that went pretty well." What was kind of specific about that show was it felt like a one night only type of situation, but I was like, "Oh, I want something that could have a much larger impact that I could be doing for a long period of time." 

Once I went through, you know, Beer-gate about two years ago and some of these other crazier moments in the media as a trans person, I realized there might be a bigger story here than I initially thought. I started meeting with producers to kind of talk about what I would want my one-woman show to be. When I started writing the show, I realized that the most important thing about a one person show is it's the thing that only you can tell. What sort of came up for me was a lot of my Catholicism as a Queer person growing up and how conflicting that was, of being told that God didn't love me, but then feeling like I wasn't a bad person just for how I felt in my body. It grew into this musical, over-the-top adventure of my lifetime told in these very camp vignettes that become more realistic as the show goes on. I got to put it up in Edinburgh last year to a sold out run and I'm just so proud of it and how it's evolved.

Talk to me about working with Tim Jackson. He's becoming bigger and bigger over here in the States, what has he been like as a director?

Oh my god, Timmy is like the dream of all dreams. We got paired together through one of our producers when I started putting the show together. We needed to find a director fairly quickly. Timmy had just worked on Merrily We Roll Along, which I had gotten to see and I loved their work on that. It's such an interesting thing, too, of picking somebody to go on a journey with. I think picking collaborators can be tricky, but I got so lucky on this one because the people that I'm making this with, it's just been a dream come true. 

But Timmy specifically, I feel like, has really let me do all of the craziest things that I want to do and then sometimes when I need to be pared back, you know, he'll very kindly be like, "Maybe we don't do that." He'll always let me try something once or twice actually. They've turned into one of my best friends and somebody that I hope to work with for the rest of my life.

I hear Ingrid Michelson also wrote a song for the show. What was that like collaborating with her?

When I was 14 or 15, I don't even think I knew what [her] songs meant, but I knew that they were deeply emotional. And so I would just be like in, you know, French class, like, crying, thinking about a boy that I probably had a crush on and interpreting her song as how I was feeling in the moment. 

But what was really important for me is the show is wildly silly and funny and stupid, but I wanted to make sure that some of my vulnerability came across too. So the fifth or sixth number of the show is sort of an 11 o'clock number—a very vulnerable, dropped in moment of how I feel like the world is treating trans people right now. It was actually really beautiful to get to work with her. She is so open and, obviously we've got very different experiences of womanhood, but she was so willing to tap into what I had been feeling. That was really special. 

I also got to work with Mark Sonnenblick on four of the songs. He just finished K-Pop Demon Hunters. I can't even believe it. Benj Kasek had connected us and he has become one of my dearest friends. Toby and Lucy, who wrote Six, did the opening number for my show, and oh my God, it's such a banger. I can't wait for you to hear it. 

It’s so crazy because these are all people that I've admired growing up and have been like huge fans of and now to call them my friends and make this with them has been really freaking cool.

You've already played the Rainbow Room, which is just an iconic spot here in New York, and now you're going to be down at the Lortel, another iconic theater in New York. What are you most excited about about performing at this legendary venue?

I got to see Oh, Mary! there when it started, and that was one of those moments where I was like: Oh my god, weird queer trans theater can exist. There's been some disheartening moments over the last years of just not knowing where someone like me fits into all of this. And so I think the Lortel is the perfect way to say: Hey, trans people can be a part of commercial theater if you let us.

Seeing how successful Oh, Mary! has been and some of these other, you know, one-person shows like Andrew Scott in that same theater, I'm just so moved that I get the same opportunities as people like them. 

I know you've been working on the show for a few years and it's gone through changes and evolutions. Talk to me about how it's evolved and how you're now bringing it over for Americans, which is a different experience than Fringe or London.

I think the show that we made last year was 60 minutes. It's now probably going to be around 80 or 85. We've added three new songs. I think that humor has actually shifted a bit. A big through line of the show is like my hope in staying palatable and being a people pleaser. And so a lot of the comedy I felt like was still really safe last year. There were a few darker humor moments that I really found landed because it felt so contrasting to what people thought of me prior to seeing me on stage. And so I was like: Oh, wait, this is actually a huge part of my humor. Why don't I add some more of that? 

It feels a bit edgier for America right now. And it's more fun for me too, because it's actually a closer version to who I am. That's probably how it’s evolved the most, I would say.

When young people come and see your show, what do you hope they take away from it?

I hope that they can see that literally whatever it is that they want to do in this industry, they can. I remember growing up and just wanting to be in the back of the ensemble, if possible. And I think once I stepped into my gender identity and my authenticity—I don't even think that has to be limited to gender—but really just having built up my confidence, I’m now wearing so many different hats. I’m producing and writing this and performing in all these different ways. I want them to know that whatever it is they want to do, they can do it and that there is a place for them here in this city and in this community and that I can't wait to welcome them here because we need them. I think this is gonna be for the, you know, the 20-something girlies and the 19 year old girlies. I think that's who maybe is gonna get the biggest kick out of it.

On your off nights, what other new shows that are coming to New York are you most excited to check out?

Dylan: Oh my god, Queen of Versailles, to see my girl Kristin Chenoweth, who is my phone screen. Her and Alene Cumming are my lock screen on my iPhone. And then, oh gosh, what else am I dying to see? Oh, I want to see House of McQueen. I want to see the fashion of it 

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