Recently, Megan Hilty has made headlines because of her Playbill bio for the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her. In the Playbill, instead of listing her own credits (which is the norm), Hilty made the cheeky choice to instead list Meryl Streep's credits—because Streep starred in the original Death Becomes Her film. But Hilty isn't the only artist in Playbill history, or even this season, to play fast and loose with her bio. For many, a Playbill bio isn't just a list of credits: It's a display of their personality.
Read some of the most memorable bios in Playbill history below, including from Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, Lauren Bacall, a plant from Maybe Happy Ending, and the time Mike Birbiglia wrote a bio for his agent. And scroll down for some behind-the-scenes information on how Playbill puts the bios together.
The Skin Of Our Teeth Playbill - Opening Night
Playbill Program Editors Khadijah Rentas and Scott Hale are the folks who collect the Playbill bios and headshots and copy-edit everything for grammatical correctness and style consistency (such as changing "theater" to "theatre"). According to Hale, "We'd love to take credit for all of the interesting things people put in their bios, but sadly we can't. As the little disclaimer at the end says, 'Information in "Who's Who in the Company" is provided by the production.' But everyone loves an extra-interesting Playbill, so when a show comes along saying they want to do something a little different, we work with them as much as we can. If something seems a bit too out there, we'll advise and figure out a happy medium."
And those who want to change their bios after they've gone to print, they can because Playbill prints new black-and-white show pages every week at our printing plant in Queens.
So, the next time you're flipping through the Who's Who section, give a little thanks to Playbill's Program Editors. And let us know, who's written your favorite Playbill bio?
