This Is What Broadway Actors Eat In A Day

We talked to actors from Dear Evan Hansen and School of Rock.

A day in the life of a Broadway actor is never boring.

Paramount Pictures

Between rehearsals — up to 8 live shows per week — and after-show events, their schedules are packed, to say the least.

I wanted to know: What does a busy Broadway actor eat? How do they stay fueled along the way? To find out, I asked Dear Evan Hansen's Laura Dreyfuss and School of Rock's Justin Collette to keep a food diary for a day.

Matthew Murphy, Laura Dreyfuss

I asked for pictures and descriptions of literally every single thing they ate during a single day. Here are their answers.*

*Justin mentioned that he wrote his diary while traveling out of town to record a cartoon, and that "in full honesty, on show days, what I eat is much, much worse."

Laura starts her day with chopped fruit and coffee.

Laura Dreyfuss

Laura Dreyfuss: The only way I can start my day off right is with a strong cup of coffee. (I'm also addicted to soy creamer.) Coffee makes me happy to be alive.

If I'm good, I'll start my morning off with some fruit. After spending a month in Colombia, I became obsessed with papaya, so I'm really happy my local market sells it chopped and ready to go.

Justin grabs an order of pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and fruit at a local breakfast spot.

Justin Collette

Justin Collette: I got off the airplane and was very hungry, so I ran to a local breakfast place and demanded they give me everything they got, breakfast-wise. I literally ordered: “Whatever breakfast means to you. If you have ever HEARD of someone eating it for breakfast, I want it.” Here is the result.

Laura picks up a chocolate peanut butter cookie and pops a few collagen soft chews.

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: This cookie place Chip NYC opened in my neighborhood and it's either the best or worst thing that has ever happened to me because I can't stop eating these chocolate peanut butter cookies.

Also, I don't know if it's a placebo effect, but I swear these collagen chews make my skin and hair more beautiful. I can't leave the house without them.

Justin keeps his energy up with cheese, crackers, and soda water.

Justin Collette

JC: While I work I need snacks and boy does this place HOOK ME UP. During the day, I cause a medium Parisian drought with my carbonated water consumption — and I eat plates and plates of cheese.

In the afternoon, Laura re-ups with empanadas, courtesy of her producer.

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: On Saturdays, our producer Stacey sends us food before the matinee. Today it was empanadas from Empanada Mama. I was very, very happy eating this cheese empanada!

While Justin reluctantly picks up a sandwich with breaded chicken, cheese, honey mustard, and pickles (and actually enjoys it!).

Justin Collette

JC: After spending a couple of hours fighting goons, I reached the boss. Sub…nister. Ninister. Lord Subington. I bought a sub next door to where we work. It was my first time in there and the three young people working were having a lot of fun, which I found refreshing in a sub shop. Though I didn’t see anything on the menu I wanted to eat, their charisma intimidated me into buying a sub that featured lettuce, peppers, cheese, pickles, breaded chicken heated up in an old microwave, and honey mustard. I took it next door and ate it on my lap like a champ.

Made it to dinnertime! Laura joins her former coworkers for pizza at a midtown restaurant.

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: Between shows I got to catch up with some friends from my previous Broadway show, Once. We went to our favorite midtown spot, Nizza, where we couldn't decide between gluten-free and regular bread, so we got both!

Brandon and Joe were great sports while I snapped pictures of food the entire meal. We were all really excited to share this gluten-free pizza. (Gluten-free means it's healthy, right?)

...As well as salmon arugula salad and tea with lemon.

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: I love their arugula salad and since I'm a pescatarian I like to add salmon. Tea with lemon always makes my voice feel awesome.

Justin has a beer and a late dinner of chicken roti.

Justin Collette

JC: You’ve heard the expression “it’s five o’clock somewhere.” Well, as luck would have it, I was somewhere when it happened and people were loving it. I ran into an old friend on the street and stopped into a local tavern to have a beer before he went home to his family, and I went home to my television.

After work I should have had dinner — there were tons of delicious healthy options available to me. But instead I decided to wait until it was way too late at night, downloaded a new food delivery app to get a promo code, and got myself some roti. This is a chicken madras roti, and it is the best thing humans have ever done and that includes inventing dinosaurs. If you look closely, you can see some fossilized remains of a samosa that I also had.

After her show that night, Laura snacks on one of her favorite nostalgic treats, Fruit by the Foot.

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: I couldn't help myself and had to snack on this Fruit by Foot when I got back to my dressing room. #brainfood

And has a little more pizza at an after-show event. 🍕

Laura Dreyfuss

LD: Joe and Brandon invited me to Bandstand's SNOB (Saturday Night on Broadway) party and I obviously needed some champagne and more pizza!