Bethany Joy Lenz was singing for the producers of Moulin Rouge! The Musical when her voice cracked. She forgot the move she had planned, looked at the people watching her and made a face. “What am I even doing with my body?” she remembered thinking.
The One Tree Hill actress called her tryout for Satine “the worst audition of my life” on the October 29 Hot Takes and Hangouts edition of Tommy DiDario’s podcast. Her first audition had gone well, and she had left a session with the musical director encouraged by how much he liked her work.
Two years earlier, when I’ve Never Said This Before host DiDario asked which Broadway roles she still wanted to play, Lenz named Satine. She remembered being one of about six women called back while producers were looking for a Broadway replacement and casting the West End production.
Singing in front of people had helped shape Lenz’s television career. During the first season of One Tree Hill, creator Mark Schwahn overheard her singing in a parking garage. He told the Associated Press that her voice made him think she belonged on Broadway. Her character, Haley, became a singer, and the show’s producers booked Lenz on a 23-city concert tour.
The Rehearsal Lenz Wishes She’d Tried Before the Callback
Lenz said the early rounds had given her a false sense of how well she knew the material. Once the nerves kicked in, she lost the words. The producers had also asked her to do something specific. She couldn’t remember their instruction, so she improvised.
Given the choice, she would have done the callback onstage in costume. There, she could look at another actor and barely make out the audience beyond the lights. In the audition room, she could see every stranger she was singing to.
Looking back, Lenz said she could have rehearsed in a living room with a few friends. What she wanted to practice was finishing the song with someone sitting a few feet away, watching her.
The Satine Lenz Hoped to Play on Broadway
Nicole Kidman played Satine, the star of the Paris nightclub, opposite Ewan McGregor in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film. For the stage musical, KO, then billed as Karen Olivo, made Satine’s entrance on a swing above the nightclub. KO and Aaron Tveit, who played Christian, led the Boston production in 2018 before opening at Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theatre on July 25, 2019. The pair later filmed their duet “Come What May” onstage.
One performer Lenz remembered by name was Courtney Reed, who had played Jasmine in Broadway’s Aladdin. Reed went on to play Satine on the first North American tour and joined the Broadway cast in August 2023. Lenz told DiDario in 2024 that she would still welcome another chance at the part.
The New York production closed on August 30, 2026, after 24 previews and 2,297 regular performances. At the final curtain call, captured by BroadwayWorld, performers who had played Satine and Christian took the stage together for one more rendition of the duet.