VIDEO: Debra Messing Discusses Baking a Cake Onstage During BIRTHDAY CANDLES on LIVE! With Kelly & Ryan

Birthday Candles is now playing at the American Airlines Theatre through Sunday, May 29.

By: Apr. 25, 2022
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Debra Messing sat down with Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest this morning to discuss her current Broadway run in Birthday Candles.

She discusses the plot of the play and how her character bakes a real cake onstage during every performance.

"It's just about family and about time passing and how quickly life goes ... So what ingredients go into making a lifetime, a life. And in every single scene, I am making a birthday cake in real time, with a real oven on," Messing shared. "So stressful ... because I couldn't make a salad.

Messing plays Ernestine Ashworth, who spends her 17th birthday agonizing over her insignificance in the universe. Soon enough, it's her 18th birthday. Even sooner, her 41st. Her 70th. Her 101st. Five generations, dozens of goldfish, an infinity of dreams, one cake baked over a century. What makes a lifetime...into a life? Noah Haidle makes his Broadway debut with a poignant new play as fearless in scope as it is tremendous in heart.

"So far, I have not burned down the theatre," Messing joked when asked about how her baking skills are coming along.

Birthday Candles is now playing a limited engagement through Sunday, May 29, 2022 at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway (227 West 42nd Street).

Watch the new interview clip here:



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