The London rehearsals began on New Year’s Eve. By the first week, Atwell had turned to her costar and said: “Do you remember when we were just babies and we had no idea if we would get into drama school, if we’d be able to make a living?” Today, she smiles: “Now we’re both parents, and we finally get to work together as adults…. There’s a sweetness to that.”
Ah yes—in addition to memorizing lines and choreography, Hiddleston and Atwell were both reckoning with sleep deprivation and toddler tantrums. Atwell had given birth to her daughter just five months prior to the start of rehearsals and credits Lloyd and her partner, the music producer Ned Wolfgang Kelly, for making it possible for her to return to the stage. “I had a very supportive husband who had taken off time from his own career to be at home,” she explains. And Lloyd had already considered what she might need: a nursing room, a car for her husband and child, and rehearsal hours between 11 and 4. “This should be how every theater company approaches working caregivers,” Atwell says firmly.
Both stars will decamp to New York for the Broadway run. It marks Atwell’s debut on the Great White Way and a return for Hiddleston. His first time on Broadway, back in 2019, was for Lloyd’s production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, where he grew close to his current partner, and Betrayal costar, Zawe Ashton. The couple now have two children together. “My life after Betrayal has never been the same,” he declares. Then he softens and adds of parenthood: “It’s the most profound joy. There is nothing in life that comes close.” Even with the lack of sleep? “I’m very good at taking a cat nap,” he says. “I’ve become world-class at sleeping on the floor—no pillow, just down, 20 minutes.” The cast also kept their energy up by playing pranks: Atwell led her costars in a quest to make Hiddleston crack onstage. “We set out an entire three-course meal, pretending to drink Champagne and dig into a steak,” she recalls with a laugh. “We dressed up as Loki and pretended to be hysterical Loki fans…. The one that really got him, though, is when three of us just stood there completely dead serious and ate a banana.”
