The Pretty People of PRETTY WOMAN Celebrate Opening Night on Broadway!

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World. One of the season's most eagerly awaited new musicals is Pretty Woman

It welcomes back to Broadway, Andy Carlin and his wife Orfei. And in the coveted role of Vivian is Samantha Barks, who's making her Broadway debut

And we caught up with all of them here at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on opening night

Now I can finally say it. Welcome to Broadway. How does it feel

Oh my God, it feels amazing. It's surreal to be open, really

From doing The Lab last October, it's been such a journey from there to now

To be open and people coming to see the show, it's so exciting because we've been working on it

and changing it and finally this is our show and it's so exciting to share

Talk about taking on this iconic role and working with this creative team and cast

Taking on a role that's this iconic is terrifying, but so thrilling

It's scary because I'm in love with this character. Everybody's in love with this character

And so to sort of put your hands on it is terrifying, but it's so exciting because really from start to finish

the show just doesn't end, doesn't stop for me. And every night, getting to work with this amazing cast

is thrilling. Like, everybody's so, so good that it's just a joy

Every scene is more exciting the next night than it was the night before in a way It amazing Oh it feels great I mean this is the dream This is what happens when we can work together and you know walk the dogs at home and come to work and respect each other work and have a great time

I think it would be a dream job. Like, oh my God, could we ever work together in something

And you're actually doing it again. I know. It's been a while. So, I mean, I missed it a lot

I love working with Andy. I think he likes working with me

And we're having a Don't worry, we'll get to it later But yeah, we're having a great time

It's just a dream How much fun are you having? If you could sum up the best part of the experience

Of working together on this And working on this show What is it for each of you

Singing Brian Adams songs Working with Jerry Mitchell again in this cast We're really close

We're really close So we're having a ball Yeah, the cast is very talented

It's kind of ridiculous And being able to sort of sit back

And watch everybody do their thing especially this one, it's pretty amazing

Come on now, keep on dreaming! More time to run, you know it

This town's alive, you'll hold it together forever. The company, cast and crew, have been so functional and so loving

and that stems from Jerry. Jerry really knows how to pick a family and set the bar of love

So it's been a pleasure. It been a pleasure to and above all that it been a real pleasure to be able to represent Gary Marshall and have his dream come to fruition as the dream man you know It was his idea to make my character the happy man and Mr Thompson combined And so I really proud that I got the opportunity to do it

What do you love about the role that you play? I love that it was cast in the way that it was cast, first of all, because my family and I watched the movie a couple of weeks ago

So I was like, wow, this is a very strong reach away from that

It speaks to our modern view of things. It speaks to how this play holds

has the ability to hold the modern context within its own fairy tale story

and still make those adjustments to adapt to where we are now

So I just feel like casting Mr. Morris in my ilk speaks to our modern evolution

It was getting to work with Jerry when we worked on The Full Monty in 99

He was just choreographing. He was just choreographing beautifully, but he hadn't started his directing

And it was wonderful to see how he knows so much about every aspect of..

He's calling out drum beats and giving suggestions to the orchestra and set pieces, costumes

He just is immersed in it. And it's great. It's great to see him masterfully work through putting Pretty Woman up on the stage

If you could sum up the best part of the experience of working on Pretty Woman, and what's it been for you

The cast and Jerry Mitchell, he just breathes a show of love and hope

and spirit and fun. And so that what I take with me every night Yeah I so thrilled to be in the show and doing this story and telling the story every night And playing Violetta Of course that moment for me is so special and important to show

You know, about love. All types of love. I think my favorite part is how much of a sketch artist Jerry Mitchell is

So every time he's creating, and we get an opportunity to really build the show with him as we go

And really put our own soul into the piece. Which already has its great energy to begin with

No, it's the best time of my life. I'm so grateful. Oh my gosh, this is a dream come true, truly

You know, not to go into too long of a tangent, but when I did Newsies, it was the most amazing experience

I didn't know if it would ever happen again. And fast forward three years later, I'm here back at the Needle Lander with a new family that I love so much

creating a beautiful, magical show. This cast is unreal. The show is so fun

I'm obsessed with it. I love doing it. it's the greatest gift, and I'm so grateful there's not one night that I'll take it for granted

The best part of working on Pretty Woman for me has been being so graciously accepted into the Marshall family

Having spent two years working on this with Gary Marshall, but being embraced by Barbara

all of the kids, Lori, Scott, Kathleen, and his assistant Heather, they literally have been my biggest cheerleader through the whole process

And I appreciate that more than they probably will ever know