Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Jane Krakowski have each been a part of hit TV shows, but at heart they’re both Broadway Babes. They’ve known each other for decades, but haven’t yet worked together; even though Jane had a recurring guest role on Modern Family — including one episode where she avoids being hit in a game of dodgeball by jumping into midair splits, it was something — Jane and Jesse never shared a scene. Jesse just had Jane on his Dinner’s on Me podcast, where he recounted their meet-cute in the ‘90s, and it really is cute! Jane was already working on Broadway while Jesse was a fan with big dreams. After watching Jane in a revival of Company, Jesse waited at the stage door. When she emerged, Jane immediately recognized Jesse, she just couldn’t place from where. I’ll let Jesse take it from here:
In 1995, Ferguson waited at the stage door to see Krakowski after a performance of a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, in which she portrayed dim-witted flight attendant April. Ferguson had only moved to New York City the year prior. Though Ferguson was waiting as a fan, he was astonished to find Krakowski greeting him like an old friend.
“I was waiting by the stage door, and then you came out, and you come out and you walk right over to me, and you’re like, ‘How are you? How have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while!’” Ferguson recounted to Krakowski when she guested on his podcast, Dinner’s on Me With Jesse Tyler Ferguson. “And you give me a great big hug. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, ‘I do not know this woman.’ I mean, I know who you are. I was a fan. And I had already, like I’d been a fan of yours since Grand Hotel.”
“But I was like, oh my gosh, Jane’s hugging me,” he continued. “And, and then you were, you said, ‘I don’t remember, where did we meet? Where do we know you from?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know,’ and so you started naming, ‘Well, maybe we did a commercial together’ and you were trying to like place it. And you’re like, ‘Well, I don’t know. I’ll figure it out later, but it was good to see you. Thanks for coming.’ And I was just sort of speechless.”
“I was very touchy feely,” Krakowski quipped in response to the memory.
Ferguson left the encounter feeling verklempt, but still utterly befuddled by how Krakowski recognised him. The answer finally came a few days later while Krakowski was on her coffee run.
“I was very taken by the encounter,” he finished. “And so then fast forward, I don’t know, a week or two later, and I’m working my job at Starbucks on 79th and Broadway, and you come in, and you see me and you say, ‘This is where I know you from!’”
Ferguson was particularly touched that Krakowski then recognized him as a fellow actor trying to make his dreams come true. “You went right into like, ‘How are auditions going?’” he added. “I felt so seen by you because I was like, I don’t want to be a barista forever. I had such high dreams and hopes for myself. Having you ask me how things were going was really powerful, and that was one of the first times I realized the Broadway community is actually a community of people. I have such fond memories of you before I ever really knew you.”
Thank you Jane & Jesse, this was precisely the sweet, unadulterated tonic I needed this week! It’s nice to hear a story where a celeb is kind and gracious in real life. It makes me happy that each of them have found the TV success that’s allowed them to dip back into the theater community they clearly love. I haven’t had the privilege of seeing Jane live on stage (yet!), but I vividly remember seeing Jesse — well before Modern Family. I was in high school visiting NYC and my mother and I went to see The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. It’s a real gem of a show! Imaginative, and then sneaks up on you with pathos. And Jesse was utterly charming as Leaf Coneybear, an 11-year-old spelling bee contestant, clad in his makeshift cape. His big number was “I’m Not That Smart,” and he just so adorably captured being in the head of a kid. Now someone please give these two musical theater kids a gig together!