Much has been made of Megan Hilty's tribute to Meryl Streep in her Playbill bio for Death Becomes Her. But on the opening night of the new Broadway musical, based on the 1992 film that Streep starred in, Hilty was given a very special gift from the three-time Oscar winner.

"I got a beautiful arrangement of flowers from Miss Meryl Streep tonight. So classy, and the note is so perfect and funny and they're dried, so they'll live forever, like Madeline," Hilty told Playbill on the opening night red carpet of Death Becomes Her November 21. 

You might even say that like Hilty's character in the show, the flowers are undead. And Streep's note read: "Break a leg or I'll break it for you. With dried and undying love and respect, Meryl." 

Of the Playbill bio, Hilty said, "I see a lot of shows, and I look at a lot of bios, and I keep looking at them, going, 'Oh, this is a missed opportunity for something delightful.' And I thought, 'What a wonderful opportunity. I'm in this show that was made iconic by two brilliant women.' And I thought it would just be a really fun, silly thing to kind of highlight that I'm not [Meryl], that nobody's her."

But Hilty has successfully made the role her own. And so has her co-star, Jennifer Simard. In the show, the two play frenemies who both take potions to stay forever young, with the side effect that they can never die—not even when they've been pushed down stairs or have a hole shot through them. Read the critics' reviews here.

This is Simard's first time leading a Broadway show, but she didn't exhibit any hint of being nervous on opening night, saying serenely: "I feel exactly where I'm meant to be. I feel the right age. I feel the right calmness. I feel grounded. I feel comfortable in my skin, and I am so grateful for the catalog that I've been lucky enough to do. This role, strangely, feels like a little bit of every character since I was 22 years old, when I first moved to New York City from my Off-Broadway career to now."

Below, see photos from the red (actually purple) carpet, which included Kelly Rowland—who showed up to support cast member Michelle Williams, because they were in the girl group Destiny's Child together (Beyoncé and Tina Knowles were also in attendance, though they didn't walk the carpet). And scroll down for more coverage from the opening night of Death Becomes Her.

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Photos: Opening Night of Death Becomes Her on Broadway

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Though Death Becomes Her is based on a film, the show's creators did not want to replicate the film on the stage. So fans of the movie will be in for some surprises, said the show's director and choreographer Christopher Gattelli.

"It's one of my favorite films," he said. "I wanted to give the fans of the movie all of the familiar things that I knew they would want and hope for. But given that it's theatre, you can't do some of the things in the movie. So, like, I love the challenge of finding new ways to reinvent the stair fall, the hole, the things that people are like, 'What are they going to do?'" He did add that in the comedic scene where Hilty's character falls down a long flight of stairs, he initially tried it by "throwing dummy after dummy after dummy down a flight of stairs." But they eventually landed on something much more theatrical (and hilarious). Though we won't spoil it here, it does involve a live actor and jaw-dropping choreography.

One big change from the movie to the stage show is changing the mysterious woman who provides the immortality portion, Lisle von Rhuman, into a new character: Viola Van Horn, played by pop star Michelle Williams. On the red carpet, Williams looked glamorous, but she was humble, saying, "I don't take any of it for granted at all. The fact that just a few years ago, we didn't know what the status of theatre would become, everything was shut down, every industry was shut down. So I take nothing for granted. I'm humbled to be on this stage."

Special effects are one thing, but how did the creators manage to make it a laugh-a-minute show? As book writer Marco Pennette put it, "Who wants soft laughs? I want a belly laugh from someone!"

Composer Julia Mattison says the key was making her fellow composer, Noel Carey, laugh: "I love having a writing partner in Noel, because we write in order to make each other laugh. And so when we know one of us laughs, we're like, 'Keep it, chase it, use it some way, somehow it's worth it.'" 

But comedy isn't just about taking up space, it's also about knowing when to, as Christopher Sieber puts it: "Get out of the way." Even though he's a skilled comedian, he's also acting opposite Simard and Hilty as Ernest. Sieber said it wasn't hard to channel his character in the show as a man trapped between two powerful women: "I'm working with two of the most powerful comedians, singers, unbelievable women comedians in the world, and I am in the middle of that. And I learned early on in rehearsal, just get out of the way. Just get out of the way. And then I'll say a line, and then I'll go back and hide," he says with a bit of cheek.

For actor Josh Lamon, who plays Madeline's put-upon assistant Stefan, this new role was also like coming home, since he played Boq to Hilty's Glinda in Wicked almost 18 years ago. "It's like being with family again," he said. The actor also promised that fans of the film Death Becomes Her will be delighted by the new musical. "It's not like we ripped off the movie and are just slapping it up on stage. We've taken the movie and that brilliance, and we've made it our own."

The cast of Death Becomes Her also includes Michelle Williams, Taurean Everett, Marija Abney, Lauren Celentano, Sarita Colón, Kaleigh Cronin, Natalie Charle Ellis, Michael Graceffa, Neil Haskell, Kolton Krouse, Sarah Meahl, Ximone Rose, Sir Brock Warren, Bud Weber, Ryan Worsing, and Warren Yang. Swings Kyle Brown, Lakota Knuckle, Johanna Moise, and Amy Quanbeck round out the company. Casting is by Tara Rubin Casting.

The production features scenic design by Derek McLane, costume design by Paul Tazewell, lighting design by Justin Townsend, sound design by Peter Hylenski, hair and wig design by Charles J. LaPointe, makeup design by Joe Dulude II, fight direction by Cha Ramos, music supervision by Mary-Mitchell Campbell, music direction by Ben Cohn, orchestrations by Doug Besterman, and dance and incidental music arrangements by Sam Davis. Rachel Sterner is production stage manager.

Get your copy of the Death Becomes Her opening night Playbill at the Playbill Store

The film, directed and co-produced by Robert Zemeckis, was noted for its relatively early use of CGI to achieve effects like star Streep's head turned completely backwards and a gaping hole going through her co-star Goldie Hawn. This musical version has been kicking around since at least 2017, when Kristin Chenoweth was attached to star, then with a separate creative team.

Universal Theatrical Group—overseen by Jimmy Horowitz and led by Lowe Cunningham—is producing.

Visit DeathBecomesHer.com.