Chloe Fineman wants to go 'All In' on her Broadway dreams

The Saturday Night Live star makes her debut in All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich, and she hopes it's just the beginning of a long theatre career.

When Chloe Fineman was offered the opportunity to make her Broadway debut in All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich tickets, she wondered, "Why did they ask me to do this?"

It's not like she doesn't have the chops: Fineman shot to fame after joining the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2019, becoming known for her impressions of celebs ranging from Jennifer Coolidge to Elmo. Nor does she lack the desire: Before her comedy career took off, Fineman studied drama at New York University and did theatre in Ithaca and NYC.

Broadway has always been "a long-term goal that forever felt impossible, and who knows if it'll still be impossible?" Fineman said. She acknowledged that her debut likely came about by way of a TV show, the adult animated comedy Big Mouth, on which she and her All In co-stars John Mulaney, Fred Armisen, and Richard Kind are all voice actors. "But I definitely have a lot of hopes and wishes for the theatre."

In her first foray onto the Great White Way, she's doing a lot with a little. Fineman is only in All In for two weeks, departing alongside Mulaney, Armisen, and Kind on January 12 before a new cast joins. (Fourteen total actors will have rotated through the production at the Hudson Theatre by its February 16 closing.) Plus, the show is a stripped-back affair: The cast acts out various short stories, all by Emmy-nominated SNL writer Simon Rich, sitting down. From her chair, Fineman materializes characters including a toddler sleuthing out her lost plushie (in a bit called "The Big Nap") and a student detailing her great-grandparents' romance from back when humans still lived on Earth (in "History Report").

From here, Fineman doesn't want to stop. Despite having spent so much time on the NYC entertainment scene, she said being on Broadway gave her a new appreciation for it.

"I have rose-colored theatre glasses. I'm like, 'I get to go to the theatre today?'" Fineman enthused. "It just made me appreciate New York in a really crazy way."

Shortly after her first performance in All In, Fineman spoke with New York Theatre Guide about experiencing the show as both a cast and audience member, her acting background, and the roles she'd love to play next.

Get All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich tickets now.

What was going through your mind during your first performance?

So surreal. It's something I've always wanted to do, so you're like, "Is this a dream?" And then you get to do it with people like John and Richard and Fred, who are comedy legends. Also, [Mulaney's Broadway show] Oh, Hello is one of my favorite things ever.

The thing that surprised me most was how incredible a New York Broadway audience is. They're the kindest, best audience. Not to put down other audiences.

What should your Saturday Night Live fans know about All In?

You're going to laugh out loud. John Mulaney is in peak form. He's so funny. He's so perfect. Fred is hilarious and has a way of saying one or two words, and I can't help but break on stage. But the thing that surprised me [...] is how sweet it is. It's different love stories about being a parent, about falling in love, about love and loss.

I saw it twice. When I saw it, I was always crying. Maybe it's because it's from people who are unexpected. To see John or Fred or Richard really connect to these sweet moments, it really catches you by surprise and is almost extra moving.

Does Broadway feel different from performing live on Saturday Night Live?

Everyone was always [warning me about] eight shows a week, and I had some rehearsals, and then we did it twice on Monday. Tuesday I was bedridden with exhaustion. SNL is its own beast that you get used to, but you're running around so much, and you're really only in something for four minutes at a time. Doing a 90-minute thing where you're so on and there's so much material is a totally different animal.

Can you share more about your theatre background?

I went to NYU and studied at Stella Adler. It was the highlight of my life. I remember graduating and doing some weird — what was it? It was a historical drama. I was always in a corset and a puffy skirt, and I got paid in MetroCards.

So I moved back to California. I should have stayed, but I moved back to my parents' house and was like, "I don't know how the hell I'll ever figure this out." Through comedy, now I can go back to doing this thing I really love.

Since All In has minimal staging, how do you make your characters dynamic and engaging for the audience?

There's obviously only so much you can do in a chair, but believe me, Richard found it. I've never seen such phenomenal chair work in my life. It's fantastic.

If you hit the truth of stuff and connect out to the audience, it can be just as effective. It's radio play vibes, which is interesting. And because we're sitting, every day, I'm finding new ways to animate text with your hands, or the way you say a word. It's been really fun to return to the idea of language.

You're known for your impressions. Are you drawing on similar or different skills to play your All In characters?

[Using different] voices is definitely a big thing, but this is totally different because it's really earnest and heartfelt. And there's dramatic moments, a handful of them, that I was so excited to get to do. Enough of these little bits and skits; I want to be real!

Getting a note from Alex like, "The mask is off. It's undone in this moment," is something I haven't been told to do in like, 15 years. It's all these love stories, so [in that moment], you get to really see someone's heartbreak. Obviously it's in the context of a funny play, but getting to hit those heartfelt things is really thrilling.

Do you have a favorite moment in the show?

"The Big Nap" is incredibly fun, and John is such a perfect detective. What's been really fun is surprising ourselves with new laughs that can happen. I'm excited, even today, to try a couple new things.

Also, I really love ending with "History Report" and getting to tell a love story I really connect to as somebody who dated before social media myself. The nostalgia for that time is really touching.

Do you hope to return to Broadway in the future?

I really, really want to do more theatre. My dream forever has been to do Hedda Gabler, which I think is funny — hot take. She's like lady Hamlet. Obviously it's a really dramatic part, but I've always found Ibsen kind of funny. Or Chekhov as well; I'm dying to do all of that. If you hit the humor in that stuff, the heartbreak's even sadder.

I'm truly open to so many things: new plays, new playwrights, Shakespeare. I'm dying to do Shakespeare in the Park.

Have you ever had a theatre experience as an audience member that really moved you?

I was 19 or 20, and I saw August: Osage County on Broadway. I was so taken by it, and then I hung out by the stage door and held the lead actress and was overcome with emotion. It just stopped me and left me speechless. It was definitely like, "One day I'll get to do something like that."

Get All In: Comedy About Love by Simon Rich tickets now.

This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Top image credit: Chloe Fineman. (Photo by Justin Bettman)
In-article image credit: Chloe Fineman in All In on Broadway. (Photos by Valerie Terranova)