John Benjamin Hickey tested positive for COVID-19 after his Broadway show with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick was suspended by lockdown
Tony-winning actor John Benjamin Hickey has recovered after being ‘brutally sick’ with COVID-19, he revealed Thursday.
The 56-year-old fell ill a day after the Broadway shutdown caused the suspension of the revival of Neil Simon’s play Plaza Suite he was directing.
John, whose Plaza Suite production was to star Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, broke news of his diagnosis on the Broadway.com show Live At Five.
‘I was feeling funny’: Tony-winning actor John Benjamin Hickey has recovered after being ‘brutally sick’ with COVID-19, he revealed Thursday
‘The day after they closed Broadway down, closed all the shows down, I was feeling funny, went to my doctor, got tested, got my positive results back a few days later and spent two weeks really brutally sick,’ he told host Paul Wontorek.
‘But you know, I clearly came through it and am two and a half weeks now symptom-free, and feel great,’ said the Pitch Perfect actor.
‘And given everything we’re hearing and understanding now, as I said to you Paul, I consider myself profoundly lucky that I only got really, really, really sick.’
He explained: ‘I never felt like I needed to be in an emergency room or in a hospital. I had a doctor monitoring me the whole time. I was very lucky and you know, I came out okay and feel like myself again.’
Letting it out: John broke news of his diagnosis and recovery on the Broadway.com show Live At Five to host Paul Wontorek (left)
John added: ‘But it’s, as we all now very well understand, it is a brutal, brutal sickness, so very happy to be here with you.’
He quipped that this interview was ‘the first time I’ve worn a shirt in like three weeks, so I kind of feel like I’m on my way to a wedding.’
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo closed down Broadway on March 12, one day before John’s Plaza Suite revival was to begin previews at the Hudson Theatre.
Shutdown: John fell sick a day after the shutdown of his revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, pictured at the Boston tryout in February
Some lucky fans did get to see Sarah and Matthew during the show’s out-of-town tryout in February at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston.
Matthew’s sister the Reverend Janet Broderick was diagnosed with coronavirus last month but has since recovered and been discharged from her Beverly Hills hospital.
She has now told New York Magazine that she was treated better at the hospital because of her showbiz connection, declaring: ‘I think I’m absolute living proof that this system is completely corrupt.’
Baby mine: Andy Cohen, a pal of John’s, also came down with COVID-19 and after his recovery got to reunite with his one-year-old son Ben this Tuesday
Andy Cohen, a pal of John’s, also came down with coronavirus and after his recovery got to reunite with his one-year-old son Ben this Tuesday.
John got his start on Broadway in the original 1995 production of the play Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally, who died last Tuesday at the age of 81 of complications from COVID-19.
Eventually John won his acting Tony in the inaugural 2011 Broadway production of Larry Kramer’s 1985 play The Normal Heart about the AIDS crisis.