A.R.T. Made a Cameo on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Harvard-affiliated American Repertory Theater got a shoutout on the CW show.

Image of Crazy Ex Girlfriend via CW

Image of Crazy Ex Girlfriend via CW

Fans of the CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend may have noticed a shoutout to a certain Cambridge-based theater on Monday’s episode. The Harvard-affiliated American Repertory Theater made a cameo in the form of a pretentious theater student (played by Michael Grant), who wears a shirt from the company while directing his musical version of Moby Dick. Rebecca Bunch, the musical theater-loving main character, is a Harvard grad, and flashes back in the episode to her time there, where she briefly embraced her love of theater before pursuing a law career that she doesn’t like too much. The moral of the story? Don’t give up on your love of the stage, closet theater nerds.

While Rachel Bloom, the series star and co-showrunner, didn’t attend Harvard, the other showrunner, Aline Brosh McKenna, did, so we assume we can thank her for the mention. And hey, given all those Tony-bound shows generated at A.R.T., it makes a certain amount of sense that Rebecca Bunch was inspired by it. We’re guessing she was there a little too early to see Pippin, sadly. We’ll have to check with the school to see if any aspiring playwrights created a magnum opus setting New England’s finest whaling masterpiece to song. But we’re going to assume Warren the theater student made his own t-shirt: A.R.T. spells it theater, not theatre. In the meantime, you can see the theater’s cameo on the CW’s site, should you be so inclined. It comes up about 20 minutes in.