Riverdale's Lili Reinhart Reveals Her 'Worst Nightmare' On The Set Of Carrie: The Musical

The words "musical episode" generally elicit one of two emotional responses from fans: complete enthusiasm or deep, impenetrable skepticism. There really is no such thing as indifference whenever it comes to TV's most polarizing gimmick—you either love it, or you really sort of hate it.

It's not like I blame the nonbelievers. In the years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Once More, with Feeling"—by far the gold standard of musical episodes, thanks to Joss Whedon's cunning mix of whimsy and plot-driven wordplay—there have been some truly baffling attempts. I'm not attempting to drag Grey's Anatomy here, nevertheless the ideal musical episodes are at least a bit self-aware about the complete thing. And that's what Riverdale's "A Night To Remember" gets right.

With Kevin Keller at the helm of Riverdale High's fall production of Carrie: The Musical, the result is an amusing — and downright shocking — musical within a musical. In case you could get past the bits of spontaneous singing outdoors of the auditorium —this is Riverdale at its most dumb — then you'll visualize that the standout episode delivers razzle-dazzle, honest character moments, and all of the horrors we've come to expect from the town with pep.

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You don't wish to miss the first number. "I've never laughed that hard in my life," Casey Cott told MTV News.

A monumental Broadway flop, based on the Stephen King novel, the musical noticed redemption in its well-received 2012 off-Broadway revival. On a purely superficial level, Carrie fits tonally inside of the Riverdale universe. It speaks to showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's more macabre sensibilities. However "A Night To Remember" digs even deeper, as Riverdale's finest express their inner turmoil seamlessly via music of Carrie: The Musical. It's so good that songs like "You Shine" and "Stay Here Instead" sound like they were written for these characters.

For star Lili Reinhart (Betty), it wasn't a coincidence. "There are a lot of parallels between each character and the characters that our characters play," she told MTV News on the Vancouver set of Riverdale in January. "It's works very well in sort of a peculiar way." So it's no surprise that Betty is cast as Sue Snell, the "good girl"; Archie as Tommy Ross, the "boy next door"; and Veronica as Chris Hargensen, the "vindictive mean girl."

MTV News was there with Reinhart and her castmates if they filmed "the biggest musical episode TV has ever seen," as Casey Cott put it. They gave us all the behind-the-scenes scoop. Here's what we learned:

B&V shine

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Betty and Veronica's friendship has been tested while in Riverdale's second season. First, the Black Hood forced Betty to rip into Veronica's insecurities at Nick Sinclair's party, breaking V's heart and their friendship (at least up until the Black Hood was caught), and right now the Lodges' shady dealings have congregated a major rift between the former best companions and, consequently, the core four. In "A Night To Remember," tensions reach a boiling point any time Betty confronts Veronica about her part in show because the central mean girl — a part that B believes isn't really all that hard for V to play.

Betty's harsh remarks not only lead to "tension between Archie and Betty," KJ Apa mentioned, nevertheless also to a falling out between companions, which has "directly affected Betty's relationship with Archie [as well as] Jughead and Archie's relationship," added Reinhart. "The two couples are going against each other in a sense. Going into this episode, they are still very strained," she mentioned. Yet they're put into this environment where they have to work with each other

Betty knowingly hits Veronica where she's most vulnerable—and it stings. "Veronica now is dealing with her parents," Camila Mendes mentioned. "And she's balancing that [and] separating her identity from who her parents are." Nevertheless via power of the musical—and the magic of a heartfelt duet—Betty and Veronica ultimately find their way back to being B&V. "They're not in a good place now Mendes mentioned, although "the musical brings them with each other by the end."

Every ship gets a special moment

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Carrie: The Musical only has one romantic ballad ("You Shine") in the show, nevertheless "A Night To Remember" still manages to give each couple something special — from Toni's unwavering support of Cheryl's ambitions to Betty and Jughead's Nancy Drew-ing. And once Betty lashes out at Veronica, it's Archie who steps in to defend his girl. (While Betty and Archie's roles as high school golden couple Sue and Tommy definitely bring them closer, it "doesn't stir the marijuana for Bughead and Varchie as much as you might think, Reinhart mentioned) Even Alice Cooper and FP Jones share a moment of sizzling sexual tension.

The choreography was everyone's worst nightmare—well, almost everyone's

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"I love it," Mendes told MTV News between takes while in one of the episode's big musical numbers ("Do Me A Favor"). "It's fun because it's really up my alley," she added. "I danced for 10 years growing up, so I feel like I've retained a bit of movement." Mendes puts all that dance training to good use in her "fierce, sexy" show-stopping number, "The World According To Chris." (With a flawlessly apt lyric like, "My daddy taught me you get nowhere being nice," you could visualize why Aguirre-Sacasa chose Carrie: The Musical.)

"It was so much fun doing it," Mendes mentioned of her efficiency. "I had all of those backup dancers, and I got to have this Christina Aguilera/Britney Spears moment in the center. It was this astonishing, iconic moment."

However the choreography didn't come as of course to her co-stars — or so they mention. From what I observed on set, each person nailed their moves in spite of their reservations. "Choreography is sort of my worst nightmare," Reinhart mentioned. "I suck at dancing, in my advice. I danced for 10 years — I was on a dance team, and I did dance classes for most of my childhood, and somehow I'm still terrible at it."

As for Apa, he just wanted more time to rehearse—something a TV production schedule doesn't have an abundance of. "The choreography was pretty hard," he mentioned of the "gnarly" experience. "I'm not much of a dancer. It might be tricky to pick it up with the little quantity of time we have and to put it with each other with all the words and the lines and the cues." Then again, maybe Apa's just being also hard on himself.

"KJ's a phenomenal dancer!" Mendes added. "He keeps making fun of himself for doing it, yet he's actually doing a really good job... KJ surprised me the most with his abilities."

Kevin does a little, teeny" bit of singing — although not a lot of flirting

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It feels somewhat criminal to do a musical episode and not give Cott his own solo. The musical theater vet — his older brother Corey also has numerous Broadway credits to his name —rarely gets to flex his vocal abilities on Riverdale, nevertheless he does have a few brief moments to shine in "A Night To Remember."

"I get to sing a little, teeny bit," Cott mentioned. Nevertheless luckily, the other cast are the perfect singers in the world, so they sound astonishing

case in point, Kevin pretty much calls the shots in this episode, making decisions that impact the whole production — one in particular will have major repercussions going forward this season. For Kevin, the theater is a sacred space. "He takes the theater very seriously, and that's fun to watch," Cott mentioned. "He's quite enthusiastic, which naturally creates a little bit of humor."

Nevertheless for those hoping for a spark to ignite between Kevin and his assistant director, Fangs Fogarty, Cott says things are strictly platonic so far. "I'm not sure if it's romantic chemistry, nevertheless they are certainly buds," he mentioned, adding that Kevin and Fangs have a "fun little interaction going in this episode that I think people will find quite humorous."

Reinhart and Camila share the same theater credit

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One of the reasons fans have been clamoring for a Riverdale musical episode since the early days of Season 1 is the fact that each person in the cast can sing. (Yes, even Cole Sprouse, who chose not to partake in the singing and dancing, which Aguirre-Sacasa ultimately determined was a very Jughead thing to do, so he plays videographer alternatively) So of course Reinhart, Mendes, and Cott grew up doing children's theater.

Yet Reinhart doesn't imagine herself a singer ("I'm more of an actor who likes to sing," she mentioned, the experience of performing did bring her back to her own musical theater roots. "It was a little nostalgic for me," she mentioned. Her early roles include Alice in Alice in Wonderland ("That was a big deal," she mentioned of her first leading position at age 14); Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, an early credit she shares with Mendes ("We bonded over that one of the initial times we met," she mused); as well as a von Trapp in The Sound of Music.

As for Mendes, she credits her high school theater experience with helping her get through Carrie: The Musical. Her drama club roles include playing a Lost Boy in Peter Pan and the aforementioned Veruca Salt, which she joked "prepared" her for the role of Veronica.

This would be the initial — and last — time you visualize Veronica in jeans

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The episode also gave Mendes a reprieve from Veronica's sophisticated wardrobe, trading in V's dresses, skirts, and classic pearls for something a little bit more casual to fit with the 1970s setting of the musical. Nevertheless for Mendes, Chris's jeans were also a hell of a lot more comfortable. "This is the initial time Veronica has worn jeans — and will ever wear jeans," Mendes mentioned. "I don't think she'll wear jeans again!"