How Tom Francis Recovers From Belting ‘Sunset Boulevard’ in Times Square Every Night
Francis spends his days consistently working toward two goals: hydration and pain prevention.
For hydration, he’s constantly thinking about his water intake. “I sweat a lot on stage,” he said, so he drinks a Gatorade about 45 minutes before each show and is conscious of continuously drinking water throughout the day. His drinking vessel of choice: the Yeti Rambler, which our best water bottles guide calls an option worth considering.
As for protecting his feet — and therefore the rest of his body — during the marathon-and-a-half he’s walked, Francis swears by insoles. “I didn’t have insoles in London,” Francis explained, speaking about the origination of his role on London’s West End. “But then I got my gait and everything measured for running shoes, and they said I needed some insoles, so I told the wardrobe department.”
And the wardrobe department did him well. About every six weeks, a new pair of Currex RunPro insoles are slipped into his stage shoes. Wirecutter tested (and loved) these insoles, which are designed with a deep heel cup, for our guide to the best insoles for running and walking, and we found that they were best for people with low arches. Francis’s regular insole-replacement schedule proves our testers’ main complaint about this Wirecutter pick — they wear out faster than other insoles we tried.
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If the blood-soaked bow wasn’t a giveaway, toward the end of the show Francis’s character dies. After his character’s demise, he has a brief moment of respite before curtain call to rush back to his dressing room, where he gets to work winding down.
“I have a load of Rogue resistance bands, and I do a little workout to get rid of some of that energy, to try to focus it somewhere else,” Francis told me on a Zoom call. This first line of energy release, with the resistance bands, is key to his nightly cool-down. Notably, he does this while he is still covered in blood, as he has yet to bow.
After curtain call, he heads straight for the shower in his dressing room, which pulls him out of character and removes the blood — or, at least, most of it.
“The blood stains,” Francis explained, pointing his camera toward his leg. “Look at this, can you see the blood stained on my leg? I’ll try to get it off in the next shower.” He uses Native body wash and a body scrubber. (He didn’t know what the scrubber was called but assured me it was similar to a loofah and made of fabric, not silicone or rubber.)
To wash his face, he uses InnBeauty Project Keep It Clean Hydrating Gel Cleanser (which was chosen for him by his hair and makeup team and is eye-safe and ophthalmologist-tested, according to the company’s website) to rinse off sweat, fake blood, and any makeup.
To clean his hair, he uses SheaMoisture Manuka Honey & Mafura Oil Intensive Hydration Shampoo. “The hair and makeup team got it for me,” he said. “It makes a coconut smell, which I like, it’s really nice.” The shampoo is sulfate-free and formulated with manuka honey, which acts as a humectant to keep his curls hydrated — a particularly essential step, since he’s washing his hair eight times a week.
He finishes his dressing-room cleanup routine by applying moisturizer. “At the theater, I always have the CeraVe,” Francis told me. He uses CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, a Wirecutter pick, on his face and then smoothes Vaseline Intensive Care Cocoa Radiant Body Butter on his arms.
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He spends the next 20 or so minutes saying hello to family and friends, VIPs (Oprah Winfrey was a recent audience member), and fans waiting at the stage door.
What he does after work varies. Sometimes he grabs dinner or drinks with friends. The night before our interview, he spent some of his evening working on his newest venture: a TikTok account dedicated to reviewing soda. He reviewed Minute Maid’s Blue Raspberry Soda. He gave it an 8/10.
