Tony Nominee Raúl Esparza Shares the Advice He Gave SVU Costar Mariska Hargitay Ahead of Her Broadway Debut (Exclusive)

Hargitay is currently starring in the one-woman-show ‘Every Brilliant Thing’

Raúl Esparza gave some key advice to his former Law & Order: Special Victims Unit costar Mariska Hargitay ahead of her Broadway debut.

“I told her it’s going to be hard,” Esparza, 55, exclusively told PEOPLE at the Hudson Theatre in New York City on Tuesday, June 2. “I also said, ‘Take care of yourself. It’s okay.’ “

He added, “This is harder than anything you’ve ever done and also more rewarding. It’s okay to take breaks and get some rest and be really nice to yourself.”

Hargitay, 62, stars as the unnamed protagonist in the one-woman show Every Brilliant Thing.

While this is Hargitay’s first time stepping onto a stage, Esparza — who played New York Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Rafael Barba on SVU — is no stranger to the theater world.

He made his Broadway debut as Riff Raff in 2000 with a revival of The Rocky Horror Show, and went on to play the lead role of Jonathan in the original Off-Broadway production of Tick, Tick… Boom!.

Esparza has been nominated for several Tony Awards along the way, including Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for Taboo, Best Actor in a Musical for Company, Best Featured Actor in a Play for The Homecoming and Best Actor in a Play for Speed-the-Plow.

In November 2026, Esparza will return to Broadway to star as scientist Galileo Galilei in the rock musical Galileo.

“I think the show Galileo is thrilling. It’s thrilling,” he told PEOPLE about what to expect. “The music is extraordinary. It’s nothing but bangers and it has something to say about the way we live right now.”

“Even though it’s set in the Renaissance and it’s about a scientist, it’s rock music and pop music all mixed together to tell the story of someone who found something true that changed the world and then was told by all the authorities that he was a liar,” Esparza continued. “And unfortunately, that’s really resonant with us right now and the way we’re living and what’s true and whether we can believe in science and whether the state has any right to tell us who we are and what to believe.”

The actor also reflected on his time in Tick, Tick… Boom!, which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Off-Broadway run. The show was eventually adapted into Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2021 film with Andrew Garfield playing Jonathan.

“My first memory of Tick, Tick… Boom! is actually our first rehearsal where we sang through everything for the first time,” Esparza recalled. “And the experience of hearing ‘Come to Your Senses’ was so unbelievably emotional that it unlocked everything for me for the character.”

“In that first Friday, it was a rainy day. I remember that. And Amy [Spanger] began to sing and I suddenly thought how extraordinary to be John and to hear that music and to hear someone do it so well,” he continued. “That song was originally sung by Marin Mazzie, who was great friends with him and to sort of go like, ‘This is what he dedicated his life to because of a moment like this where you think that’s my work. That’s my life. It’ll live on beyond me.’ It was a really beautiful show.

The three-time Drama Desk Award winner said that, for him, the show was also connected with 9/11 “because so much of what the show was saying had a lot to do with what we were living through then and a lot of people came to the show because they found it really comforting.”

“It wasn’t what it was written for, but the city really coalesced around us. I would get people talking about how much they needed to hear what the show was saying. Because Tick, Tick… Boom! is about that moment in life that we all go through,” he told PEOPLE. ” ‘Who do I want to be even if nobody believes in me?’ We all ask that question. It’s so human to be like, ‘Do I matter? And if nobody else tells me I’m great, do I still think I’m great?’ We all ask ourselves that in our 20s.”

As for Hargitay, she will be leading the one-woman show Every Brilliant Thing until Sunday, July 5 — when Tracee Ellis Ross will then step into the role.

“One of the things about this play is that I just love it so much and it’s so extraordinary and beautiful that I’m excited to share it with people,” Hargitay said in her interview with PEOPLE at the play’s red carpet.

“And it’s not about me, it’s about sharing this play, and how lucky I feel that the audience gets to experience these beautiful words, and this extraordinary story rendered in all its complexity,” she continued. “Because it’s so many things, and it’s so human in that way that it’s not one thing, it’s a lot of things. And just the idea of, again, this communal experience of being in the theater together. We’ve been doing this for thousands and thousands of years.”

“And so, this idea that here we all are… Sure, the lights and the mics and everything is updated, and technology, but the fact is it’s 1,000 people sitting together telling shared experience of what it is to be a human, and all the emotions that we have,” she explained about the special communal experience. “And so, for me, that is so sacred, storytelling. And to experience it without interruption is something also I haven’t done.”