Many theater actors eventually defect to television, lured by steady schedules and a paycheck that may allow them to fund their next ambitious production. But often, the work that TV provides is leagues less impressive than what they’re able to do—when we spoke to Broadway legend Elizabeth Marvellast week, she said she spent much of her time on a CBS procedural in the early 2000s sitting at a desk in the background of scenes.
Which is one of many reasons that the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon! is a bit of a miracle, bringing in Tony winners like Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, and Aaron Tveit for affectionate musical theater parodies that allow them to show off their triple-threat skills. In the show’s recent second season, Schmicago, the story shifts to a gritty city inspired by musicals like Chicago and Cabaret, making room for Fosse-inspired choreography, some gleeful double entendres, and showstopper ballads worthy of Sally Bowles. Today Juan Ramírez catches up with Jane Krakowski, yet another Tony winner in the Schmigadoon! ensemble, who returns this season as a fast-talking lawyer inspired by Chicago’s Billy Flynn. Her big song this season makes use of her existing stage skills—Sondheim-style song patter, precisely executed dance moves—as well as some new ones, particularly a dramatic swing on a trapeze. As she tells Juan, she grew up admiring Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon in the original production of Chicago; her work on “Bells and Whistles” was a way to figure out how to “pay homage to all of those great women.”
Speaking of great women, there are three of them on today’s episode of Little Gold Men. Rebecca Ford talks to Helen Mirren about her work opposite “Harrison fucking Ford” on 1923, and why her character’s fierceness isn’t exactly maternal, but a practical and humane way of surviving in a brutal period of history. Natalie Jarvey catches up with Padma Lakshmi, who recently announced she’s stepping down from the Top Chef series and looking forward to her future with her Hulu series, Taste the Nation. And David Canfield talks to Bridget Everett, another theater icon who shines in the uniquely warm, hilarious HBO series Somebody Somewhere, recently renewed for a third season. (Everett confesses she celebrated that renewal with a couple of martinis.)
And to round out today’s newsletter: Cynthia Nixon gets frank about And Just Like That… and anyone who was disappointed in where it took her character, Miranda; and Jason Baileygathers memories from James Gandolfini’s closest collaborators on the 10th anniversary of the Emmy-winning Sopranos star’s death.
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