Steve On Broadway (SOB)

Frances McDormand And Good People

Frances McDormand And Good People

Earlier this afternoon, the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) announced that Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand would headline its world premiere engagement of David Lindsay-Abaire's previously announced Good People on Broadway in early 2011.

MTC describes Good People as follows:

Welcome to Southie, a Boston neighborhood where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo… where this month’s paycheck covers last month’s bills… and where Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break, Margie thinks an old fling who's made it out of Southie might be her ticket to a fresh new start. But is this apparently self-made man secure enough to face his humble beginnings? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out.

Now before you brush McDormand's casting as just another play for Hollywood stars, this will mark her fourth time on Broadway. Long before she became a film star, she appeared in the 1984 revival of Awake And Sing and earned a Tony nod for her 1988 portrayal of Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire.

While I wasn't particularly enamored with her last appearance on Broadway in 2008's The Country Girl, I first caught McDormand on stage 18 years ago and was swept away. In 1992, McDormand was starring alongside Jane Alexander and Madeline Kahn in Wendy Wasserstein's extraordinary play The Sisters Rosensweig at Lincoln Center (this was prior to its Broadway transfer when Christine Estabrook would replace McDormand).

At the time, I had a friend who was a stage manager at Lincoln Center and he arranged for us to go back stage and meet the cast. While Alexander wasn't available, we were thrilled to meet and chat at length with the truly gorgeous Madeline Kahn and her co-star McDormand, who was quite unassuming and approachable. Both were genuinely gracious with their time.

Good people who left an impression on me. Let's hope Good People can similarly impress.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).


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Labels: Broadway, Casting, David Lindsay-Abaire, Frances McDormand, Good People, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, Play, The Sisters Rosensweig

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Wednesday, July 07, 2010