BroadwayWorld is saddened to learn of the passing of Emmy Award-winning actressJessica Walter. Walter was 80 years old. Walter was known for her appearances across both stage and screen.
Jessica Walter, the Emmy-winning performer who made several Broadway appearances throughout her career, died March 24 at the age of 80. Her daughter, Brooke Bowman, confirmed the news to Deadline.
Ms. Walter had reached the zenith of pop culture in the past two decades as the sharp-tongued and boozy Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development, for which she earned an Primetime Emmy nomination in 2005. She voiced a similarly quippy character in the FX animated series Archer, this time as the head of a spy agency and the mother to the title character.
The star made her Broadway debut in the early ‘60s as a replacement in Loring Mandel’s adaptation of Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent. In 1962, she appeared in Sidney S. Kingsley’s Night Life. Shortly after, she appeared in A Severed Head and Photo Finish, the latter earning her Most Promising Newcomer at the Clarence Derwent Awards. To close out the decade, she played Lois Lane/Bianca opposite Robert Goulet, Carol Lawrence, and Michael Callan in the 1968 TV movie musical presentation of Kiss Me, Kate.
The star made two more appearances on the Main Stem following her string of shows in the ‘60s: the 1988 Neil Simon comedy Rumors and the 2011 revival of Anything Goes. Beyond Broadway, the star appeared Off-Broadway with companies like Playwright’s Horizons, and in Los Angeles, where she played Elmire in Tartuffe opposite the late Ron Leibman, her Emmy and Tony–winning husband.
Born January 31, 1941, in Brooklyn, New York, Ms. Walter graduated from New York City’s High School of Performing Arts. While her stage career was her start, she found fame on screen after starring in a number of TV shows and films during the ‘70s, including Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut, Play Misty for Me. She won an Emmy in 1975 for her work in Amy Prentiss and followed it up with nods for Trapper John M..D. and Streets of San Francisco.
She married Mr. Leibman in 1983 following her first marriage to Ross Bowman, with whom she had a daughter, Brooke.
Ms. Walter is survived by daughter Brooke Bowman, who is SVP Drama Programming at Fox Entertainment, and grandson Micah Heymann. “Her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off,” said Bowman. “While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class, and overall joie de vivre.”
Check out this week’s list of new and upcoming releases, including Live Your Life My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero, Once On This Island on orange vinyl, RH Goes Pop, and more
The original Broadway production of Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened at the Morosco Theatre March 24, 1955. The production, staged by Elia Kazan, played 694 performances before closing on November 17, 1956, and garnered four Tony Award nominations, including Best Play, as well as the Pulitzer Prize.
Williams’ drama tells the story of a wealthy Southern patriarch facing impending death and manipulating his family, as his children squabble and mislead in desperate attempts to secure the family inheritance.
Cat On a Hot Tin Roof starred Barbara Bel Geddes as Maggie, Burl Ives as Big Daddy, Mildred Dunnock as Big Mama, Ben Gazzara as Brick, R.G. Armstrong as Dr. Baugh, Janice Dunn as Trixie, Seth Edwards as Sonny, Maxwell Glanville as Lacey, Pauline Hahn as Dixie, Pat Hingle as Gooper, Brownie McGhee as Brightie, Darryl Richard as Buster, Madeleine Sherwood as Mae, Fred Stewart as Rev. Tooker, Sonny Terry as Small, Eva Vaughn Smith as Daisy, Musa Williams as Sookey.
The drama would be revived five times over the years (making it one of the most-revived plays in Broadway history). The first revival came in 1974 at the Anta Theatre, starring Elizabeth Ashley, Keir Dullea, and Fred Gwynne. The play would return 26 years later in a Howard Davies-helmed production starring Kathleen Turner, Charles Durning, and Daniel Hugh Kelly. In 2003, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof played the Music Box Theatre starring Ashley Judd, Jason Patric, Ned Beatty, and Margo Martindale. Shortly thereafter, the drama returned to Broadway, directed by Debbie Allen, starring Terrence Howard, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, and Anika Noni Rose. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof last played the Great White Way in 2013, starring Scarlett Johansson, Ciarán Hinds, Benjamin Walker, and Debra Monk.
Pat Collins, a Broadway lighting designer who won a 1986 Tony Award for her work on I’m Not Rappaport, has passed away.
Read on for more theatre headlines you may have missed in today’s news.
Ana Villafañe Joins the Final Season of Younger
Ana Villafañe, known to Broadway audiences for her turn as Gloria Estefan in 2015’s On Your Feet!, will join the cast of the seventh and final season of Younger, Deadline reports. The series stars Tony Award winner Sutton Foster as Liza Miller, an editor who lied about her age to get a job in the competitive world of publishing. Villafañe will play KT, a “highly organized type-A music manager.” The performer has most recently been seen on the small screen in recurring roles on the NBC series Sunnyside and New Amsterdam. The final season of Younger, created, executive produce and written by Darren Star, begins streaming on Paramount+ April 15.
Playwrights Realm’s Annual INK’D Festival of New Plays Will Stream in April
The INK’D Festival of New Plays is the culminating event of the Writing Fellowship Program, presenting the new works of four early-career playwrights after their nine month fellowships with the Playwrights Realm. This year’s streaming festival will launch on April 15 with Opening Panel: Playwriting in a Pandemic, an online discussion with the four fellows. New works to be presented are Lajasarriba by Omar Vélez Meléndez, ABCD by May Treuhaft-Ali, not-for-profit (or the equity, diversity and inclusion play) by Francisca Da Silveira, and We Can’t Breathe by Phillip Christian Smith. For festival ticketing, visit PlaywrightsRealm.org.
ABT Will Stream Six New Short Works Weekly Beginning March 29
American Ballet Theatre will present six new short ballets from 2021 ABT Incubator, a lab for ABT dancers to explore choreography, under the directorship of ABT dancer Jose Sebastian, with mentorship by choreographer Jessica Lang. The works were created and filmed over Zoom and in isolated “ballet bubbles.” The six new ballets to be presented from the 2021 cohort are: The Unforseen, choreographed by Zhong-Jing Fang, on March 29; She didn’t, choreographed by Joseph Markey, on April 5; Death and Life, choreographed by Sung Woo Han, on April 12; Nunanu, choreographed by Luciana Paris, on April 19; Thread of Memories, choreographed by Luigi Crispino, on April 26; and Soirée Nocturne, choreographed by Melvin Lawovi, on May 3. Each program premieres at 12 PM ET on ABT’s YouTube channel.
New Micro-Grant From Ma-Yi Theater Company
Ma-Yi Theater Company has created a new micro-grant program to benefit New York City-based BIPOC, transgender, and disabled artists and creatives in need as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The micro-grant fund was established through the support of Play-PerView and its streamed production of Carla Ching’s Revenge Porn, presented specifically to benefit Ma-Yi, and through the support of Edward Bok Lee. Ten awards of $500 each are available for creatives across disciplines designers, actors, directors, playwrights, poets, musicians, choreographers, dancers, painters, sculptors, video artists, etc. Applications will open March 29 and must be submitted by April 9. For more information, visit Ma-YiTheatre.org.
Today’s Theater Stories features the Stephen Sondheim Theatre Learn about the theatre’s longest-running show, Beautiful The Carole King Musical, the show currently inhabiting the theatre, Mrs. Doubtfire, and more
The premiere episode of Celia Keenan-Bolger’s podcast Sunday Pancakes debuts March 21, featuring Tony nominee Denée Benton from Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812. In “Making Peace With Your Perfectionism,” the pair talk about managing perfectionism when things feel outside of your control and the work the theatre industry needs to do in order to become actively anti-racist. Listen here.
As previously announced, new episodes will drop Sundays at 9 AM ET. The podcast focuses on humanity and what keeps people connected to, motivated by, and curious about the world around them. Keenan-Bolger will also cap off each episode with a weekly round-up of what she is reading, watching, and listening to as well as any specific works that help enhance and contextualize the listening experience.
This week’s listings include the book Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, the podcast Post Report’s “The Life Of George Floyd” episode, a Vogue op-ed discussing Stacey Abrams, and the Spike Lee film capture of Passing Strange. In addition, the Tony winner suggests following @napministry on Instagram.
You can listen and subscribe to Sunday Pancakes at Playbill.com/SundayPancakes and everywhere podcasts are available. The podcast is produced by Plate Spinner Productions, edited and mixed by Apples and Oranges Arts, and distributed by Playbill.
Plate Spinner Productions is a production company working across entertainment media. Led by CEO Diana DiMenna in collaboration with producers Brian Moreland and Rachel Sussman, Plate Spinner is committed to developing, nurturing, and producing unique and dynamic stories that challenge artists and audiences to question the status quo, and believe that a fair and equitable world is possible.