Who Are The Most Powerful People On Broadway?

 

 

 

Jordan Roth

Backstage.com has picked the twenty-five most powerful people on Broadway. While not an easy task, they have done well in picking the power brokers but have not included the entertainers. The first star/writer to appear on the list is Harvey Fierstein at number twenty-three.

Here are the top ten:

1. Phil Smith (Chairman) and Bob Wankel (President), The Shubert Organization

Phil Smith was bound for Broadway greatness, especially after coming up with the idea of the Telecharge ticketing system. Now, Smith and Wankel are in charge of the largest theater syndicate in America, comprising 17 Broadway houses and one Off-Broadway.

2. Jordan Roth, President, Jujamcyn Theaters (see photograph above)

This year Roth became the primary shareholder of Jujamcyn Theaters when Rocco Landesman sold most of his stake in the company to him. At 37, Roth is the youngest principal owner of a Broadway theater chain. With five theaters, Jujamcyn is home to “Kinky Boots,” “Jersey Boys,” and smash hit “The Book of Mormon.”

3. James “Jimmy” Nederlander and James L. Nederlander, The Nederlander Organization

The father-son duo own and operate nine theaters in New York and 15 other venues around the world, which makes the organization the second-largest theater syndicate of Broadway theaters. Both have made their mark on Broadway and national theater: Jimmy has produced more than 100 shows, and the National High School Musical Theater Awards are named the Jimmy Awards after him. His son is active in the theater community; he serves on the Broadway League Board of Governors as well as the Actors Fund board of trustees.

Thomas Schumacher of Disney

4. Thomas Schumacher, President, Disney Theatrical Group(photograph above)

“Mary Poppins” closed on Broadway this March, but Schumacher’s schedule hasn’t lightened; he will fill that small Disney void with a musical adaptation of “Aladdin,” set to debut on Broadway in 2014. With “Aladdin” joining the successful “The Lion King” and “Newsies,” Disney continues to prove its Broadway prowess—and collect those Tony Awards.

5. George P. Lane, Agent, Creative Artists Agency

Actors who complain about how star-studded Broadway has become can blame Lane. The CAA agent was instrumental in bringing such clients as Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin to the Great White Way this season.

6. Scott Rudin, Producer

Rudin had a pretty awesome 2012, joining the elite crowd of award winners who have garnered Emmy, Oscar, Grammy, and Tony awards. 2013 looks to be just as amazing for him. Not only is this the producer behind the Tony-winning Broadway powerhouses “Fences” and “The Book of Mormon,” but he produced some heavy hitters this year, including “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” starring Scarlett Johansson, and “The Testament of Mary.” Also, he will produce a revival of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” in the fall

7. Todd Haimes, Artistic Director, Roundabout Theatre Company

One of the most successful not-for-profit theater companies in the country, Roundabout has under Haimes’ stewardship become a Broadway mainstay and continues to pull in big names for its shows, such as Bobby Cannavale in this season’s “The Big Knife.”

8. Michael Riedel, Columnist, New York Post

When he wasn’t stealing scenes on “Smash” this season, Riedel proved the power of his pen with influential columns on the infamous “Ghost Skipper” in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and the “Lucky Guy” poster. It’s tough to say whether it’s all because of Riedel, but Skipper disappeared and the poster changed.

9. Nick Scandalios, Executive Vice President, The Nederlander Organization

Scandalios has been the executive vice president of the Nederlander Organization—which owns and operates nine Broadway theaters—for more than 25 years. Scandalios is active in the theater community; last year he was appointed to the Broadway League Board of Governors, and he serves as vice chairman on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

10. André Bishop, Artistic Director, Lincoln Center Theater

With a passionate flair for new works and playwrights, Bishop has made Lincoln Center Theater a creative hotbed that turns new works into classics, such as the Tony Award winners “Contact” and “The Light in the Piazza.” This season Lincoln Center has already put up a few fan favorites, including Holland Taylor’s “Ann” and Douglas Carter Beane’s “The Nance”—along with the recently anointed Pulitzer Prize winner “Disgraced,” which debuted at LCT’s Off-Broadway theater.

SEE THE REMAINDER OF THE TOP TWENTY-FIVE >>>>

'Outer Critics Circle Awards' Makes 'Pippin' and 'Kinky Boots' Big Winners

 

 

The Broadway Award season is moving full steam ahead toward the Tony Awards in early June. Last night the critics presented the Outer Critic Circle Awards and made Pippin a big winner with seven wins and presented the coveted 'Outstanding Musical' to Kinky Boots!

There were big surprises among the awards including Nathan Lane defeating Tom Hanks for the 'Outstanding Actor in a Play'. Holland Taylor of Ann defeated both Bette Midler and Michael Urie for 'Outstanding Solo Performance'.

One of the great joys of the announcement of the winners was talented Billy Porter winning for "Outstanding Actor in a Musical" for his astounding acting in Kinky Boots.

Here are some of the major winners announced:   

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL

Kinky Boots

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

My Name is Asher Lev

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

Here Lies Love

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Matilda the Musical

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE (Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Kinky Boots

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY (Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Pippin

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Jack O'Brien The Nance

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL

Diane Paulus Pippin

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER

Chet Walker Pippin

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Nathan Lane The Nance

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Cicely Tyson The Trip to Bountiful

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Billy Porter Kinky Boots

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Patina Miller Pippin

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

Tom Sturridge Orphans

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Kristine Nielsen Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Terrence Mann Pippin

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Andrea Martin Pippin

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE

Holland Taylor Ann

TO SEE ALL WINNERS AND NOMINESS JUST CLICK HERE>>>>>

Five Questions For........Harvey Fierstein

 

 

 

Perhaps more than anyone on Broadway, Harvey Fierstein has pioneered the way for actors on the Great White Way to be open about their sexuality. Consistently over the years he has shown great courage and sometimes at great cost. Despite the risks he took being out and proud, he is one of the most successful actors/writers on Broadway.

Harvey was born in Brooklyn to conservative Jewish parents. His mother, Harriet was a school librarian and his father Irving was a handkerchief manufacturer.

The deep voice became a trademark and was perfect for the stage. In 1982, as an out gay man, Fierstein burst unto the stage in a big way writing and acting in the famous Torch Song Trilogy.  For that production, he won two Tony Awards for Best Actor and Best Play. The play was a huge hit and later turned into a movie. The film won him a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor.

"Tony" loves this man! He won a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles in 1983. He was also nominated as the writer for the Broadway hit "Newsies". Who can forget this Tony Award winning performance as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray (below)? Currently he has received another nomination this June for Kinky Boots for Best Book of a Musical!

Harvey also has won an Emmy Award for narrating "The Life and Times of Harvey Milk" and an Emmy nomination for his appearance on 'Cheers' Most importantly who can ever forget his role in the hysterical "Mrs. Doubtfire" with Robin Williams?

The list of films, television appearances and voice overs can go on and on. Harvey has never stopped working, acting and writing. For so many people, like myself, Harvey is one of the great heroes of the LGBT community. He stood tall and proud when so few in the entertainment industry were out. He is a pioneer and role model for young LGBT actors. He proved you could be a success and out in show business.

If you need evidence of his articulate bravery watch the interview by Barbara Walters at the end of this article done in 1982!

Harvey is special, a beautiful man and one of the great legends.

Here are the "Five Questions For Harvey Fierstein"

1. You came out at a time when most all performers were deeply in the closet. How do you think it impacted your career for better or worse?

I am more than aware that I fucked a lot of commercial opportunities that may have been available had I been, shall we say, circumspect. However, I never considered money or fame as goals. To me they were by-products of a life in the arts. I can't say that I haven't watched fellow closeted artists getting big gigs and wondered if they did it right and I wrong. But living ingenuously was simply never an option. I guess I was just brought up right. (Or wrong)

2, Do you believe there is any professional reason for an actor to stay in the closet today? What advice would you give someone in the industry who is closeted?

Every career is completely individual. Different for every one of us. I have no crystal ball. I give young gay actors the same bullshit advice that old farts have been handing out since the dawn of time, "You get one life. LIve it, as hard as you can, full out, and with no regrets. Don't leave anything in the locker room."

3.. You are one of the hardest working people in show business as a Tony Award winning Actor and Playwright. What projects have been the most challenging to you over the years?

What you would call challenging I would call joyous. I LOVE to get in there and get dirty and create and try stuff… To me the "challenging" work are the bullshit jobs you take to pay the rent. It's a real challenge to sit around a movie set for twelve hours just to get in front of the camera and say, "Would you like a cocktail?", and then go home.

4. As a living legend yourself, what was it like to work with icon Director Jerry Mitchell and Cyndi Lauper in the new amazing Broadway hit 'Kinky Boots'.

Jerry and I had already worked together on Broadway's HAIRSPRAY and several other incarnations of the same.We knew we wanted to do something new together. Cyndi and I had talked about writing a show together years earlier. So I guess when we finally all got together to work there was some relief that the wait was over. I love them both. We are family. We created a beautiful joyous miraculous baby together that will, I have no doubt, be around years after we are gone. Working don't get better than that!

5. What is the most embarrassing or funny incident to happen to you as an actor?

I was touring as TEVYE in the road company of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. We were in Toronto and I was told, just before the curtain went up, that two of my favorite performers were in the house; legendary Captain Von Trapp himself - Mr Theodore Bikel, and the original star of MAMA MIA! - Louise Pitre. I entered the empty stage to begin the show with the famous monologue to the audience when suddenly I felt something wrong. I put my hand to my face and realized that the dry winter air had given me a very bad nosebleed. So there I stood, center stage, the audience waiting…. I pulled out my handkerchief, held it up to my face and went on with the show making certain that the audience never saw the blood gushing from my nose. Unfortunately, neither did they see much of a performance! Both of my idols left the theater without visiting me. But i could never fault them. They didn't know. Somehow I am both ashamed and proud of that

This is an extraordinary interview with Barbara Walters from 1983! You must watch this amazing man educate a nation when most people were still deeply in the closet! LGBT Americans should never forget contribution in our epic struggle for freedom!

'Kinky Boots' Deserves To Clean Up At The Tony Awards!

 

 

 

The purpose of a good musical is to entertain, have you humming afterwards and demanding that your friends go see it as soon as possible. If that fits your definition of a good musical then you should be heading over to see Kinky Boots which is the classic Broadway hit!

You will recognize all the ingredients for a ' Best Musical' nominee with a wonderful collection of talent at all levels of the production giving us their personal best. If this hit does yield a truck load of Tony Awards it will be criminal.

Most importantly, the audience gets to see the work of four great masters who work in perfect collaboration.

Legendary Director/Choreographer Jerry Mitchell gives us a gift of a musical that has so much energy you wonder how the cast can do two shows on Wednesday's and Saturdays. The cast should be walking around with canes from expending that much explosive energy on stage. Mitchell maintains a firm grip on the pacing and gives us lavish production numbers that left you breathless and in awe.

Harvey Fierstein is a legendry Broadway pioneer for LGBT Americans as an actor and writer. Personally, he has always had my respect and admiration not only for his considerable talent but also his courage. The book for Kinky Boots is sharp and in tune with the production and the music. Harvey has a great gift for story telling and he might just seize his second Tony Award for writing.

Who knew that Cyndi Lauper could hit it out of the park in her first Broadway musical as a composer and lyricist? She matches Fierstein's skill in story telling with one anthem after another that inspires everyone to feel empowered and good about themselves. Lauper took this challenge and has created music for this show that will be sung in high schools, universities, cruise ships and yes, even 'American Idol'! What joy it is to see her talent at its best and to be inspired by her music.

Now she can add a Tony Award to her Grammy and Emmy. Calling the Oscars?

Billy Porter and Stark Sands

Finally the ever talented and extraordinary performer Billy Porter has his moment! From his first appearance on stage until the end, Porter owns the stage - in fact he tears it up! With endless energy, respect for other performers and a sexiness that defies all genders, he is a power house that won't be stopped by anything. Porter has his long time fans (including me) and to see him in a starring glamorous role is so damn rewarding to not only his fans but every member of the audience.

Porter's genius should not overshadowed the incredible performance by his talented co-star Stark Sands who plays 'Charlie' with a likable charm and an excellent voice. Sands rise to every challenge and holds his own when with Porter on stage and that is no small achievement.

Other highlights includes "Lola Angels', the spectacular set of David Rockwell and really excellent lighting by Kenneth Posner.

This is the show for everyone from tourists to theater snobs, from Jersey blue hair ladies to cowboys from Wyoming and from LGBT Americans to .....well, really they standing alone should be enough! See Kinky Boots now at the Al Hirschfeld Theater.

LGBT Favorites Win Tony Award Nominations!!!

 

 

 

Judith Light Nominated for Third Tony Award

The Tony Awards were announced this morning and they bring with them great news for fans of Broadway.

Actress icon Judith Light received her third nomination (she won for 'Other Desert Cities') in a row for The Assembled Parties. Broadway pioneer Harvey Fierstein won a nod this time for writing the book of Kinky Boots. Director Jerry Mitchell won a nomination for the same musical. The amazing Billy Porter won for his tour de force performance as the lead in Kinky Boots. Earning a nomination for Best Actor for The Nance was Nathan Lane. Out actor David Hyde Pierce will compete against Lane for Best Actor for his role in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike!

The battle for Best Musical will be between Kinky Boots (13 nominations) and Matilda the Musical (12 nominations).

The Best Play Award could be won by any of the five nominees.

Gravely overlooked this year by the Tony Awards were Jessica Hecht for The Assembled Parties and Alan Cumming for MacBeth. What were they thinking???

Alan Cumming Talks To Colbert About His Astounding Show 'MacBeth'

 

 

 

For those of us who saw Alan Cumming at Lincoln Center last year in his extraordinary 'MacBeth', it was the theater experience of a life time. You see my review here of that performance. Now it is being moved to Broadway and is opening on April 21st at the Ethel Barrymore Theater. The play is directed by John Tiffany and Andrew Goldberg.

Cumming appeared on Colbert Report to discuss the play!

The Colbert Report
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REVIEW: 'The Assembled Parties' Has 'Broadway Hit' Written All Over It.

 

 

 

Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos and Judith Light in "Assembled Parties" 

Playwright Richard Greenberg's has delivered once again by giving theater goers the gift of another Broadway hit.

Director Lynne Meadows has taken Greenberg's treasured words in "The Assembled Parties" and directed them into a great evening of theater. Meadows understands that the play has all the ingredients that audiences love in a good Broadway play and the Director, with great skill, makes sure we don't miss any of them.

Assembled Parties starts with a much beloved theme of the dysfunctional American family. Then you add a brilliant ensemble cast anchored by three amazing actors. Finally you add the outstanding set by Santo Loquasto. Meadow mixed them all together and you have created a a spectacular evening of theater.

While the entire cast is simply incredible, Jessica Hecht, Judith Light and Jeremy Shamos give outstanding performances.

Jessica Hecht takes 'Julie" from a care free 'what the hell', hippie, loving wife and transforms her to a vulnerable and desperate person who is seeking approval and love. . She literally holds the play together from start to finish. With a sense of great timing, the actress is generous with the other actors and gives them the opportunity to shine. The role could have easily been overdone and she practices restraint but makes totally believable her transformation on stage. This might be Hecht's finest performance yet.

Judith Light for the third time in a row on Broadway hits it out of the park and is just brilliant in Assembled Parties. Clearly she might see her third Tony Award nomination in a row. The actress doesn't waste a word in this play and fills the stage with her acting chops and charisma. As the guest and relative, Faye, she emulates humor, sympathy and the kind of friend everyone wish they had in their real life. With already two Tony nominations and one Tony win, Light has become an emerging acting legend on "The Great White Way". Patrons of theater are going to plays just to see her in action and producers should pay attention!

Jeremy Shamos, who last year won a Tony nomination for "Clybourne Park" proves that he will be around the stage for years to come as a leading man. Going from a somewhat nerdy but delightful young friend of the family to one of its saviors later in the play is a challenging role. Shamos wears his youth better than his senior years but delivers the goods with excellent timing and outstanding acting.

Mention also must be made of young handsome Jake Silbermann making his Broadway debut. He handles himself quite well in playing two different roles. He has quite the career ahead of him.

However, the play belongs to Hecht and Light who onstage develop a relationship of power, loyalty and dignity. Despite two husbands who have disappointed both of them, they find each other in a major 'shemance' on the stage. In the end, they are the ones who triumph over adversity put in front of them by the men in their lives.

Special praise has to be given to Santo Loquasto's set which is in its own right a 'star' of the show. Constantly in movement the set helps ad to the turbulence in every room of the house. As characters are swirling around with secrets and conspiracies, the set captures those moments with its own motion. The rooms make you feel at home and you want to pull up a chair and join them at the table.

Assembled Parties is playing at The Manhattan Theatre Club in the Samuel J. Friedman Theater at 261 West 47th Street in New York City.

Five Questions For .........Director Sean Mathias

 

 

Sean Mathias (R) chatting with Breakfast at Tiffanys stars Cory Michael Smith and Emila Clark

Actor, writer and director Sean Mathias is as close to a Renaissance man as you will find.

The talented British import to Broadway is directing the new Broadway version of Breakfast at Tiffany's. The play, based on the Truman Capote book, has just opened at the Cort Theatre (at 138 West 48th Street).

 

Mathias was selected by the Sunday Independent as one of the most influential LGBT people in Britain. The talented man worked closely with Sir Ian McKellen and was also his partner in life for a number of years.

While having acted in several plays in the West End of London, it is as a director that Mathias has achieved the most acclaim.

Many people around the globe will best know him for brilliant direction of the film Bent. Both the stage version and film about homosexual inmates in a Nazi Concentration Camp moved people to tears.

When he directed a revival of Bent by Martin Sherman as a benefit, the production became legendary in the theater community. The play that night starred Sir. Ian McKellen, Ian Charleson and Ralph Fiennes. They young handsome Charleson, who was the star of Chariots of Fire, was dying of AIDS.

The film version starred Jude Law, Rupert Graves, Clive Owen, Sir. Ian McKellen, Mick Jagger,and Lothaire Bluteau. The Cannes Film Festival bestowed the "Prix de la Jeunesse'.

 

The credits for Mathias role as director are international. There is hardly a major star of the stage that has not clamor to work with him. Among those who he has directed on stage are Sir Ian McKellen, Jude Law, Judi Dench, Rupert Graves, Kathleen Turner, Cynthia Nixon, Billy Crudup, Alan Rickman, Helen Mirren and so many others.

Mathias has been honored for his work both with nominations and awards. Born in Wales, he lived in South Africa for awhile but has returned home to his native United Kingdom.

Here are Five Questions For...........Sean Mathias: 

1. When did you come 'out' and what was that experience for you?

When I wrote the screenplay for the BBC film The Lost Language of Cranes. It is a story about coming out. In order to promote it in the press, I described how I had come out at home. It is never easy.

2. You have been an actor, writer and director. Which one has given you the greatest satisfaction and why?

They have all fed each other. Romantically I am a writer but pragmatically I am a director.

3. You directed the film and stage versions of 'Bent' to great acclaim. There was a famous benefit performance in 1989 for Stonewall in London. The famous actor Ian Charleson (Chariots of Fire) was in that production and in the last stages of HIV/AIDs. What was it like that night to see his courage on the stage? Can you share a little about that legendary night?

Ian was a very close friend and I knew he was dying of AIDS. He played Greta, the Drag Queen, and had to change from female costume to male costume on stage. I placed screens all around the set to give him privacy. His body was covered with KS but his spirit was so beautiful, brave and true. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Ian Charleson

4. What project would you give your left arm to direct?

I am hanging on to my left arm.

5. What is the most embarrassing or funny event to happen to you as a director or actor?

When I made my debut in Hair on tour and they inserted a naked bath scene to be extra provocative, and I was the boy in the bath being bathed by two girls. We played my home town and my parents came to see, and my mother yelled out "Oh no, I can see his dick-dock!"

Cheyenne Jackson Is Everywhere

 

 

 

You can find Cheyenne Jackson everywhere these days. The talented and handsome star is much in demand these days. His voice is on everyone's IPOD and he has graced many stages on Broadway.

Deadline Hollywood broke the story this morning that Cheyenne will be the star in the movie version of  "6 Dance Lessons in 6 Weeks" . His co-star will be Gena Rowlands. He will play the role of Michael Minetti who gives dance lessons to a retiree (played by Rowlands).

Jackson also just finished a pilot for the brand new Amazon Studios which is called "The Onion Presents: The News" where he will play an overly ambitious television news anchor. This is a comedy which will co-star Jeffrey Tambor.

This summer Jackson will be in the HBO movie 'Behind the Candelabra" with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas. This is the love story between Liberace and his much younger lover Scott Thorson directed by the legendary Steven Soderburgh.

This is my favorite song that Cheyenne sings:

New York Observer: Judith Light Is On Three Year Winning Streak!

 

 

In an article by Harry Haun for The New York Observer, he reports that Actress Judith Light is taking New York by storm. The last three years has seen one success after another. First came the Tony Award nomination for Lombardi and then the Tony Award win for Other Desert Cities. The multi-Emmy Award winning actress will appear in The Assembled Parties which opens at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on April 17.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

It was not the sort of applause that generally greets a star. It was that more rarefied kind reserved for somebody truly beloved. Last December, when Judith Light took to the stage of the New Amsterdam at The 24th Annual Gypsy of the Year competition to do what has become her regular moment-of-silence spot for those lost to AIDS, there was a massive outpouring of affection. A longtime Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS standard-bearer, she couldn’t be better cast for the bit, her voice ringing with dignity and compassion. But that reception set off in me a wave of jealousy, along with the toxic thought, “Damn! They love her as much as I do!”

Bernie Telsey, the casting director and co-founder of Manhattan Class Company, understands my petty feeling well—he doesn’t enjoy sharing Ms. Light either. On the one hand, as he counseled me last week, you’re happy that people see what you see. On the other hand, “she’s not your secret anymore.”

Mr. Telsey, who had almost everything to do with getting Ms. Light back on the Broadway track, having hired her in 1999 to replace the awesome, award-showered Kathleen Chalfant in Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, has cast Ms. Light as the honoree—“for her bold, daring, risk-taking spirit”—at MCC’s annual fund-raising gala, “Miscast 2013,” which will be held March 4 at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

She’s had three shows on the Main Stem in three seasons—pretty good hittin’ in anybody’s book, and worth celebrating—and she was a shoo-in, Mr. Telsey said, when he and his MCC partners, Robert LuPone, Will Cantler and Blake West, threw the bones on the floor. “When we talked of someone who’s touched our lives as an actress, as an ambassador for our arts and education program, it was unanimous. All four of us have that kind of relationship with her.”

Since Wit, he pointed out, she hasn’t stopped working in New York. “She’s so connected with the words that she’s saying, in whatever play, that she touches you as an audience member. When she speaks, it crosses over those footlights and lands in your lap. She’s sharing that character’s story, and you just feel connected with her.”

************************************

TWO WEEKS DEEP INTO REHEARSAL, Ms. Light spoke of The Assembled Parties guardedly and in generalities, perhaps hoping to preserve its surprises. Act I takes place in 1980, Act II in 2000—Mr. Greenberg is fond of generation-jumping (Three Days of Rain)—and the show’s focus is how a well-to-do Jewish family fares over the decades.

“My character, in this particular play, is a woman who has made what she considers to be a terrible mistake and had to get married,” she explained. “This happens around 1949, 1950. And she is cut off by her mother, who denies her the closeness that they once had. The thing that’s happening is that Jessica Hecht’s character—my sister-in-law—does something that transforms my whole life and my whole relationship to her. The Assembled Parties is about making a relationship, and making a family, out of people who are not necessarily family. It’s about connections, making connections.” Her performance promises to be impressive, if her turn in Eric Simonson’s Lombardi two years ago is any gauge. In 244 performances, she played the ultimate in football widows, Marie (Mrs. Vince) Lombardi, who treated her loneliness with stiff drinks.

“I knew from the start—from the first reading—that she absolutely got the character,” Mr. Simonson recalled. “She understood the humor, which was key to understanding the role.””

But it wasn’t just that. “Judith was a consummate professional in rehearsal,” he said, “extremely positive in nature, never said a bad word about anybody—and the cast came to call her ‘Mom.’”

After the curtain falls or the series fails, there is still Light. When America Ferrera, her Ugly Betty co-star, did a stage turn for the Women’s Project recently in Bethany, Ms. Light led the opening-night cheering session. When Lily Rabe, her daughter in MCC’s Colder Than Here, won the Actors’ Equity Callaway Award for playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice, she was the kveller in the crowd. When Danny Pinatauro, her son for 196 Who’s the Boss? episodes, made his stage debut at the Duplex as a street hustler in The Velocity of Gary, “Mom” was down front, beaming.

Lombardi got her a Tony nomination. The Tony itself came last year for following Linda Lavin’s Off-Broadway act when Jon Robin Baitz’s Pulitzer-contending Other Desert Cities went to Broadway: a visiting relative politically out of sync in a Republican California home, fresh out of rehab and flinging stinging zingers right and right.

Of course, none of it might have happened without Wit. “They believed in me,” Ms. Light said. “I’d done nothing on stage for 22 years, and they gave me a shot. I still remember a review I got that said, ‘This person wouldn’t be your first or your 500th choice for Wit—but, oh my goodness!’