Fall Preview 2003

Fall Theater Calendar

Look ahead: September | October | November | December | Great Dames

Great Dames Take Broadway!

Three of our favorite living legends of New York theater return to the stage.

Maggie Smith

Mistress of Gryffindor and of all those ultra-British stage roles that call for both girlish charm and dripping sarcasm, Dame Maggie Smith has done a million movies and shows on the West End. And in her spare time. . .

Tonys: 1 win (Lettice and Lovage), 2 nominations (Private Lives and Night and Day).

First Broadway Role: Various parts in a musical revue called New Faces of 1956.

Best-Remembered Role: Lettice Douffet in Lettice and Lovage (1990).

Now: One of two women (the other played by Diane Wiest; Judi Dench did the part in London) who share revenge fantasies and discover their lives are interwoven more than they’d like (hint: a man’s involved) in David Hare’s funny-sad play The Breath of Life, a transfer from the West End. Opening late fall.

Marian Seldes

She stole the show as the flamboyant, blissfully clueless over-the-hill actress who precipitates disaster in last year’s Dinner at Eight. And in The Play About the Baby, she and Brian Murray stirred up a gale force of stage chemistry.

Tonys: 1 win (A Delicate Balance), 4 nominations (Father’s Day, Deathtrap, Ring Round the Moon, Dinner at Eight).

First Broadway Role: Attendant to Medea in Medea (1947).

Best-Remembered Role: Hester Salomon in Equus (1974–7).

Now: It’s a theater school fantasy: Seldes will be paired again (over and over) with Murray in a succession of roles in “Beckett/Albee,” an evening of short plays by Samuel and Edward. Maybe they’ll take requests? In previews 9/23; 10/9 opening. (Century Center; 212-239-6200.)

Donna Murphy

Proving it’s not necessarily time that makes one a legend, Donna Murphy made us cry in Steven Sondheim’s Passion, and then became one of our favorite things as Anna in The King and I. At last year’s Encores!, she killed with “One Hundred Ways,” the hilarious 1953 ballad about how hard it is to be a successful woman. (But don’t feel too sorry for her.)

Tonys: 2 wins (The King and I and Passion).

First Broadway Role: Voice of Sonia Walsk in They’re Playing Our Song (1979).

Best-Remembered Role: Anna in The King and I (opposite Lou Diamond Phillips; 1996).

Now: Star of the fun thirties Comden and Green musical (written with Leonard Bernstein) Wonderful Town, about, naturally, New York. Opening November 23. (Al Hirschfeld Theatre; 212 239-6200.)