The 'Good Wife' actress opens up to ET about the stage adaptation of the 1997 animated film and whether or not if she'll bring Jackie's feistiness to 'The Good Fight.'
Betty White's got nothing on Mary Beth Peil, TV’s beloved
grandmother from Dawson’s Creek and The Good Wife, who is busier than ever
after wrapping up seven seasons on the latter as the ever-watchful and prudish Jackie
Florrick and now doing double duty on stage with back-to-back Broadway
productions.
“It's thrilling, especially at my age,” Peil tells ET by
phone. “There is no way to even dream -- as I get older, life gets better,
as far as my professional life is concerned.”
“I am now closer to the age of Grams than I was 20 years
ago,” the actress, now 76, says of playing the beloved grandmother to Jen
Lindley (Michelle Williams) on Dawson’s
Creek. “People recognize me as Grams more now than they did then.”
MORE: 2017 Spring Theater Preview
Last fall, the Tony Award nominee appeared in the Broadway
revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Liev Schreiber. The play
closed on Jan. 8, leaving her little free time before she shifted focus to the
role of Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in Anastasia, an
adaptation of the 1997 Fox animated film about the legend of Grand Duchess
Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Peil will reprise her performance (originally
voiced by Angela Lansbury in the film) from the show’s premiere last year in
Hartford, Connecticut.
Surprisingly, Peil has only seen the now-classic family movie
once -- and only just recently. “I saw it with my granddaughters to see
how they react to it before I went to Hartford,” she admits. “It is quite
different than the Broadway musical.”
The team behind the film’s original music, composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens, are back together for the musical. The stage version will include a handful of the core songs, including the Oscar-nominated “Journey to the Past,” while playwright Terrence McNally has expanded the story beyond that of the 1997 film.
“This has more of an edge than the typical [animated] musical because one foot is in actual historical reality and the other foot is in fantasy based on love,” Peil says of the story that mixes romance with a fair bit of Russian history, “which all of a sudden seems to be important” given the country’s recurring mentions in headlines.
MORE: Watch the Dramatic Teaser for 'The Good Fight'
With opening night set for April 24 (previews start March 23) at the Broadhurst Theatre, Peil doesn’t have time for too much else -- unless Michelle and Robert King invite her to reprise her role as Jackie on The Good Fight, a spinoff of The Good Wife focused on Diane Lockhart (Christina Baranski) and Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo).
“I can’t say a definite yes or no,” Peil says when asked whether she, like other confirmed Good Wife veterans, will appear on the CBS All Access series. “I can say, ‘I hope so.’” The franchise, which has drawn inspiration from real politics and even incorporated Hillary Clinton’s presidential run into its narrative, feels as relevant as ever. “Those writers are so brilliant,” Peil says, adding: “If you binge watched from the first episode to the last it would be very satisfying.
“If there is any way for Jackie to show up and find some trouble, they will find a way to make it happen,” she continues.