Laurie Metcalf wins her second Tony for her role in 'Three Tall Women'
Laurie Metcalf won her second Tony Award for the Best Featured Actress in a Play category, for her role in the Broadway production of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'Three Tall Women'. Metcalf had won her first Tony a year ago for her role as Nora in 'A Doll's House: Part 2'. The other nominees for the category were Susan Brown and Denise Gough for 'Angels in America', Noma Dumezweni for 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child', and Deborah Findlay for 'The Children'.
Albee's play revolves around a 90-year-old woman who reflects upon her childhood and her troubled marriage days with a cheating husband. The play comprises of three characters A (a 92-year-old woman), B (a 52-year-old version of A), and C (a 26-year-old version of B). Metcalf plays the role of B, who in the first act serves as the wealthy woman's (A played by Glenda Jackson) caretaker where she portrayed her quick-witted sensitivity rather flawlessly.
However, Goldderby has claimed that Metcalf actually shines through her performance in the second act where she voices out her character's negligence at the of 26 when she apparently had an affair with one of the stable boys. Metcalf has been meticulous with the monologue where she speaks out about the selfish desires of early age, the burden of responsibility, and the several heartbreaks that she faces due to her son's abandonment- almost what the 92-year-old self-voices out.
The three-time Emmy award-winning actress (who had also starred in 'Roseanne') lost her Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 'Lady Bird' to Allison Janney in 'I, Tonya'. Metcalf's other Broadway credits include 'My Thing of Love', 'November', 'Brighton Beach Memoirs', 'The Other Place' and 'Misery'.
In an interview with Playbill Metcalf had mentioned that she had certain difficulties with the play initially as the instructions were not very clear. "...it’s very nonlinear. It’s ideas. It’s relationships, but there’s no business. There’s very little stage direction, and the ones that are in here are small pause, shrug, smiles tolerantly, gentle proud, emotional things. So the first act was really difficult for me." However, it was much easier an affair once she started loosening up and innovating while rehearsing.
She also mentioned that director Joe Mantello has been the actual driving force in the play. "When you see his productions mounted, every part of it makes sense: the music, the lights, all the performances, the set, definitely." The play also added another feather to their crown when Glenda Jackson won the award for the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her role as A.