Marin Mazzie on the Irresistible Pull of Next to Normal

In Broadway’s sleepy summer season, the arrival of celebrated stage couple Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley in Next to Normal is big news. Only a star with Mazzie’s moxie (including Tony nominations for Sondheim’s Passion, the original Ragtime and the revival of Kiss Me, Kate) would jump into a role identified so strongly with its acclaimed original star, Tony winner Alice Ripley. But at this point in her career, Mazzie is looking for fresh challenges. In the year before she agreed to play manic-depressive mom Diana Goodman, she moved out of her musical comfort zone to star as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (at Barrington Stage) and hard-charging exec Claudia Roe in the short-lived Broadway spectacle Enron. After her first couple of performances at the Booth Theatre, Mazzie chatted candidly with Broadway.com about the lure of co-starring with her husband in a dark musical and the secret of their happy real-life union.

Have your first few performances in Next to Normal been what you expected?
It’s beyond what I expected. These roles are amazing, and it’s the chance of a lifetime for us to do it together. One of the things that’s helped in the short rehearsal process of such an emotional show is the fact that we’re married—we bring to the table the life we already have as a couple who’s been together for 14 years. When you’re falling apart onstage, it’s easier in front of your husband.

You and Jason didn’t think twice about playing a troubled couple?
No. Falling in love onstage is fine, but this is so much more interesting to us. Since we got together, we’ve dreamed of someday playing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The complexity of what’s gone on in this couple’s marriage is so deep and so challenging. That’s why we said, “We have to do this.”

There’s also the question of being a replacement in a part that won Alice Ripley every award. That didn’t give you pause?
No, because if you let something like that get in your way, it’s going to stop you from doing a lot of things. I know Alice and love her, and she was so giving and so excited during this whole process. Also, [the producers] asked me to do this. That alone was a reason to really look at it. The fact that Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey were able to craft a show about mental illness with music that is so poignant and beautiful is astonishing. The storytelling is so good, and the possibilities for exploration and growth are endless.

How did [director] Michael Greif guide you?
Jason and I went in together with a new “daughter,” Meghann Fahy, and Michael said, “This is a whole new family.” We created our own dynamic, and that’s really been great. Michael is so brilliant and has been there every step of the way. Even though he was directing [The Winter’s Tale for] Shakespeare in the Park and is now working on Angels in America, he was there with us every night. The whole company has been so supportive.

You looked emotional in the Photo Op after your first performance. Will you be able to do this eight times a week without going off the deep end?
I really have to balance that! [Laughs.] Alice and I talked about it. She said, “Nobody knows what it’s like to play Diana except you.” And I already know what she means, even though I’m only beginning. She said, “Give yourself personal time,” and I think that’s very good advice. But that’s another great thing about sharing this with Jason: I don’t have to come home and relive what happened at the theater—he’s there. Looking in his eyes every night and feeling these emotions and having him sing to me? It’s such a gift for both of us.

Jason has been under-used on Broadway.
I agree with you a million percent. I don’t think that there is anyone more talented than my husband; he is so brilliant and has so many gifts on so many levels. But this is a great opportunity for us—and hopefully for writers and composers to come and go, “We should write a show for them.” [Laughs.]

You’ve done a wide range of roles in the past few years, from the bawdy Lady of the Lake in Spamalot to the tough exec Claudia in Enron, and now this.
That’s what I’ve strived for. I choose what I do really carefully, and I’m lucky to have the opportunity to say yes or no to things I’m offered. That’s why I did Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire at Barrington Stage last summer. I was just so excited that [director] Juli Boyd thought I should play it, with Chris Innvar as my Stanley. With Enron, same thing: an interesting, powerful contemporary woman who behaved very much like a man. Claudia was a woman with balls!

We’ve gotta talk about your Enron sex scene. [Wearing a form-fitting red dress, Mazzie’s character had sex on an office desk with Norbert Leo Butz as Jeffrey Skilling, then nonchalantly wiped her thigh before returning to work.]
I kept getting notes: “It’s too much!” And I said, “No, it’s not.” [Laughs.] “It makes people uncomfortable.” “I don’t care!”

Was the scene played differently in London?
I really don’t know. Maybe it wasn’t quite as graphic in England, but I just knew that what we were doing was what I needed to do. That sort of stuff is what I want to do as an actor—challenge myself and challenge the audience. I like it when things make people uncomfortable. I think it’s exciting! We have so much mindless, happy, bullshitty entertainment, and if I can do anything that makes people think or feel something that makes them go out of the theater and say [she shrieks], “Aah!” I’m happy.

Did that scene make Jason go “Aah!”?
Oh no, he couldn’t believe that all these men gasped because they were so uncomfortable with it. He would shake his head. Men are uncomfortable with a strong, powerful, sexy woman in the workplace, someone who is as smart as they are. The misogynistic, chauvinistic bits of our society are still out there. I think Enron was a brilliant play.

On another topic, tell us what you really thought of the Broadway revival of Ragtime. [Mazzie played Mother in the original 1998 production.]
I had never seen the show, so there was a lot of emotion. It was hard not to sit there and think of all of us: Brian [Stokes Mitchell] and Audra [McDonald] and Peter [Friedman] and Mark [Jacoby] and Steven [Sutcliffe] and our production. I thought they did a lovely, lovely job, but it was hard to be objective because I was not only seeing it, I was reliving it. When you interviewed us [on the revival’s opening night red carpet], Brian Stokes said, “We’re supposed to be dead when this happens.” [Laughs.] It was a very appropriate comment.

You and Jason do lots of concerts together, and now you’re co-starring on Broadway. How do you avoid conflict and competition?
I feel so lucky that I found this man, and that we are so similar in how we look at life. From day one, we have always stressed that our relationship is the most important thing. We fell in love really fast, but it was really true—and when we committed to each other, it was really deeply and with the knowledge that this is forever. We are a family, and we’ve never lost sight of that. We’re also critical and honest with each other. I think that’s important. There’s nobody I trust more than him. He’ll tell me the truth, as difficult as it might sometimes be to hear.

Was there ever a time early in your marriage when you felt you had to decide whether to have a family?
We certainly dealt with that issue. We tried unsuccessfully—I won’t go into it deeply—and then we came to a mutual decision that we were a family, and for us this was right. Some people will go, “I can’t believe you don’t have children” and all of that. As a woman, believe me, I had to go to therapy about it [laughs].

Meanwhile, you’ve played a couple of iconic mother roles.
I don’t think you have to be a mother to play one. I know there are experiences I’ve missed, but there are other experiences I’ve had. You can’t compare. You just have to say, “This is my life and the path that I’ve chosen.” Luckily, our families were always supportive. We didn’t have families who were saying, “We want grandchildren.” It just wasn’t meant to be—let’s put it that way.

What’s great is that theater acting is a career that can get better as women get older.
I really do believe that, and that’s why roles like Diana and shows like Next to Normal are so important. The fact that a musical like this has been successful on Broadway says so much. Thank goodness that [producer] David Stone believed in this piece. That’s what we need: people who say, “I think this is important and people should see it.”

See Marin Mazzie in Next to Normal at the Booth Theatre.