Jessica Hecht — Nominee for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

Show:
A View From the Bridge

Role:
Beatrice, whose marriage to Brooklyn hothead Eddie is tested by his forbidden feelings for the couple’s niece, Catherine.

Bio Brief:
One of Broadway’s most reliable actresses, Hecht has made a career of playing complicated women in shows like The Last Night of Ballyhoo, After the Fall, Julius Caesar and the short-lived revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs.

Other Honors for This Role:
—Broadway.com Audience Award nomination for Favorite Performance by a Featured Actress in a Broadway Play
—Drama League Nomination for Distinguished Performance

Tony History:
This is Hecht’s first Tony Award nomination.

Fun Fact:
Hecht was employed by fellow Broadway veteran George Wendt when she first arrived in Los Angeles as a nanny to his three children.

Quotable Quote:
“[A View from the Bridge is] such a difficult play, and we were rehearsing in this tiny space in which the atmosphere of the play seemed to infect the room with anxiety. I’m not Method-y—at the end of the day, I want to go home and make tofu and have a life with my family—but with this play, I would be wound up. Then we walked into the Cort Theatre, which is so beautiful, and as soon as we started acting on that stage, it was like we had been set free from the penitentiary.” —Hecht in an interview with Broadway.com, 1/12/10