Christine Ebersole – A Broadway Star and Tony Winner

Christine Ebersole (born February 21, 1953) is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in film, television, and on stage. She appeared on Broadway in the musical 42nd Street, winning a Tony Award, and appeared both Off-Broadway and on Broadway in the musical Grey Gardens, winning her second Tony Award. She has co-starred on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, where she played Carol Walsh.

 

Early Life

Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, the daughter of Marian Esther (née Goodley) and Robert “Bob” Ebersole.[1][2] Her father was the president of a steel company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[3] She has Swiss-German and Irish ancestry.[4] Ebersole graduated from New Trier High School in 1971. She attended MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois,[5] Class of 1975, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[6]

Career

She met Marc Shaiman when he was 19 and the musical director of her first club act.[7] She appeared in Ryan’s Hope in 1977 and 1980, and was part of the cast of Saturday Night Live in the 1981–1982 season, the first full season under new producer Dick Ebersol (the similar names being a coincidence),[8] acting as Weekend Update co-anchor with Brian Doyle-Murray and at times impersonating Mary Travers, Cheryl Tiegs, Barbara Mandrell, Diana, Princess of Wales and Rona Barrett. Following SNL, she appeared in One Life to Live and Valerie. She costarred with Barnard Hughes on the sitcom The Cavanaughs, played the title role in the short-lived sitcom Rachel Gunn, R.N., and guest-starred on Will & Grace, The Nanny, Dolly!, Just Shoot Me, Murphy Brown, Ally McBeal, Samantha Who, Boston Legal, The Colbert Report and Royal Pains. In 1991 she appeared as the titular Miss Jones in a pilot for an ABC series about a single mother, but the series was not taken up.[9]

She appeared in the 1993 television movie adaptation of Gypsy starring Bette Midler, and in the 2000 ABC-TV movie Mary and Rhoda starring Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper.

In 2011, she had a recurring role on the TV Land sitcom Retired at 35.[10] In 2014, she played Carol Walsh on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son.[11] She has a recurring role on the United States network television show Royal Pains as Ms. Newberg.[12][13]

Ebersole’s films have included Tootsie (1982), Amadeus (1984), Three Men and a Baby (1987), Mac and Me (1988), My Girl 2 (1994), Richie Rich (1994), Black Sheep (1996), and My Favorite Martian (1999).

Ebersole has found considerable success on stage. She appeared in Going Hollywood, a musical by David Zippel and Jeremy Shaeffer. She was in the chorus in 1983 with Jerry Mitchell. They were both excited about the possibility of going to Broadway, but it never made it.[7] She was featured in Paper Moon by Larry Grossman and Ellen Fitzhugh and Carol Hall, which ran at the Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, New Jersey) in September 1993.[14] Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Three Sisters and Talking Heads, and her Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century, the 1979 revival of Oklahoma! (as Ado Annie), the 1980 revival of Camelot and the 2000 revival of Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.

In 2001 she appeared in the Broadway revival of 42nd Street as Dorothy Brock, for which she won her first Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical,[15] She next appeared in the 2002 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight as Millicent Jordan for which she was nominated for the Tony Award, Featured Actress in a Play.[16] In 2005 she played M’Lynn in the Broadway production of Steel Magnolias.[17]

In 2006, Ebersole took the dual roles of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie”) in Grey Gardens, a musical based upon the film of the same name. After a sold-out Off-Broadway run, Ebersole remained with the roles when the production moved to Broadway in November 2006, and remained with the show through its closing in July 2007. For this role, she won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical.[18] She appeared as Elvira in the 2009 Broadway revival of the Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit.[19]

She appears in the new musical War Paint which premiered at the Goodman Theatre (Chicago) on June 28, 2016 for a run through August 2016. The show began previews at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway on March 7, 2017 with a scheduled opening on April 6, 2017. She plays the role of Elizabeth Arden, opposite Patti LuPone as Helena Rubinstein. The musical has a book by Doug Wright with the music composed by Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics).[20][21]

In December 2011, for their annual birthday celebration to “The Master”, The Noel Coward Society invited Ebersole as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward’s statue at New York’s Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 112th birthday of Sir Noel.

Concerts

Ebersole appears in concerts and cabaret engagements at venues such as the Cinegrill and Cafe Carlyle. She won the 2010 Nightlife Award for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist in a Major Engagement for her 2009 Café Carlyle cabaret.[22] In 2009 she performed with Michael Feinstein at his club, Feinstein’s at Loews Regency, (New York City) in a cabaret titled “Good Friends”.[23] She was one of the performers on the Playbill Cruise in September 2011.[24] In November 2011, she performed for two sold-out nights at Birdland in New York City with jazz violinist Aaron Weinstein and his trio.[25]

In 2015, Ebersole toured her show Big Noise from Winnetka which included the 1938 jazz song Big Noise from Winnetka and a stop in Illinois.[26]

Recording

She also has appeared on several albums. She was featured on the Bright Lights, Big City concept album.[7] She also released an album of Noël Coward songs after browsing through them for scene change music for Blithe Spirit.[27]

Personal Life

Ebersole has been married twice: to Peter Bergman, and to her present spouse, Bill Moloney, with whom she has adopted three children, Elijah, Mae Mae and Aron. [28] She lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with her family.[29] She is the aunt of actress Janel Moloney through marriage.

 

Christine Ebersole in her Tony Award winning role in Grey Gardens 2007

Stage

 

BROADWAY
War Paint	Musical, Original	Elizabeth Arden	Apr – 2017
Blithe Spirit	Play, Comedy, Revival	Elvira	Mar 15, 2009 – Jul 19, 2009
Grey Gardens	Musical, Drama, Original	Little Edie Beale	Nov 02, 2006 – Jul 29, 2007
Steel Magnolias	Play, Drama, Original	M’Lynn	Apr 04, 2005 – Jul 31, 2005
Dinner at Eight	Play, Comedy, Revival	Millicent Jordan	Dec 19, 2002 – Jan 26, 2003
42nd Street	Musical, Comedy, Revival	Dorothy Brock	Apr 04, 2001 – Jun 09, 2002
The Best Man	Play, Revival	Mabel Cantwell	Sep 17, 2000 – Dec 31, 2000
Getting Away with Murder	[Play, Comedy, Thriller, Original	Dossie Lustig	Mar 17, 1996 – Mar 31, 1996
Harrigan ‘n Hart	Musical, Original	Gerta Granville	Jan 31, 1985 – Feb 03, 1985
Camelot	Musical, Revival	Guenevere	Jul 08, 1980 – Aug 23, 1980
Oklahoma	Musical, Revival	Ado Annie Carnes	Dec 13, 1979 – Aug 24, 1980
On the Twentieth Century	Musical, Comedy, Original	Agnes/Lily Garland	Feb 19, 1978 – Mar 18, 1979
Angel Street	Play, Thriller, Revival	Nancy	Jan 27, 1976
OFF BROADWAY
Grey Gardens		Edith Bouvier Beale/
Talking Heads		Irene Ruddock
Current Events		Diana
Three Sisters		Natasha
Geniuses		Skye Bullene
Green Pond		Dana

 

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Tootsie	Linda
1984	Amadeus	Katerina Cavalieri
1984	Thief of Hearts	Janie Pointer
1988	Mac and Me	Janet Cruise
1990	Ghost Dad	Carol
1991	Dead Again	Lydia Larsen
1992	Folks!	Arlene Aldrich
1992	The Lounge People	Cynthia Lewis
1994	My Girl 2	Rose Zsigmond
1994	Richie Rich	Regina Rich
1996	Black Sheep	Governor Tracy
1996	Pie in the Sky	Mom Dunlap
1997	‘Til There Was You	Beebee Moss
1999	My Favorite Martian	Mrs. Brown
1999	True Crime	Bridget Rossiter
2009	Confessions of a Shopaholic	TV Show Host
2013	The Big Wedding	Muffin
2013	The Wolf of Wall Street	Leah Belfort

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977–80	Ryan’s Hope	Lily Darnell	12 episodes
1981–82	Saturday Night Live	Various	20 episodes
1982	Love, Sidney	Nurse Loring	Episode: “The Accident”
1983–85	One Life to Live	Maxie McDermott	Unknown episodes Nominated—Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
1984	The Dollmaker	Miss Vashinski	Television movie
1986	Valerie	Barbara Goodwin	6 episodes
1986	Acceptable Risks	Lee Snyder	Television movie
1986-89	The Cavanaughs	Kit Cavanaugh	26 episodes
1990	American Dreamer	Kathleen	2 episodes
1990	Murphy Brown	Maddy	Episode: “The Bummer of 42”
1991	Empty Nest	Laura	Episode: “All About Harry”
1992	Rachel Gunn, R.N.	Rachel Gunn	13 episodes
1993	Dying to Love You	Cheryl New	Television movie
1993	Gypsy	Tessie Tura	Television movie
1996	Hey Arnold!	Lana Vail	Episode: “Heat/Snow”
1998	Ally McBeal	Marie Stokes	Episode: “Just Looking”
1996	An Unexpected Family	Ruth Whitney	Television movie
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Margo Langhorne	Episode: “How Nina Got Her Groove Back”
1999	Double Platinum	Peggy	Television movie
2000	Mary and Rhoda	Cecile Andrews	Television movie
2001	Will & Grace	Candy Pruitt	Episode: “Poker? I Don’t Even Like Her”
2004	Crossing Jordan	Mrs. Maguire	Episode: “Fire in the Sky”
2005–06	Related	Renee	10 episodes
2008	Cashmere Mafia	Lily Parrish	2 episodes
2008	Boston Legal	Sunny Fields	Episode: “Indecent Proposals”
2008	Lipstick Jungle	Maureen	Episode: “Chapter Fifteen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Prada”
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Hilary Regnier	Episode: “Smut”
2009	Samantha Who?	Amy	Episode: “The Sister”
2009–16	Royal Pains	Ms. Newberg	recurring
2010	Ugly Betty	Frances	Episode: “The Passion of the Betty”
2011	Retired at 35	Susan	4 episodes
2012–14	Sullivan & Son	Carol Walsh	33 episodes
2013	American Horror Story: Coven	Anna-Lee Leighton	2 episodes
2015	Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt	Helene	Episode “Kimmy’s in a Love Triangle!”
2015	Madam Secretary	First Lady Lydia Dalton	Episode “Waiting For Taleju”
2016	Crisis in Six Scenes	Eve	Episode: “Episode 6”
2016	Search Party	Mariel	2 episodes

References

External Links

• Christine Ebersole official website
• Christine Ebersole at the Internet Movie Database
• Christine Ebersole at the Internet Broadway Database
• Christine Ebersole at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Production: Grey Gardens Working in the Theatre by the American Theatre Wing, November 2006
• Performance Working in the Theatre video from the American Theatre Wing, September 2001
• Star File: Christine Ebersole at Broadway.com
• TonyAwards.com Interview with Christine Ebersole
• BroadwayWorld.com interview with Christine Ebersole, August 16, 2007
• Full References at Wiki
• War Paint at TheatreGold