Many of the women being suggested in this thread would be great, but almost all of them are unavailable. Ana Gasteyer is a series regular on SUBURGATORY on ABC, Tina Fey is a series regular on 30 ROCK, Jane Lynch is a series regular on GLEE, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a series regular on VEEP, Molly Shannon lives in Los Angeles and just shot a pilot for CBS there, and Harriet Harris is attached as the Step-Mother in Doug Carter Beane's CINDERELLA, which is rumored to be going out of town in the fall. Even Joan Cusack, who I suggested, probably has a conflict in SHAMELESS on Showtime. Catherine O'Hara has been offered numerous theater projects over the course of her career and has never show an interest in pursuing any of them, so I doubt she'd want to do this.
If they are planning on playing The Palace and turned down Rosie, I think they probably have a name up their sleeves, especially considering they haven't had any auditions for the role of Hannigan in hopes of casting it via offer. I'm not the biggest Bernadette Peters fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I actually think she'd be pretty terrific in the role, especially given her long history with James Lapine. Megan Mullally, who I mentioned before, is on a series that is about to get cancelled, so I can't imagine she's not on their list. She'd probably be pretty fantastic, and may bring an edge to the part that's very different from what we've seen before.
Of the women available to them who aren't viable celebrities, they couldn't do better than Katie Finneran or Beth Leavel. I've heard that James Lapine has been very insistent on not wanting the character to be played like a cartoon (which may explain his aversion to Rosie,) so I think that rules out him ever considering broader performers like Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman.
Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.
Updated On: 4/24/12 at 09:04 AM