Seth's Broadway Chatterbox with Jan Maxwell

[Huss417]

Posted: 1/14/12 at 6:45pm

I have to say I just finished watching this and one of the best Chatterbox I have ever seen. I wish it was actually longer.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-TV-Seths-Broadway-Chatterbox-with-Jan-Maxwell-20120114

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 1/14/12 at 8:41pm

Oh mah goodness! Jan Maxwell is so brilliantly funny! My face just aches with all the laughing I did with her chatter and stories. I'm not familiar at all with her, but based on that Chatterbox, she is awesome! She would make a perfect substitute hostess for Seth Rudetsky! She has such a way with words! from RC in Austin, Texas

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 1/14/12 at 8:45pm

I've loved her for years, and her amount of talent is just stupid. But I never knew how witty she was.
Is there anything she can't do?

[E.Davis]

Posted: 1/14/12 at 11:52pm

The PARADE story was hysterical, but that part is too small for her. I also like Jessica Molaskey in the Role.

[Edna Turnblad]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 11:33am

It is definitely the best Chatterbox I've seen. I hadn't laughed that much in a long time.

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 12:14pm

Love her.

Now, if only I could watch her perform...

[AMH]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 1:34pm

So funny! I was unfamiliar with Jan Maxwell before FOLLIES, but am now a big fan. I'm looking forward to seeing her in future performances.

I loved the bit about Bernadette driving the van. "If I'm not going to L.A., neither are you," made me laugh so hard!

[Huss417]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 4:10pm

I know I wanted to say in my original post that I was laughing out loud in front of my computer. You can pull any story. Anything Goes, Evita, Crossing the street, Her son being home schooled, Her husband faking it so on and so forth. The Chitty Bang Bang Story. It was one great story after another. Oh and the Parade story. :)

I would like to go have a martini or two with her. :)

[AMH]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 4:15pm

^ She would most definitely be a fun person to have a martini with!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 4:28pm

Is there anything this woman can't do? I've been fortunate to watch her onstage in a number of shows (Follies, Wings, Tenor, Chitty, and The Sound of Music) and have found her to be by far the best thing about each production. Just an outstanding actress, and based on this interview, a delightful, witty, person.

[morosco]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 5:56pm

***spoiler***









My favorite moment was when she talked about her first read through of FOLLIES with Sondheim in the room and when they got to the chaos part leading into Loveland she said to everyone WTF IS GOING ON??!?!

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 6:05pm

I had no idea she was this funny! I really hope the Tony will be in her bag this year. But am I the only one who noticed a tiny bit of resentment toward Bernadette? I know she was joking, but there seemed to be a little something behind it. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it.

[Huss417]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 6:36pm

I don't think resentment. I love when she talks about being in her bathrobe and Peters makes the comment. I still would love to know the story with Alec Baldwin. I was wondering if they were going to talk about it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/entertainment/main1554537.shtml

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 7:34pm

BroadwayFan - I don't think there's a hint of resentment there at all. From all indications they seem to be amiable if not friends. You're grasping at straws.

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 8:24pm

^You're probably right. I think I projected my own jealousy onto both of them, lol.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 1/15/12 at 8:27pm

Yup haha

[SondheimFan5]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 12:21am

Never heard the whole Baldwin thing-----anyone have any details?

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 1:11am

Never heard the whole Baldwin thing-----anyone have any details?

The article I linked below sums it up pretty well.

Long story short: Baldwin had one of his famous temper tantrums backstage, causing Maxwell to believe there was an unsafe working environment, so she left.
Entertaining Mr. Sloane

[Huss417]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 9:30am

Here is where she is asked about the incident in a New York Times interview.

That demand for straightforward professionalism (and dislike of egos) possibly fed what, for the nontheatergoing public, is the most notorious episode of her career. In 2006 she starred with Alec Baldwin in a Roundabout Theater Company production of Joe Orton’s black comedy “Entertaining Mr. Sloane.” She got the tabloid treatment when a personal e-mail message complaining about Mr. Baldwin’s backstage behavior — including punching his fist into a wall — found its way into the press. Ms Maxwell departed the show with a month left in the run. While her career has continued to thrive, the incident has had a long shelf life. In a profile of Mr. Baldwin in a recent issue of The New Yorker, he and Scott Ellis, who directed “Entertaining Mr. Sloane” and has worked on Mr. Baldwin’s sitcom “30 Rock,” offered fresh disparagement of Ms. Maxwell.

Asked whether she would handle the situation differently if given the chance, she fell silent. “It’s like opening a huge can of worms each time,” she finally said. “I don’t have the finances or the arsenal of publicists and minions to tell my side of the story. I just have to know that I did the right thing.” She added with a sigh: “The air that I’m breathing in talking about it now seems to be a waste for me. I don’t think they’re worth the time.”

And the full article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/theater/12simo.html

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 11:37am

Knowing her, you just have to believe that she did what she felt was best at the time. And sadly she is right that he can "out publicize" her and male her come off however he wants so it's best for her to just not talk about it.

[Huss417]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 1:34pm

When you look at his actions (his daughter, getting kicked off the plane) I believed her when she first was leaving the production. She was thrown under the bus.

[BroadwayFan12]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 3:29pm

^And then under the minivan (sorry, couldn't resist). I also believe her side of the story 100%.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 3:38pm

Given Alec Baldwin's history, I have no trouble at all believing Jan's version of events. Baldwin is a grade-A asshole.

[random person 112]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 4:07pm

And grade B- Actor.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/16/12 at 4:22pm

In 2006, during a run of Joe Orton’s “Entertaining Mr. Sloane,” at the Roundabout Theatre, Baldwin, annoyed that the theatre hadn’t fixed its air-conditioning—onstage, his glasses kept slipping off his nose—punched a backstage wall, upsetting Jan Maxwell, a fellow-performer. In an e-mail to a friend, which later reached the Post, she wrote, “My bottom line was my physical safety, mental health, and artistic integrity.” She left the production. Baldwin said recently, “I thought, This woman’s working for my ex-wife’s divorce lawyer! Physically threatened? You were in a room that was fifty feet away! I never had any interaction with this woman offstage whatsoever, other than saying, ‘How are you?’ ” (Scott Ellis, the play’s director, speaks supportively of Baldwin, who has become a friend. “I found two different actors. One was very giving and willing to adapt and collaborate. Jan was not that,” he said.)

Ok, people? Jan was NOT that!