Backstage: Tony Nom Mary Beth Peil on Living the Dowager Dream in ANASTASIA

Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World

Mary Beth Peel burst onto the Broadway stage from the opera world

and received her first Tony nomination for playing Mrs. Anna opposite the iconic Eul Brenner in his final run of the King and I

And now she's been nominated for her second Tony Award for her heartfelt performance as The Dowager in the hit musical Anastasia

And I caught up with Mary Beth here at the legendary Sardis just days before Tony's Big Night

How excited are you? I mean, what an incredible season for you

We're sitting here at Sardis and right across the street is Anastasia at the Broadhurst

What is it like living in the beautiful world of Anastasia? I thought you were going to say

what is it like living in the beautiful world of Mary Death? What's that like, too

Well, yeah, the beautiful, let's start with Anastasia. It feels like the gods just decided to be

really, really generous and give me a part that feels that I wouldn't go

so far as to say predestined, but that I've been preparing for for a long time

I'm a great fan of all things Russian, maybe not politically at this point in time

But music, literature, poetry, art, culture, I have been for so many years and my bookshelves

are filled with Russian Alia. I love that. Russiia. Russiia. And so I already came to the role knowing a great deal about that particular point in time

And also specifically the Romanov family. I didn't know that much about my character, about the Dowager Empress, who was Danish

But that made her even more interesting because it was. She's not a character that a lot of people know about

She's seen pictures maybe. So to be in that world on Broadway

now at this point in my life is, I don't know a word for it

It's thrilling goes, comes to mind to start with. Because you came from the world of opera

You and I had this conversation. Let's go back to your Broadway debut

Oh, let's do. 1985 Mrs. Anna opposite the iconic Eulbreda in his final run of the King and I

But you and I had a conversation before you literally didn't fit in the theater world you thought right away, right

Not at all. I came after 20 years of doing opera to feel like I didn't really fit in the opera world

And I truly didn't know what to do about it because I was trained as that kind of a singer

and I was always told never do a music theater because you might ruin your voice

And to make a long story short, I got cast as Mrs. Anna with Werner

And I found myself in a world that I felt so comfortable in

and I learned so much from him about how to talk on stage

not just sing. And I kind of had to sort of untrain my particularly operatically trained

voice to be more natural more speech That felt good I just it felt good to be in the world of music theater I was no

longer an ingenue, so I missed a whole lot of parts that I would have loved to have done

But I was at a point where there were very few music theater roles for a woman over 50

So I thought, I think I better take some acting classes, see if I could

and sneak in through the back door. And I studied with a wonderful, wonderful teacher, Michael Howard

who gave me the courage to make mistakes and be messy, whereas in the opera world you always were starting to be perfect

And little by little, I found myself being cast in straight plays

and then magically in film and television. So that now when the phone rings, I don't know who it's going to be

It must have been a master class working with Hewled Brower. Absolutely

He taught me the value of quiet, of stillness, the value of how to get a laugh, which is ridiculous, but there is a science to it

Yeah. And concentration and just dedication. I mean, he was dying the last year, actually, almost like, almost like, you know

entire time I was working with him, he was dying, and he knew he was dying, and the world knew

he was dying. The kind of concentration and commitment and faith that you're doing what you're

meant to do, that he came to the stage with every night, carried to the stage. It was stunning

Because you have this beautiful stillness. I mean, when you watch your work in Anastasia

I mean, from the minute you walk on that stage, you know, it's the person. perfect melding of actress and material

Oh, I agree. Yeah. I agree. And the fact that they dared that Terrence and Stephen and Lynn and Darko dared to leave a

book scene, a crucial book scene as the 11th hour number instead of a big song or a big duet

It's stunning and thrilling to be able to do every night with Christy

Let's talk about that 11 o'clock number. close the door. Oh. Talk about your number that you do

Yes. Yes. Golly, it's a private moment really. In a very, not a look at me kind of private moment

It's a real introspective, willing to show the dark, ugly, dead, angry corners

and still the hope and the love. And it's said so beautifully

I don't have to really do anything. The words and the music are so beautifully married

They just carry you. And in that respect, it feels very familiar in an operatic sense

Yeah. Not from the singing standpoint, but as far as the character, the music, the lyrics

all being of one piece. Yeah. Well, this is your second so well-deserved Tony nomination

Can I tell you about the first time? Yeah, I wasn't asking you. Yeah talk about the first time It was terrifying It was terrifying I didn know anybody I wasn even really sure what a Tony was I mean I knew everybody was making a big deal about it but I wasn really sure where it was

I walked into that room in the theater, and I saw people greeting each other, hugging each other

wishing each other good luck and crossing their fingers. And it was such an exciting room, and I felt like an interloper

I didn't know anybody. knew me. I felt like I should just sort of

and I thought to myself if I ever ever have the good fortune to be back

in this seat as a Tony nominee I want to know that I've earned

it that I'm the people are rooting for me that I love people that I'm

rooting for people and that basically that I belong here that I'm part

of this wonderful family. And so, I guess I must have wished really hard because 32 years later, here I am. And that's the

way I feel. I feel supported, respected, loved, acknowledged, and rooted for it. I don't need anything

more than that. I really don't. I just, let's just, I'm fine. What are you enjoying the most about

the award season? It's an exciting time. It's a busy time. It's very exciting. It's a very exciting. It's

kind of a bittersweet time because you know it's like saying it's like sort of

arbitrarily saying well this was better than that one night. That's not the way

the theater family works the theater family says we're all in this together we support each other

you may do better in this job because everybody else is helping you

there should be a reward for that an award for the supports

that everyone gets I could I've got a long list of my support

But it's thrilling because the audiences have an added little, I don't know, it's like the Oscars

You know, everybody gets a little more interested. I guess that's what's fun about it

Audiences love your show. Oh, my gosh. Do they ever? I feel like sometimes, is this a football

Is this a Super Bowl or a rock concert? Sometimes the ovation at the end is sometimes Literally

Decibel Leving I go to the movies and I put cotton in my ears

Because the sound is so literally You think, oh I forgot my ear plugs I should have

And it's consistent It's consistent And it's not just young people I see people my age in the audience

It's generational It's about love and family and connecting, finding your chosen family, finding your blood family

You talked about support, which is a very big thing. Growing up, was there a mentor or a teacher who really got you

Yes, my mother, who insisted that I take voice lessons when I got a solo in high school

and she said, I think she was embarrassed for herself. She thought I would be embarrassed, which would then reflect on her

But she said, you must take voice lessons. And she found a voice teacher for me Ethel Waterman in Davenport Iowa who to this day is the best teacher for me who understood me as a person as a what my voice was what it wanted to be and taught me also was an example

of a woman who had a family, who had a career, and was a brilliant mentor, teacher

So, yeah, I was lucky at 15. I was sort of rescued

Yeah, that's beautiful. Finally, if you could sum up the best part of the experience of being a part of Anastasia, that beautiful show, what's it for you, Marybeth

I think the best part is knowing that this kind of a show, this kind of music, this kind of story, is still

is still being written. It's a kind of a throwback. It's a kind of Rogers and Hammerstein

the classic what makes American musicals, why people have loved American musicals

and why they imitate them, the Japanese, the Brits, the Russians, The Chinese, why they all want to do American musicals

comes from that heritage of beautiful music, beautiful story, married together that the story comes out of the music

and the music comes out of the story and the actors have to do everything

They sing, they act, they dance, and that's what I love about on the stage

wings, things I almost remember. And a song, someone sings, once upon a December

In dire circumstances, why wallowing regrets? We're out of second chances

Why are we here except to forget? We know the world is fickle

Life is a leaky sieve. Pass me a glass and give me a bow and drink to the countess, nobody now

Why should I dare as long as I dare to live? If the land of yesterday

Let's run up the bill As you were show all your chief

At bay Let this be a sign Let this world be mine

Let it lead me to my past And bring me home

At night