Margo Robbie in ‘Barbie’
Need some Kenergy on this Monday morning? Get a boost noticing all the Broadway alum in Greta Gerwig’s box office smash, Barbie.
Let’s start with a sneaky cameo: costume designer icon Ann Roth plays the older woman waiting at the bus stop who Margo Robbie notices and calls “beautiful.” (She is!) Roth won a Tony for designing The Nance, and she has 11 other nominations to her name, including for work on The Book of Mormon and Three Tall Women.
In the starring cast, Rhea Perlman, as the stand-in for the Barbie doll creator, was in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife and is currently starring in Let’s Call Her Patty, a new comedy at Lincoln Center.
As the narrator, Helen Mirren had twice been nominated for Broadway’s Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play: in 1995 for her Broadway debut in A Month in the Country and then again in 2002 for The Dance of Death, co-starring with Sir Ian McKellen; she went on to win one for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience.
Additionally, America Ferrera, as a Mattel employee and heart of the film, has appeared Off-Broadway, in the hit drama Dog Sees God, and recently Hari Neff, as Doctor Barbie, was in Daddy by Jeremy O. Harris at The New Group right before COVID.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Barbie casting directors Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones dished on the Kens that almost were, including Tony winner Ben Platt and Wicked movie star Bowen Yang. Also, Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff was originally cast as Allan but had to let go of the part. It was eventually played by Michael Cera.
All the roads not taken, and if only Christine Ebersole, whose signature color was “pink” in War Paint, could have made a cameo!
