Marvelous Mrs Maisel Donal O’Donoghue catches up with the cast of the hit US drama
One of the hit TV shows of 2018 was also one of Steven Spielberg’s favourites. Donal O’Donoghue meets the cast of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
It has been some year for e Marvelous Mrs Maisel, the show about a Jewish housewife in 1950s New York who rises from the wreckage of her marriage to nd her true calling as a stand-up comedian. Following its Golden Globes success at the beginning of the year, the Amazon Prime show also cleaned up at the Emmy Awards, bagging eight trophies, including Best Actress (comedy) for Rachel Brosnahan and Best Comedy Series. “It’s the best Jewish musical since Fiddler on the Roof” declared avid fan Steven Spielberg amid the critical acclaim for a show that is also punchy drama, spunky comedy, smart period piece and a tonic for these troubled times. e series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino ( Gilmore Girls), is a unique confection, a story of a pioneering young woman anchored by Brosnahan’s award-winning turn as the thoroughly modern Miriam ‘Midge’ Maisel. It has the period look of Mad Men, the musical gusto of an MGM production and the zinger dialogue of a screwball comedy. is is the 1950s when women are meant to be seen only in the kitchen and not heard on stage. When Mrs Maisel’s husband (Michael Zegen) walks out of their picturepostcard life on New York’s well-heeled Upper West Side, Miriam discovers her talent for stand-up comedy can take her to places, real and metaphorical, that she never imagined.
Season two, which debuted last week, takes us far beyond the Big Apple to the gilded cafés of Paris. As before, the show looks stunning with spunky dialogue and spectacular sequences choreographed like a Busby Berkeley musical. One early tracking shot takes us from the shop oor into the bowels of the building to the all-female phone operators’ exchange. In the middle of them is the recently demoted Midge, speedily wheeling from operator to operator, and making all the right connections. e cast dropped by London in October, still celebrating their Emmy windfall but ready to take on the world.
Donal O’Donoghue: The Marvelous Mrs Maisel asks questions about inequality and motherhood in 1950s America, but are those issues still relevant and resonant today?
Rachel Brosnahan: Yes, absolutely. Women have been asking those questions long before the 1950s and we are still asking them today. We are still dealing with inequality and what is expected of women. It is encouraging, inspiring, depressing and sad. I have a lot of feelings about this, especially now as we ask those questions in a whole new way.
In season two, Midge gets to say the word ‘pregnant’ on stage – is it true that word was banned in 1950s America?
Rachel Brosnahan: The word ‘pregnant’ was a curse one, not one to be spoken about in public and kept private. It was a woman’s thing.
Tony Shalhoub (Midge’s father): You know I still feel that way (laughs). Call me oldfashioned!
Did you anticipate the phenomenal success of this show?
Michael Zegen: People ask us that question a lot and honestly, the answer is yes! I knew this show was good. I read a lot of scripts and during pilot season you audition for all these shows that suck. And here I got this script that just made me laugh out loud and that was just reading it. I never do that. Like if I’m on a plane and some guy beside me is reading a book and laughing out loud, I’m thinking ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ But that was me the first time I read the pilot script for The Marvelous Mrs Maisel.
Tony Shalhoub: I loved the material and once we were shooting season one, I felt that we were in really good hands. I figured this will have great production values and it will be nurtured but I still imagined that it would only be loved by a very specific group of people. People on the Upper West Side of New York are going to go crazy for this and I live on the Upper West Side, but in a matter of weeks, I’m hearing it from every quarter, from everywhere.
So what makes the show special?
Marin Hinkel (Midge’s mother): We live in a cynical time, especially in the US, but this show does not have that cynicism. Midge’s character suffers hardship but she has an inner strength and fervour that is very joyous.
Tony Shalhoub: In conversations with my peers, I’m always hearing the frustration with what is happening in the world, like ‘How did we get here?’ and ‘What the hell happened?’ Our show rewinds to a period when you start to see where some of what is happening today got laid into society and where we came from.