Why Tony Nominee Jessica Lange Feels ‘Wild and Liberated’ in Broadway’s ‘Mother Play’

variety.com:

Gordon Cox Theater Editor Jessica Lange has starred on Broadway before — winning a Tony for her most recent appearance there in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2016.

But according to Lange, now back on Broadway in a Tony-nominated turn in “Mother Play,” she feels like a different actor that the one audiences have seen before. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: “I do feel as though something has changed in the last couple years, in the last couple projects I’ve done,” Lange said on “Stagecraft,” Variety‘s theater podcast. “It feels to me like I’ve moved into a different area.

I have a freedom and a kind of unselfconsciousness that feels much more wild and liberated than it ever has before.” Her latest Broadway stint also sees the actor originate a role in a new play on Broadway for the first time after appearing in a string of revivals of great American dramas.

In Paula Vogel’s semi-autobiographical “Mother Play,” Lange plays a woman and mother (to children portrayed by fellow Tony nominees Jim Parsons and Celia Keenan-Bolger) in scenes that span decades. “The idea of creating a character over 40 years in her life was very appealing to me,” the actor said. “And to do it not like we do it on film, which is with prosthetics and wigs and hair and makeup and everything that can create this illusion that you’re either younger or older.