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Home › Entertainment

Entertainment | 07/29/2008 10:00 am

Estelle Parsons, 80, Takes on Broadway's Most Physically Demanding Role

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
Credit: Joan Marcus

According to The New York Times, the role of Violet Weston, the matriarch in Tracy Letts’s "August: Osage County," is one of the most physically demanding on Broadway this season. Deanna Dunagan, 68, left the production this year after winning a Tony Award for the role. One of her reasons? Physical exhaustion.

Enter Estelle Parsons, 80. Yoga enthusiast. Swimmer. Hiker. Bike rider. Tennis player. Oscar winner. Revered actress. Since June 17, she has taken on the role of the chain-smoking, tough-talking, drug-addicted matriarch, Violet. Her reviews have been reverential. And according to reports, she’s more than up to the physical challenge, as well.

For the role, Parsons is on-stage for 90 minutes, making multiple climbs up and down the three-story set. She is on-stage longer than any other character in the play, in a role that is verbally and emotionally demanding a as well.

Parsons, who claims she is not finding the role daunting, will appear as Violet in eight performances a week at New York’s Music Box Theater until November.

Read more about: Arts, Broadway, Estelle Parsons, Fitness, News

10 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

beth willis
My husband and I saw the original production of the play last fall and were wrung out by the intensity of each character individually, as well as against and in concert with one another. Violet covers a wide spectrum of volitility, seeming to know where everyone’s buttons are hidden. Estelle Parsons must have been in the writer’s mind when he wrote August: Osage County. Such a magnificent actress. And her stage family? As Tolstoy would say, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Peace and grace
By beth willis on 07/29/2008 11:59 am
Chrome Toe
I want to see this!!! New York City is my dream trip and now I see the play I want to go to!!! How do you find tickets to this stuff?
By Chrome Toe on 07/29/2008 12:01 pm
Dab-a- do
Kelly, it’s been a while for me but Ticketmaster on the web can be checked out for available dates. Also, I have stayed at the Marriott Marque and they have graciously helped a lost southerner find tickets, make reservations for dinner, etc. I love NY!
By Dab-a- do on 07/29/2008 12:09 pm
Kitty Webb
Kelly, try this: http://www.augustonbroadway.com/
By Kitty Webb on 07/29/2008 12:35 pm
Josie Sullivan
Kelly- Me Too! I love this actress and would love the chance to see her do what she does so well.
By Josie Sullivan on 07/30/2008 10:52 am
Dab-a- do
Wow, such a great actress!!! How I would love to see her in this play. I have read about the play previously and really want to see her in the role. Hopefully I can make it to the big Apple by November.
By Dab-a- do on 07/29/2008 12:06 pm
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Estelle Parsons–––remember her in “Bonnie and Clyde”? For her to take on this character at 80 is a feat. Bodes well for all of us, I would think.
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 07/29/2008 5:53 pm
James the Game
Congrats to Ms. Parsons! Proof at 80 that good living does wonders.
By James the Game on 07/29/2008 11:33 pm
Maurine H
God love ‘er! Here’s 80 year old Estelle Parsons showing us all that growing old graceful is pure nonsense! You grow old(er) with grit and spunk and sinewy strength and you tackle every challenge with the ferocity and joy that is life itself. I know she’s a greatly talented actor, but what I most admire about Estelle Parsons is that she’s giving the “old age” stereotype the one-finger salute!
By Maurine H on 07/30/2008 12:17 pm
Maurine H
Correction please…”growing old graceful” should read “growing old gracefully”….I know that, even though I’m not—- (growing old “gracefully”, that is.)
By Maurine H on 07/30/2008 6:41 pm