Jean Smart will return to her acclaimed performance in Broadway‘s Call Me Izzy on on Tuesday, July 22, following a two-week leave of absence due to a knee injury. Producers also announced that the solo play will extend by a week to August 24.
Smart’s understudy, the double-Tony nominee Johanna Day, will continue to play the role of Izzy through Sunday, July 20.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to work with the legendary Jean Smart,” say producers Robert Ahrens, Ben Holtzman, Sammy Lopez, and Fiona Howe Rudin in a statement. “Her determination to return to the stage following her knee injury, and to now extend, is not only a testament to her professionalism and dedication, but is also an inspiration, as she ensures the story of the brave and resilient Izzy, and the many stories and humans she represents, continues to be told.”
The play, in which Smart’s character Izzy describes a harrowing (but often very funny) journey to find her voice as a writer in rural Louisiana while under the domineering control of an abusive husband.
Written by Jamie Wax and directed by Sarna Lapine, Call Me Izzy has dropped dramatically in ticket sales in Smart’s absence. For the week ending July 13 – the first full week of the Hacks‘ stars absence – only 28% of seats at the Studio 54 Broadway venue were occupied, with the week’s gross a meagre $113,299. That’s down from a box office high of $604, 213 for the week ending June 22.
