Sarah Jessica Parker Theatre Page

Although she is too tactful to say so directly, I believe that Ms. Parker enjoys being in plays more than making movies. She has given the following as her reasons:

On stage, she is responsible for her own performance; there is no editor to change things around before her work is seen. While this makes performing riskier, the corresponding rewards are greater. In movies, she might sit around for a whole day on a set and only act for a few minutes. On stage, the whole play is performed beginning to end, taking only 2 1/2 hours.
A sense of community. She likes the people who work in theater. There is camaraderie with the other performers. They spend time together after the play, and see people from other plays regularly.
The opportunity to lead a normal life. Because the time demands are much less than in movie making, she can shop, cook, have parties, walk the dog; all the routine things in life which she really likes.
Career opportunities. An actress has only a few years as a star in Hollywood; women of any age can star in a Broadway play. She hopes to still be acting on stage in 30 or 40 years.

She is a member of a small theater company in New York called Drama Dept.

Since I had never seen any of Ms. Parker's plays until Once Upon A Mattress , I took some comments from The New York Times for her earlier plays.

The Innocents (1976)
Based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James and directed by Harold Pinter, this revival marked Ms. Parker's first appearance on Broadway. She played Flora, one of two children in a house plagued by supernatural events. While she received a good notice along with her co-stars in the Times, she was not singled out.
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1983-84)
The play concerns a family in turmoil due to the death of the mother. Ms. Parker played the daughter, Rachel. The Times said "Miss Parker is that exceptional young stage actor who can make a smart, articulate teen-ager seem genuine rather than merely precocious." Now a motion picture with Claire Danes as Rachel.
The Heidi Chronicles (1989)
In this play about 20 years in the life of a woman during the Women's Lib movement, Ms. Parker plays three different friends of Heidi at different times in her life. She received good notices in several papers for her performances.
The Substance of Fire (1991-92)
As "Sarah" in "The Substance of Fire"
This play, also a motion picture co-starring Ms. Parker, concerns a book publisher confronting his personal and professional demons. He is a Holocaust survivor running his family-owned company who wants to continue publishing serious, poor selling tomes while his children urge him to put out a trashy book that will sell. Ms. Parker plays his daughter, Sarah Geldhart, an actress in a public television children's show. "Ms. Parker, an actress whose development has been a joy to watch since her childhood appearance in "Annie," is both impassioned and comic..." the Times stated.
Sylvia (1995) by A.R. Gurney
An Off-Broadway production about a middle-aged man who brings home a stray dog, which causes a rift in his marriage. And why not, when the dog is played by Ms. Parker. The reviewer in the Times said, "I've never seen a dog portrait in films or on the stage that quite matches the truth and wit of Ms. Parker's performance..."
Sarah Jessica Parker as "Sylvia"
Once Upon A Mattress (1996-7)
This play was, in a word, terrific. It is based on the fairy tale, The Princess And The Pea. The writing was surprisingly clever and the songs were enjoyable, though not memorable. All of the performances were excellent. The role of Princess Winifred, the prospective bride of Prince Dauntless, is a perfect one for Ms. Parker. Just as she does not fit the stereotype of a movie star, neither does Winifred fit the image of a princess, but she quickly wins the heart of her intended. Her singing and dancing were very good. My favorite scene was the "Spanish Panic" dance number, in which, after much energetic dancing, all of the other characters are exhausted while Princess Winifred is ready to do it all again. This production is the first revival of the play, which originally ran on Broadway in 1958. It starred Carol Burnett, and I could see some of her in Ms. Parker's performance.

Wonder of the World (2001-2)
Sarah Jessica and a small cast work hard to bring to life this slight but laugh-filled play by David Lindsay-Abaire. She plays an unhappy wife who leaves her husband to do all the things she's always wanted to. Her journey leads her to Niagra Falls, where she makes some new friends, and the plot takes some unexpected twists.

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