By this point, the names Tovah Feldshuh and Golda Meir are synonymous.
Though Feldshuh’s talents have spanned film (“A Walk on the Moon,” “Kissing Jessica Stein”) and TV (most significantly “Law & Order,” most recently “The Good Wife”), the routinely lauded actress-singer found her defining role when she first stepped onto the stage of Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre in 2003 to portray Meir.
Feldshuh’s performance of the unrelenting fourth Prime Minister of Israel in William Gibson’s “Golda’s Balcony” earned her a Tony nomination and, after running for 493 performances, the show became the longest one-woman production in Broadway history.
During the play, Feldshuh has Meir tell her story at the end of her life, a carousel that demands Feldshuh embody the voices and mannerisms of others, such as Meir’s mother and Henry Kissinger, as part of the 90-minute narrative.
In the years since her Broadway triumph, Feldshuh, 58, received the rights to the show from Gibson and has donned the prosthetic nose and limped on a swollen leg to characterize Meir’s phlebitis in cities from London to Skokie, Ill.
In Atlanta for three weeks to first rehearse and, starting Wednesday, unveil Meir to the Alliance Theatre audiences, the whip-smart and insightful Feldshuh chatted earlier this week about why she loves playing Meir and her own small screen aspirations.
Q. The Alliance is a fairly big theater. Do you have to do a lot of adjustments for the stage productions since you bring the show to so many different-sized venues?
A. We make many adjustments. We have huge projections that will fare very well in this theater. I like to be as downstage as possible in the show. To tell the story, you want to be upon the audience as much as possible.
Q. You actually own the rights to the show now, correct?
A. I have the right of first refusal. If they want to do the show in Vienna, they contact the estate and then they contact me. I love this play. I am honored to play the prime minister and honored to be in a William Gibson play and honored to bring the work that we did on and off Broadway to other cities.
Q. You haven’t played Golda since summer. Do you miss her?
A. No, I love her, but I do not miss her. She has a lot of problems. She's one of the greatest roles of my career. I will be doing this show for the next 25 years, like Peter Pan and Wendy.
Q. You've probably played her about 1,000 times now?
A. That's interesting. I played her about 500 times on Broadway, so conservatively, about 700 times [total]. But if you add in rehearsals, for sure 1,000. We did nine performances in eight cities this year [so far]. An extension week has been built into [this run] should the production merit it. It is my dearest hope to have the African-American audience see this piece, particularly the Christians. I hope to go to Ebenezer [Baptist] Church next Sunday.
Q. I see you’re doing ‘Gypsy’ in Pennsylvania later this year. How did that come about?
A. I did 'Golda's Balcony' at this proud theater, the Bristol [Riverside Theatre], and they invited me back and I told them what I charge and they said, 'Done.' They came back and asked what I wanted to do and I said, 'Gypsy.' It's opening Dec. 8, the anniversary of the day Golda left her body and went to heaven. I look at that as a good omen.
Q. Do you want to get back to Broadway?
A. In the right vehicle I do, but I want to do a TV series in New York. I've done theater for 37 years.
Q. You’ll probably never leave New York, will you?
A. I love New York, I do. But if a series wooed me to Hollywood, I would consider it. But these days, things shoot all over [the East Coast]. I just want to shoot television. It would amuse me. As you get older, you want some stamp that you've been around.
Theater preview
“Golda’s Balcony”
Oct. 12-30. Times vary. $30-$40. Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. (404) 733-5000, www.alliancetheatre.org.
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