With 15 Broadway credits to her name, Joanna Glushak is the Mrs. Peacock we've been waiting for!

When I first saw the cast list for CLUE – Live On stage! and that Joanna Glushak is playing Mrs. Peacock, I knew that I must interview her for Kip’s Korner! Why specifically Ms. Glushak might you ask? Because she was in the original Broadway company of Les Misérables! For me personally, that is the ultimate theatre credit to have on your resume. What it must have been like being a part of the original cast of THE musical of all musicals… I needed to know!

So I reached out to my bestie (and former Les Mis alum), Betsy Werbel, and it turns out they know each other. Betsy arranged a virtual introduction and Joanna said she would love to talk to me. Les Misérables connection for the win!

Before I share my interview with the lovely Joanna Glushak, let’s look at her impressive body of work, as seen in her bio on her website:

"Joanna Glushak is an award-winning actress who has starred on Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, Les Misérables, A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder, War Paint, Hairspray, Urinetown, Rags, Conversations With My Father, Welcome To the Club, After The Night And The Music and The Sweet Smell of Success. With New York City Opera she was seen as Petra in A Little Night Music and Cleo in The Most Happy Fella.

Beyond Broadway, Joanna has played leading roles in national tours of: Evita, Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Finding Neverland, Xanadu, and Fiddler on the Roof,

Off Broadway: Joanna just finished a wonderful run of a new play about Gloria Steinem, Gloria A-Life, playing Bella Abzug opposite Christine Lahti, directed by Diane Paulus. She has also performed leading Roles at The Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Playwrights Horizons etc.

On Television Joanna re-occurs as Mrs. O’Toole on the Emmy Award winning Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and is also seen on Younger and Madam Secretary. At 16 she played the lead in the PBS TV Series Watch Your Mouth starring Joe Morton as well as many others over the years.

Joanna is a graduate of NYU Tish and The Yale School of Drama."

I chatted with Joanna for an hour on a video call and to say we got off topic (more than a few times) is an understatement for sure! We had so much fun reminiscing about our mutual friends and touring experiences, etc. that we could have talked all day long. So I tried my best to assemble our "Staying On Topic" part of our conversation, and here it is:

Hi Joanna, it's truly a pleasure to meet you. Your Broadway credits are in the double digits and that is quite impressive. But I must start with one show in particular... You were in the ORIGINAL company of Les Misérables! I mean that is THE credit of all credits to have in my opinion. How was that?

Yeah, it was amazing! It was like being in a rock concert. Truly it felt like we were rock & roll stars. I mean, it was the start of this new kind of musical, where people sang at the top of their voices. Really it was one of the best experiences of my career. And I’m still really close friends with some of the cast, like Randy Graff (the original Broadway Fantine).

Then we went off topic quite a bit talking about the Les Misérables universe. Haha. So I reeled us back in for another question.

Next, I must ask about Bernadette Peters. You were her standby for Dot in “Sunday in the Park With George” on Broadway. That show and those lyrics/music and performances (Bernadette and Mandy Patinkin) were just everything to me! It’s really the reason I decided to pursue musical theatre as a career. What was she like?

Bernadette was fantastic! She was so considerate and helpful. It was my first Broadway show, and I was nervous. I mean I had done a lot of big jobs prior to this and had been starring in a show downtown at the Public Theater, which is how I was noticed and eventually booked this job. But I was nervous about this one. Bernadette asked me if I had any questions about her as she would be taking a two-week vacation soon and I would be stepping in for her as Dot. I told her that I was afraid of Mandy Patinkin. Of playing opposite him. She reassured me that I didn’t need to worry about that and it would be ok. She was right! He was great and it was wonderful playing opposite him in the show.

And the other Broadway Diva (in the best of ways) that I must ask about, Patti LuPone...

We’re good friends. I even got her an apartment in my building. So, we’ve been neighbors for nine years now. Only in New York City! Haha. Also, I was her standby in the Broadway musical War Paint in 2017.

Once again, we got off topic on a lengthy Patti discussion, back and forth. Ha! So fun for me but a bit disjointed to share here.

Ok, I'm going to focus now. Let's talk about CLUE. Tell me a little bit about how you booked the part & what it’s like to play such an iconic character as Mrs. Peacock.

I was in the Broadway revival of 1776, and after it closed I went on tour with it for about seven months. I got back home and didn’t have anything lined up, so I was putting myself on tape and submitting to movies and TV stuff but not booking anything. And I’m not saying this to brag but my entire career (since the 1980’s) I would never go for more than three months without working. It has just been a pattern in my life. But now it had been FIVE MONTHS. And I’m like oh God, what am I going to do? This has never happened. Then I got the call about CLUE. I put myself on tape for Mrs. Peacock and a week later I was in rehearsals.

Almost everyone else was in this production prior to the tour, so I only had two weeks to learn it. It’s so physical, the pacing of dialogue is really fast and it’s choreographed within an inch of its life. Every night I literally taped the numbers on my floor in the living room and I recorded everyone’s lines (left mine out) and just kept running the show every night, by myself, at home.

In fact, John Treacy Egan, who plays Colonel Mustard, saved my life. He kept saying to me, “Don’t worry, it took me four weeks of rehearsals to learn all of this, and you only have two weeks.” He kept helping me with my lines and feeding them to me when necessary. I love him so much. He is so sweet and one of the funniest people I ever met.

I see on your website that you also teach private lessons. We have a big student outreach component at BTL and we present workshops with each tour, taught by actors from the tour. What advice do you have for our theatre kids here that hope to one day be doing what you’re doing?

I mean, my advice is just to keep getting involved in any theater projects that they can. And whether it’s through school or your student workshops, just keep at it. You must keep on studying and learning. Always. That never stops.

Prepare for and go out and audition for college theater or musical theater programs. Keep working on your craft. I’m still working on mine after all these years. I still take voice lessons, etc. I would encourage them to keep finding community theaters to be involved in.

Any last thoughts you would like to leave us about CLUE?

Well, it's not a musical, it's a play. BUT there is such a musicality to the show, with the pacing and the staging. Having a background in musical theatre has been invaluable towards the success of pulling off this hilarious comedy, which is actually a very difficult show to execute.

So, was it Mrs. Peacock in the study with a knife?!! We shall see...