Jan Maxwell

Infobox actor
name = Jan Maxwell

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birthdate = birth date and age|1956|11|20|mf=y
birthplace = Fargo, North Dakota, United States
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Jan Maxwell (born November 20, 1956), is an American stage and television actress. She is the daughter of former 1st District Judge Ralph B. Maxwell (born November 26, 1919 and served 1967-1978) and a graduate of West Fargo High School, West Fargo, North Dakota where she was an honor student and star in the school's play productions including the leading role as Calamity Jane in Deadwood Dick.

Career

Maxwell made her Broadway debut as an understudy in Cy Coleman – David Zippel musical "City of Angels" in 1989. She eventually replaced one of the original cast members.

She also appeared in Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa", which won the Tony Award for Best Play. She replaced original cast member Brid Brennan in the role of Agnes. She also appeared in A Doll's House opposite Janet McTeer; Neil Simon's The Dinner Party opposite John Ritter and Henry Winkler and Sixteen Wounded with Judd Hirsch and Martha Plimpton.

Her Broadway musical debut was in 1998, in the first revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" in which she played Elsa Schraeder.

In 2005, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for the stage production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". She played the role of Baroness Bomburst. She won the Drama Desk Award for the same role.

In 2006, she starred in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane". The show made national headlines because of behind-the-scenes friction with co-star Alec Baldwin. Maxwell complained to Roundabout production team about Baldwin's behavior, which included punching a hole in a wall and throwing objects around. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/entertainment/main1554537.shtml] [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12504662/] The New York Post reported that Maxwell wrote in an email to a friend: "(The) bottom line was my physical safety, mental health and artistic integrity - none of which Roundabout was supporting." In 2006, she also reunited with her "Sound of Music" co-star Richard Chamberlain in Hawaii Opera Theatre's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2007, she starred in the Broadway production of "Coram Boy", for which she received her second Tony Award nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

She has made numerous guest appearances, mostly in different roles, in the long-running NBC crime drama "Law & Order".

Her off-Broadway credits include performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She is also a voice actress and has done several audio books, including Mary Higgins Clark's "Two Little Girls in Blue" and "No Place Like Home".

In 2008, Maxwell is scheduled to appear in the Broadway production of MTC's "To Be Or Not To Be" at the newly renamed Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street. Maxwell plays the role of Maria Tura, a role played by Carol Lombard in the 1942 movie of this story, while Anne Bancroft played the role in the 1983 remake of the film. "To Be or Not To Be" was written for the stage by Nick Whitby and is directed by Casey Nicholaw.

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
years=2004-2005
for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"
before=Isabel Keating
for "The Boy from Oz"
after=Beth Leavel
for "The Drowsy Chaperone"

External links

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