Audra McDonald, Kelli O'Hara, and More Discuss HBO's Upcoming Series THE GILDED AGE

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, a lineup of Broadway stars have joined the HBO period drama "The Gilded Age" - including Audra McDonald, Donna Murphy, Kelli O'Hara, Michael Cerveris, Debra Monk, Katie Finneran, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Kristine Nielson, and John Douglas Thompson.

They join a cast that also includes Broadway regulars like Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, and Denée Benton, along with Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, Simon Jones, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin and star Jeanne Tripplehorn.

A recent New York Times piece highlights theatre actors who have shifted to acting on screen amidst the pandemic, including stars of The Gilded Age.

The Times reports that the series will premiere on HBO in 2022.

"There is something about theater actors on a television set," said Audra McDonald. "It feels like it's a repertory company."

Cynthia Nixon said that "Gilded" has brought her back together with people she starred on stage with years ago.

She recalls looking at the cast members during a recent shoot, and saying to Christine Baranski, "We could totally do 'The Importance of Being Earnest' right here."

"We have a skill set and a respect for process," Baranski says. "You hire a theater actor and they'll come in prepared."

Kelli O'Hara commented on working on the series, saying, "It's the most beautiful gift I've ever had. It fooled me into thinking I'm still doing theater."

Read more on The New York Times.

In this epic drama series, the story begins in 1882 - introducing young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Union general, who moves into the New York City home of her thoroughly old-money aunts Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook. Accompanied by Peggy Scott, an accomplished African-American woman, Marian inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a social war between one of her aunts, a scion of the old-money set, and her stupendously rich neighbors, a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife, George and Bertha Russell. In this exciting new world that is on the brink of the modern age, will Marian follow the established rules of society or forge her own path?