The Brightest Light On Broadway: Joanna Gleason

For anyone who loves or has appeared in a production of Into the Woods, Joanna Gleason is iconic for her Tony-winning role as the Baker’s Wife in the original 1987 Broadway production, canonized in a filmed version by PBS. “My favorite memories are just how wonderful and loving and hilarious this group of people was,” says Gleason. “It was a golden time.” This season, she returns to the New York stage in Manhattan Theatre Club’s We Had a World, by Joshua Harmon, about a dying grandmother who asks her grandson to pen a play about their family. “I read this piece and felt that I had to do it,” says Gleason, who compares prepping for a performance to participating in an athletic contest. “There has not been a role like this that’s come along in a great time.”