Video: Jean Smart Talks 'Terrifying' Prospect of Performing a One-Woman Show
Call Me Izzy, starring Jean Smart, will officially open on June 12 and will run for a strictly limited engagement through August 17, 2025.
By: Josh Sharpe Jun. 09, 2025
This past weekend, CBS Sunday Morning dedicated a segment to Emmy Award-winning actress Jean Smart and her new one-woman Broadway show, Call Me Izzy. "I've never done a one-woman show, so yes, it's mildly terrifying," admitted the Hacks star of the play. "More than mildly, because there's no one else on stage to bail you out if you screw up."
The segment takes a look at Smart's wide-ranging life and career, including her starring role in the sitcom Designing Women, and the sudden death of her husband, Richard Gilliland. Playwright Jamie Wax is also interviewed, who based Smart's character on the life of his aunt. Watch the interview here.
Call Me Izzy, starring Jean Smart, will officially open on June 12 and will run for a strictly limited engagement through August 17, 2025. The show is a moving, tour de force portrait of a woman who resists being silenced by embracing her tenacity, humor, and fiery imagination.
Smart’s versatility as an actor transcends mediums and genres. From her Tony Award-nominated performance in The Man Who Came to Dinner opposite Nathan Lane, to her iconic TV roles as sweet, guileless Charlene on “Designing Women” and now her powerful, Emmy Award-winning performance as Deborah Vance in “Hacks”, Smart effortlessly shifts between comedy and drama.
She made history with her 2021 Emmy Award win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for “Hacks”, joining Betty White as the only other actor to complete the comedy trifecta of having an Emmy in the Comedy Lead, Supporting and Guest categories. That win, along with several others for “Hacks”, has placed her in an elite group of actors who have swept all five major TV awards in a single television season — Emmys, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Television Critics Association.
