Meg Stalter returns to Oh, Mary! with a silent stage-door message
The Hacks actor was back on Broadway after bronchitis, then greeted fans with a handwritten note saying she was on vocal rest.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
2 min read
Meg Stalter was back in the wig as Mary Todd Lincoln on Friday night, returning to Broadway’s Oh, Mary! after missing a week because of bronchitis, Deadline reported.
The Hacks actor, who is making her Broadway debut in Cole Escola’s hit comedy, had been away from the show shortly after joining the production on July 6. Her return came at the Lyceum Theatre, where she took the stage as the play’s title character.
Before the performance, Stalter posted an Instagram Story from what appeared to be her dressing room, according to Deadline. In the post, she wrote: “Planning on being back in the show tonight as long as my voice doesn’t give out.”
By the end of the night, the comeback appeared to have gone ahead as hoped. Deadline reported that Stalter later shared audience posts showing her taking curtain-call bows to a standing ovation.
One fan whose post Stalter reposted wrote, “Bronchitis has nothing on this bitch!” Another audience member wrote that Stalter “was literally born to play Mary. A perfect performance! Brava!”
A rumor gets a handwritten answer
Stalter’s absence had also produced a strange online detour. Deadline reported that speculation spread online claiming the comedian had skipped the Broadway show to go to New York’s Comedy Cellar. The rumor apparently began on Reddit after a user said they saw someone at the comedy club who looked like her.
Stalter addressed that claim in an Instagram post while she was ill. “There’s a whole thread on Reddit I guess about how people think I was at the comedy cellar and I’d just like to go on record saying I was not at the comedy cellar,” she said, according to Deadline.
In the same post, she added: “I’m very sick and have no voice but doing everything I can to be back in the shows this weekend. love you forever stop saying I was at the comedy cellar please.”
After Friday’s performance, Stalter met fans at the Lyceum stage door and signed Playbills, but she did not appear to be chatting. Deadline reported that she wore a handwritten sign around her neck explaining why.
“The Princess is on vocal rest!!” the sign read. “But she was NEVER at the Comedy Cellar!”
Stalter is scheduled to continue in Oh, Mary! through September 12, Deadline reported.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.