L ifestyle /C ulture
Comedian Jackie Hoffman Is Ready for This to End
T H EATER
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
JACKIE HOFFMAN’S used
to being onstage or in front of
the camera, so this pandemic
thing isn’t sitting well with her.

“I’m just sitting shiva for
the loss of live theater,” the
Queens-born comedian and
singer said, adding that she’s
passed some of the time with
voice work or on TV shows
that shoot in New York.

She’ll pass a little more
time with the Bucks County
Playhouse on Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.,
when she appears in “Word of
Mouth: Fast Forward.” Hosted
by NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg
and the Playhouse’s Michaela
Murphy, the streaming program
will showcase monologues by
Hoffman, model Eric Rutherford
and Eric Woodall, resident
director of the Broadway touring
and Las Vegas productions of
“Mamma Mia!”
Hoffman, 60, will talk about
being nominated for an Emmy
for Outstanding Supporting
Actress in a Limited Series
or Movie for her role as Joan
Crawford’s housekeeper
“Mamacita” in 2017’s “Feud:
Bette and Joan.” The eight-ep-
isode miniseries detailed
the contentious relationship
between Crawford and Bette
Davis and featured Mamacita
often walking on eggshells
around her volatile employer —
but standing up to her, too.

“I didn’t know a lot about the
real-life person,” said Hoffman,
who lost out on the award to
Laura Dern. “It was kind of
frightening because Jessica
[Lange] was so convincing as
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Joan Crawford.”
Hoffman said she doesn’t
have favorites, but her role in
“Feud” ranked right up there, as
she enjoyed working with noted
producer Ryan Murphy and
Hollywood stars Susan Sarandon
(who played Davis), Judy Davis,
Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci,
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kathy
Bates. She worked with Murphy
again more recently in “The
Politician.” Hoffman has a dry wit, the
kind that comes out in Facebook
posts like one she wrote early last
year: “If you’re in Ft. Lauderdale
and still mobile, catch this embit-
tered New Yorker’s evening of
music and comedy that’s not
a musical comedy. All inclu-
sive, gays preferred.” It’s typical
of the voice she features in her
one-woman shows, in which
she talks wryly about her Jewish
background and her personal life.

“I was blessed with a hyster-
ectomy,” she said, noting that it
provided plenty of material for
her show at the time, “Jackie
With a Z.” A 2007 New York
Times article noted she was
performing three weeks after
surgery, “with a cot backstage
for whenever she wasn’t singing
or talking.”
Hoffman grew up shomer
Shabbat with a kosher kitchen,
regular shul visits and nine
years in yeshiva. Although
not religious today, Hoffman
did play Yenta in “Fidler Afn
Dakh,” a Yiddish adaptation of
“Fiddler on the Roof” that ran
from 2018 to 2019.

Although she’s comfortable
with all types of performance,
she likes live performance best,
especially her solo shows at
Joe’s Pub in New York.

“That’s the most terrifying
and draining, but it’s the most
rewarding,” she said. “If it fails,
it’s all on you.”
Hoffman’s built a lengthy
resume over the years, with 70
acting credits listed on imdb.

com, including the upcoming
film “Shiva Baby” about a
JEWISH EXPONENT
Jackie Hoffman
college student running into her
sugar daddy while at a Jewish
funeral with her parents.

On TV, she’s had roles on
everything from “Curb Your
Enthusiasm” to “30 Rock” to
“The Good Wife.” Oddly, she’s
never appeared in any of the
New York-shot “Law & Order”
programs, although she did
audition once. She joked that she
was the only New York-based
actor to never appear in the
long-running shows.

Film roles have included
“Legally Blonde 2,” “Kissing
Jessica Stein,” “Birdman” and
“Garden State.”
On Broadway, she performed
in “Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory,” “On the Town,” “The
Addams Family,” “Xanadu,”
“Hair” and “Hairspray.” In
Chicago, she starred in six
revues at The Second City
Theatre, winning the Jeff Award
for Best Actress.

To fill a little more time
while she’s waiting to get back
to the stage, Hoffman will also
Photo by Andrew Warner
appear on XM Radio in March
with host Seth Rudetsky in a
livestreamed discussion and
performance. In the meantime, Hoffman
plans to while away the days
watching “reality dreck” like
“Real Housewives.”
“It’s almost like an altar
I daven at because there’s
nothing else to do,” she said.

“It’s a great escape.”
As for her upcoming Bucks
virtual gig, it may mark her
first area performance, though
she has been to Philadelphia:
She remembers a visit to the
Mütter Museum.

“Any town that has a
conjoined Siamese twin colon
is my kind of town,” she said.

Tickets for “Word of Mouth:
Fast Forward” are $15 and
are available at StellarTickets.

com. For details, visit
BucksCountyPlayhouse.org or
call 215-862-2121. l
agotlieb@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0797
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM