At age 96, June Squibb is among the oldest performers to ever tackle a principal role on Broadway. Last fall, she portrayed the title character in Second Stage’s revival of Marjorie Prime, an opportunity that came 65 years after the Oscar nominee made her Broadway debut. And in a recent conversation with Gold Derby, Squibb made it clear she has no desire to slow down.
Asked why she continually chooses to tackle new roles when she could be basking in retirement, a smile spreads across the actress’ face. “I love acting,” she states simply, “I always have. I enjoy myself. I love the people I work with.” At the same time, Squibb allows that she has stopped saying yes to every project that crosses her path.
“Now I’m much more picky,” she says with a laugh, “I turn down a lot of things. But that’s kind of wonderful because I could just do whatever I want to do!”
In Marjorie Prime, Squibb portrays a woman living in a not-too-distant future who is battling a form of dementia. Her daughter and son-in-law (played by Cynthia Nixon and Danny Burstein, respectively) have arranged for a hologram of Marjorie’s late husband, Walter (Christopher Lowell), who is programmed to comfort her with cherished memories.
Though Marjorie’s memories may be fading, Squibb portrays her with feisty spunk whether she’s having a moment of confusion or clarity. In the opening scene of the play, for example she’s quick to correct “Walter Prime” when he omits an important detail of a story. And she also basks in the details he shares as if Walter was standing before her.
“I found that fascinating,” Squibb remarks of that first scene, “I’m having this long involved conversation with a hologram, but it’s so real … reading the script was like a revelation to me.” The actress reveals that she enjoyed seeing the play many years ago at the Mark Taper Forum, but it wasn’t until reading and analyzing the words of playwright Jordan Harrison that she felt connected to Marjorie.
“I just loved her. I thought she was a hoot,” gushes Squibb, “I loved her because nothing frightened her. Well, her illness frightened her, but she was ready for anything.”
The play centers on the importance and fallibility of memories as they relate to the human experience, and Squibb admits that those themes made her reflect on her own past — and her own family. “I kept seeing my own mother in Marjorie, and some of it I liked, some of it I didn’t, but that was true of my own mother,” muses Squibb.
When it comes to Squibb’s past experiences as an actor, she’s learned from the best. She made her Broadway debut in 1960, stepping into the role of Electra in Gypsy, opposite the legendary Ethel Merman. “She told me dirty jokes on stage,” reveals Squibb with a chuckle. Electra’s schtick was a set of light-up underwear for the “You Gotta Get a Gimmick,” and Merman would regularly send Squibb onto stage with a wisecrack.
“I was doing my lights in one scene and she was behind me waiting to go on,” remembers Squibb, “and she would sidle up behind me, tell me a dirty joke and then go back. We loved her. She was the leader of Gypsy. She went on the road and I went on the road with her with the show. The one reason was because she was going and she was eager to have me there. I just feel there’s a humanity to her that many people didn’t see or didn’t know.”
A great deal about Broadway has changed in the 65 years since Squibb first stepped on stage, and she notes it’s all for the better. “My first 20 years in New York were in musicals, and we used to dance on concrete,” she exclaims. “Boy, our legs! I have two fake knees and I swear it’s because of all the dancing on concrete I did.”
The harsh flooring material has disappeared but Squibb has maintained the sense of fun that she learned from Merman, especially when it came to her co-stars. “When I first started rehearsal, I told my assistant, ‘I feel like I’ve been dumped into Broadway royalty here,'” she says of Nixon, Burstein, and Lowell. “I mean, they were so brilliant, all three of them. God, our rehearsal periods were fun. We were all over the place with this.”
Squibb is one of very few actors working consistently in their 90s and should she receive a Tony nomination for Marjorie Prime, she would break the record for the oldest acting nominee in Tony history — a title currently held by Lois Smith. The actress admits that she is frequently asked about her age and longevity these days, but says it’s not a topic she usually ponders.
“I don’t think that much about age,” she shrugs, “I do in terms of my health, what I can and can’t do physically… but in terms of my work, I don’t.” Instead, she offers a message of perseverance to actors who hope to perform for as long as she has.
“Don’t stop,” says Squibb, “I think that’s what stops a lot of older actors. But you can’t stop because once you stop and let time go by, then you’ve kind of had it. And I have never stopped memorizing, so it’s all still there.”
