| Full given name: | Mary Louise Lamke. Combining Mary and Louise into one word happened because there was already a Mary L. Burke in Equity when I joined; I was in a lunch-break crunch and couldn't think of a new name on the spot that I could live with! The Burke is from my ex-husband. |
| Hometown: | Steelton, PA |
| Zodiac sign: | Cusp between Capricorn and Aquarius |
| Special skills: | Oh dear, I really should get some. |
| First Broadway show ever saw: | The Night of the Iguana (with Bette Davis, Margaret Leighton, Patrick O'Neal) |
| Current show you have been recommending to friends: | I saw Avenue Q twice during its first season and had such great times that it's a standby I recommend. |
| Favorite show tune: | I wore out a couple vinyl albums of The King and I when I was in high school, and to this day those songs are specially resonant for me. |
| MAC or PC? | PC – a love-hate relationship. |
| Most played song on your iPod: | [blush] I have no iPod. |
| One CD you couldn't live without: | A mix that my agent Bill Timms made for me. I'd told him that I was fascinated when Maya Rudolph talked about her mother one day during "A Prairie Home Companion," so he bookended the CD with Minnie Ripperton performances of "Lovin' You." It’s... eclectic. "King of the Road" is in there, too! And Seal. |
| Last book you read: | John Harvey's crime novels |
| Must-see TV show: | I'm a NY1 junkie. |
| Last good movie you saw: | "The King of Kong" |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | Paul Giamatti. I've heard so much about his stage work and seen so little of it, and so loved working with him in "Sideways." |
| Pop culture guilty pleasure: | People Magazine – I head straight for it at doctors' offices and nail salons. |
| First stage kiss: | A Taste of Honey, 1965 |
| Favorite post-show meal: | Fried food, and pretty promptly. |
| How you got your Equity card: | A maid's role with maybe three lines, tops, in an Off-Broadway production of The Broken Pitcher. |
| Worst flubbed line: | Playing Jack's Mom in the revival of Into the Woods was my first experience in a musical, and it was quite a challenge — like stepping into another land with its own language and customs, and an orchestra yet! At the end of the prologue, all of the characters set off "into the woods" to pursue their dreams, and mine was to sell Milky White, Jack's beloved cow. At an early preview in LA, I found myself belting out, "Into the woods to sell the CAR." Talk about sacrilege! I still cringe. |
| Who have you played on "Law & Order"? Which edition? | On the original I played a telephone company clerk giving info to Paul Sorvino and later a babysitter being interviewed by Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt. On "SVU," I was a neighbor feeding her birds while Richard Belzer asked me about "the vic," as we L&O fans say! |
| Worst costume ever: | There was a 100%-polyester maid's dress for a production of Sam Shepard's [very active] Red Cross in a theatre with no A/C in August. It required Gatorade. And I once narrowly averted a flesh-colored unitard. |
| Cats or dogs? | Cats. But I get all mooshy when I see other people's dogs. Also their cats. |
| Favorite cereal: | Those oat/honey granola bars you can eat on the run. |
| Who would play you in the movie? | Renee Zellweger |
| Is there a stage role you've been dying to play? | Mary Tyrone, how about that. |
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