New York Stage Actors Find TV Jobs Despite “Law & Order” Cancellation

When NBC announced that it planned to cancel the original “Law & Order,” many people lamented the effect on New York theater actors, for whom a spot on the show has long been a résumé staple.

But another New York-based production, “The Good Wife,” is already filling the void for moonlighting stage performers seeking TV credits.

When NBC announced that it planned to cancel the original “Law & Order,” many people lamented the effect on New York theater actors, for whom a spot on the show has long been a résumé staple.

But another New York-based production, “The Good Wife,” is already filling the void for moonlighting stage performers seeking TV credits.

That CBS procedural, in which Julianna Margulies, as the wife of Chris Noth’s disgraced politician, goes back to practicing law in an attempt to rebuild her shattered life, is only in its first season.

But its crime scenes, courtrooms and law offices are crawling with top-tier New York theater talent:

Tovah Feldshuh did jury duty, Kate Burton was appointed chief justice, Terry Kinney traded construction kickbacks, Craig Bierko channeled Glenn Beck [ugh ;-], and Boyd Gaines and Elizabeth Marvel fretted over their son, a teenage murder suspect.

Jessica Hecht and Santino Fontana, critically lauded casualties of Broadway’s short-lived “Brighton Beach Memoirs” revival, both showed up as plaintiffs in midseason episodes,

while Patrick Heusinger and Mary Catherine Garrison filmed guests spots before beginning their current Broadway runs in “Next Fall” and “Lend Me a Tenor” respectively.

The judge’s bench has been a revolving door of stage luminaries, some of whom — Denis O’Hare, Dick Latessa and Joanna Gleason — could use their Tony Awards as gavels.

“It’s like early ‘Law & Order,’ ” said Christine Baranski, who plays the acerbic law firm partner Diane Lockhart, and has shared the stage with many of the co-stars now joining her on TV. “It becomes like a repertory company.”

If so, it’s a company that “The Good Wife” stars know well, according to this article in the New York Times.

Mr. Noth made his reputation as Detective Mike Logan during the first five years of “Law & Order,” while Ms. Margulies said it was the first TV series in which she ever appeared.

“The Good Wife” is set in Chicago, yet its creators and writing team, Michelle and Robert King, said they decided to film in New York because Ms. Margulies wished to remain based there.

But they added that Ms. Margulies and Mark Saks, the show’s casting director, were passionate advocates of the city’s distinguished ranks of theater actors.

“New York is our country’s national theater,” Ms. Margulies said. “And theater actors are struggling. You can’t pay your mortgage by doing theater. But we have the largest talent pool I’ve ever seen here to choose from.”

Shows like “30 Rock,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Gossip Girl,” “Damages” and the recently canceled “Ugly Betty” shoot in New York and employ many stage actors.

At least one “Law & Order” spinoff, “Special Victims Unit,” will continue casting and filming in the city.

As a newcomer, “The Good Wife” had to persuade New York stage talent to sign up.

“The first three or four episodes we were pleading to get some actors to look at us differently,” Mr. King said.

“But it started to pop around the time we used Martha Plimpton in a very cynical lawyer role.

“In many ways she’s a paradigm for what we want to see with these guest actors — someone who really has depth even if they’re doing it comedically.”

Ms. Baranski and Ms. Plimpton have not worked together onstage, but while they filmed “The Good Wife” they got to compare notes about working with the playwright Tom Stoppard.

The intimacy that develops among actors with substantial theater experience creates an atmosphere more like a backstage dressing room than a TV studio, Ms. Baranski said.

“On and off-camera you have an ease with them by virtue of your mutual history,” she said.

Appropriately, “The Good Wife” shoots at Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Another plus for theater actors is the production team’s willingness to work around stage commitments.

Ms. King described this as a scheduling “nightmare” that required some actors to be released by 6 p.m. on shooting days that go late into the night.

Added Mr. King, “But we do it because we really want that particular actor.”

Dylan Baker (“God of Carnage”), James Carpinello (“Rock of Ages”) and Karen Olivo (“West Side Story”) have all juggled TV shooting schedules while doing eight stage performances a week.

“A lot of times you go onto crews where you’re dealing with people who only know their side of it,” said Ms. Olivo, on hiatus from “West Side Story” with a broken foot.

“But across the board on ‘The Good Wife,’ everyone got it. They made it so you could do your work to the best of your ability and then get to where you needed to go to do the rest of your work.”

Midperformance in the musical “Rock of Ages,” after a full day of shooting, Mr. Carpinello said he has occasionally wondered, “I’ve been filming since 7 o’clock this morning — where am I?”

“But to be able to do a play at night and work on such a high-quality television show during the day I would assume is every actor’s dream,” he said.

“The Good Wife” has been a ratings hit, and CBS has renewed it for next season.

Ms. Olivo, a Tony Award winner from “West Side Story,” is expected to be back for Season 2,

joining the fellow stage veterans Mary Beth Peil and the always brilliant Scottish actor Alan Cumming, as well as Ms. Baranski.

Word is spreading as one actor tells another that “The Good Wife” is a good opportunity.

“Many friends have been up for auditions and I say, ‘Just keep going back for another one,’ because, God willing, the show will have a nice long run,” Ms. Peil said.

And, said Mr. Saks, the casting director, “Having ‘Law & Order’ off the air will give us even more of a pool to select from.”