| Full given name: | Mary Beth Peil |
| Hometown: | Davenport, Iowa |
| Audition song/monologue: | Whatever my guts tell me will help "get the job" |
| Special skills: | If special skills means things I like to do: cook, knit, practice Shiatsu. |
| First Broadway show ever saw: | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
| If you could go back in time and catch any Broadway show, what would it be? | Angels in America |
| Favorite show tune: | Today it seems to be "Ol' Man River"...who knows what tomorrow will bring? |
| Most played song on your iPod: | Tend to listen to whole albums…would have to be a tie between Arvo Pärt and Bonnie Raitt. |
| One CD you couldn't live without: | Impossible question!!!...Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" |
| Last book you read: | "The Namesake" and "Naked in Baghdad" (I tend to read two at a time). |
| Must-see TV show: | My son says I should say "The Wire," but the truth is I am addicted to the [Jim] Lehrer "NewsHour" on PBS. |
| Last good movie you saw: | "The Lives of Others" |
| Favorite card game: | Knucklehead and am learning Bridge |
| Performer you would drop everything to go see: | Eileen Atkins in anything. |
| Pop culture guilty pleasure: | "Project Runway" |
| First stage kiss: | Summer and Smoke (the opera by Lee Hoiby) |
| Favorite post-show meal: | Every meal with Yul Brynner in mid '80s..he brought his own wine from his wine cellar in Normandy. |
| How you got your Equity card: | The King and I (with that wine lover Yul Brynner). |
| Worst onstage mishap: | In the "Shall We Dance" scene in King and I, my skirt came unattached to the bodice and was falling off the hoop skirt. I had to do the entire scene (including that dance) holding the whole thing up with one hand behind my back. |
| Who have you played on "Law & Order"? Which edition? | A Park Avenue shrink (L&O) and a bigoted grandmother (SVU). |
| Worst costume ever: | Not the worst...but definitely the scariest… was wearing a bathing suit in the Edward Albee play Finding the Sun (in a very small theatre). |
| Cats or dogs? | Have always had cats...recently lost my longtime Cleo. Will adopt soon. |
| Favorite cereal: | Irish Oatmeal (with chopped dried fruit, nuts and maple syrup). |
| Who would play you in the movie? | Eileen Atkins!!! |
| Worst job you ever had: | Day Camp counselor in high school. |
| What leading lady role have you been dying to play? | Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night (I will go anywhere to play her). |
