Even before “Mad About You” came to an end for the first time, Helen Hunt was taking the time to perform to a more intimate audience. In 1998, she joined a cast that included Paul Rudd and Kyra Sedgwick for a Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” In an interview with Playbill, she said, “As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be involved in the theater.” And that’s important: She’s kept doing it, off and on over the years.
In 2010, she made headlines for her stint as stage manager in the Thornton Wilder play “Our Town,” and it was notable for the simple reason that the play refers to the character as being male. Hunt was only one of a few women to play the character in high-profile productions, and The New York Times quoted her as saying that it really didn’t matter: “What authority do I have, or does any female actor or male actor have, to say what it means to be human?”
She appeared in “Working: A Musical” in 2019, and then, in 2022, she added another impressive line to her resume, when she made her London stage debut. The play was called “Eureka Day,” and in a surprising bit of casting, Hunt plays an anti-vaxxer who sits on the board of an elite private school that’s dealing with a disease outbreak. Reviews for the show — running at the iconic Old Vic — were largely positive, with Hunt being lauded for her stage presence and performance.
