Mary Martello is Always Right Here - images for Episode 131

Header image: Mary Martello as Mama Rose in Gypsy. Arden Theatre Company, Philadelphia. May 2017. Photo by Mark Garvin.

Here are just A FEW samples of the MANY roles Ms. Martello has played on the stage. I have so many in my collection, but I'll just share a few.

Below: 1979 newspaper photos of Mary as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha at BoarsHead Playhouse. Lansing, Michigan,:



A montage of Mary in New Jersey production during the 1980s and 90s. First, "Judevine" (center) at the tiny Theatre Intime on the Princeton campus brought her to the attention of the McCarter Theatre's artistic director, Nagle Jackson.

Seven years as a regular company member at the McCarter followed, where Martello appeared in such productions as "Christmas Gifts," "Faustus in Hell" – and "Sarcophagus" (lower right) a dramatization of the Chernobyl disaster.

During the summers, she was a leading actress at the Foundation Theatre in Pemberton, where she appeared in such plays as "Heloise and Abelard" (upper left, with Todd Lewis) and "The Other Side of Newark" (lower left, with director Mary Ellen Prusinowski).

It was at Foundation's 1996 production of the musical "All Night Strut" that Martello first met the Philadelphia actress and singer Joilet F. Harris (upper right), and the two women became close friends.

Below, Martello appeared in many Philly shows with another actress we've interviewed on the podcast, Grace Gonglewski.

Left: Mary and Grace (with David Ingram) in Shooting Simone (1996) at the Walnut Street Theatre. 

Right: In 2012, Grace and Mary played another couple in Annie Baker's Body Awareness at the Wilma Theatre. (photo by Alexander Iziliaev)



Below: Mary headling The Cherry Sisters, the worst vaudeville act ever, in Cherry Bomb, at 1812 Productions, December 2008. Photo by Mark Garvin.



As Mrs. Mullin in Carousel, 2006 (photo courtesy Walnut Street Theatre):

Above: Mary Martello as "Muriel" and Fran Prisco as "Andre" in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Walnut Street Theatre, October 2009.

Below as Mattie Fay (with Paul Nolan) in August Osage County, Arden Theatre, 2011:

Another montage . . Martello in five photos from the early 2000s: Top left, as Mama Rose in Gypsy - Arden Theatre, 2017. Bottom left, as Queen Gertrude in Hamlet with Geoff Sobelle - Lantern Theater, 2009. Center, as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Thom Sesma, 2005. Upper right, backstage at the Walnut Street Theatre, with Joilet Harris, 2009. Lower right, preparing in the Walnut's hallway for an audition of 42nd Street, 2006.



Finally, a photo from the Philadelphia Inquirer of Mary in 1999 receiving the first of her five (so far) Barrymore Awards - for her work in the musical Triumph of Love at the Walnut. Joilet Harris presented the award: