Marc Shaiman was the musical director of her first club act.  She’s won two Tonys in the past decade.  She’s had featured roles on virtually every great sitcom of the past 15 years, and in the two year period from 2008 and 2010 alone, she’s appeared in three separate projects styled by Patricia Field.  In a nutshell, Christine Ebersole has got so much gay street-cred she might as well have her own parade.

This weekend, Ebersole – who stars on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Sons, alongside Steve Byrne, Dan Lauria, and her former Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” co-anchor, Brian Doyle-Murray – is bringing her successful Café Carlyle show to Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center.

The other day, I took a few minutes to chat with the delightful entertainer (or rather, she took a few minutes to chat with me).  Here’s what transpired.

ShulmanSays:  How do you feel about Mitt Romney’s position about PBS?

Christine Ebersole:  Well, I’m not a Democrat, and I‘m not a Republican; so let’s start with that.  My feeling is they’re both the same – they’re just flip-sides of the same coin.  I think Big Bird is gonna be fine. 

But it’s another huge distraction, okay?  Big Bird is just another distraction, so they can say “Oh, what do you think about Big Bird?”

Well, no.  I would say “What do you think about the National Defense Authorization Act?”  That’s what I would say.  And if you don’t know what it is, then Google it.  [I did.]  Because that’s really what people should be concerned about.  Not Big Bird.  It’s a shell game.

SS:  2011 was considered by many fashion experts to be the Year of the Shoulder.  Were you aware of this, and if so, did you reflect upon the fact that 10 years earlier you appeared on Will & Grace as the surgery obsessed ‘Candy Pruitt’?

CE:  Ha!  I had no idea.  It was originally supposed to be Joan Allen, but she walked of the set, and they asked me to come in, the next day.

SS:  From the legendary Richards Burton and Harris to the indefatigable Angela Lansbury, even an abridged list of actors opposite whom you’ve worked on Broadway includes Frances Sternhagen, Elizabeth Ashley, Michael Learned, Charles Durning, Chris Noth, and the incredible Mary Louise Wilson, who won a Tony, alongside you, for Grey Gardens.  Did you find in any of these situations that the caliber of your performance was elevated by the strength of their acting?

CE: Of course.  Totally. 

SS:  Which Broadway roles would you still like to sink your teeth into?

CE:  I can’t think of any, right now.  I’m just really happy doing what I’m doing.

Right now I’m doing a movie [The Wolf of Wall Street] with Marty Scorsese, playing Leo DiCaprio’s mother.  I just made a new album with Aaron Weinstein, the jazz violinist, called Strings Attached.  Sullivan & Son got picked-up for a second season.  I have another movie that’s coming out next spring, with Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton, called The Big Wedding.*  And I wrote a song, “Music and Lyrics” that I perform, in the movie.  So don’t leave the movie, when it ends, because it’s in the end credits!

So yeah – I’m happy doing what I’m doing.

SS:  Recently, Dick Wolf told Barbara Walters that if a New York-based actor “doesn’t have a Law & Order credit of some sort it means they just got off the bus or they really suck.”  Is there a certain amount of truth to this? 

CE:  True.  But maybe I sucked, because it took me sixteen years to get it.

SS:  Are you getting dressed-up for Halloween, and if so, as what?

CE:  Oh, for God’s sake, no!  Why would I do that?!?!  I’ve gotta get dressed-up 360 days of the year, so why would I do it on the night I’m not getting paid?

SS:  What are you going to be doing at The Smith Center?

CE:  I’m doing a show that I did at The Carlyle, called The End of the World as We Know It Cabaret.

SS:  Tell me about Sullivan & Son.  It just seems, from watching the show, that y’all are having a really fun time of it.

CE:  We are having a great time.  We really just all get along.

SS:  What was your happiest time on-stage.

CE:  Every time I’m up on it, that’s my happiest.

SS:  How do you see yourself?

CE:  I’m happy.  I see the glass as half full, and I delight in the ridiculous.

The End of the World as We Know It Cabaret
An Evening with Christine Ebersole
The Smith Center – Cabaret Jazz
Friday, October 19th and Saturday, October 20th
Click HERE for info

Get into it!

[Editor’s Note: The Big Wedding has actually been on my radar for a few months, because the smart cocktail dress worn onscreen by Katherine Heigl to the titular wedding (and also on the movie’s poster), was designed by my dear friend, Kalinka.  But more on that, soon…]