Christopher McDonald Segues From ‘Good Wife’ Judge To ‘Wetlands’ & Broadway’s ‘Front Page’ Revival
EXCLUSIVE: Veteran villain Christopher McDonald, a familiar face this season as vindictive Judge John Schakowsky on CBS’ finalizing series The Good Wife, has landed a couple of plums — one on screen, the other on Broadway.
He’s filming now writer-director Emanuele Della Valle’s Wetlands, described as a noirish film starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The story revolves around Babel “Babs” Johnson, who is attempting to rebuild his life in bleak Atlantic City and win back the respect of his beloved daughter, while his crazy ex-wife Savannah lives with her new young love interest, a punk-looking surfer girl who’s also a local drug dealer. Babs enters this hostile land with his new partner Sheehan (McDonald), a loud, gregarious Irish detective, and his wife Kate, the local celebrity TV anchorwoman. Michael Shamberg is exec producing.
For next season, McDonald has been cast in producer Scott Rudin‘s revival of The Front Page, the black comedy classic by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur set in the squalid press room of a Chicago court house in the early part of the last century. Jack O’Brien will stage, with a cast led by Nathan Lane, John Slattery and John Goodman. McDonald will play newspaperman Murphy, of the Journal, who gets to bark into the telephone the classic line, “Murphy here. Get me rewrite.”
McDonald is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Gersh.
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