Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) returns for more laughs in the Season 4 premiere of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” on Friday.
After being fired as Shy Baldwin’s warm-up act at the close of Season 3, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is thinking big in the much-anticipated fourth round of the Amazon comedy.
As the new season opens Friday, Feb. 18, it’s 1960 and Upper East Side housewife-turned-stand-up comic Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan, who is from Highland Park) is done with being an opening act and tells manager Susie (Alex Borstein) to get her a gig with total creative freedom. The only trouble is, the one they find might not go over so well with her family.
Meanwhile, Midge invites parents Abe and Rose (Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle) to move in with her, but the parent/child dynamic soon rears its head. And business booms for ex-husband Joel (Michael Zegen) at the Button Club, but his turbulent relationship with girlfriend Mei (Stephanie Hsu) and his mom Shirley’s (Caroline Aaron) matchmaking give him agita.
In Season 4, Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) invites her parents, including father Abe (Tony Shalhoub), to move in with her in Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” – Courtesy of Amazon
With the COVID-19 pandemic having pushed production back, the Amy Sherman-Palladino/Dan Palladino-produced series returns more than two years after the Season 3 drop. And Zegen, himself a fan of the series, couldn’t wait to get back with his castmates.
He gives particularly high marks to Brosnahan, his TV ex-wife, for not only for being a total professional on set but also for thriving in what he calls the “hardest job on the show.”
by signing up you agree to our terms of service
“She’s practically in every scene,” Zegen says, “and she has so many lines to learn. And with this show, there’s no improvisation. You have to know your lines to a tee. You’ve got to know if you say ‘that’ instead of ‘the.’ It’s very specific, and I guess it’s just the rhythm of the dialogue and the flow of it.
“You know, Amy and Dan don’t give us a script until they feel like it’s 100% ready,” he continues. “That’s why there’s very little rewrites after we get a script. Yeah, this isn’t one of those shows where you get the gist of the scene and you come in and you kind of make up your own stuff. They do not like that.”
Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), left, asks manager Susie (Alex Borstein) to get her a gig with total creative freedom in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” premiering its fourth season Friday on Amazon. – Courtesy of Amazon
But, he says, the writing of Team Palladino allows for each character to shine, something for which Zegen is grateful.
“Everybody’s a comedian,” he says, “whether they’re actually doing stand-up like Kevin Pollak (who plays Joel’s father, Moishe) or not. You know, everybody’s just so funny, everybody’s so quick, and we really enjoy our time together.
“I’m doing a play right now,” he continues, “and a whole bunch of the cast came to see it and we had dinner afterward. And I was just kind of reveling in it and thinking to myself how lucky I am to work with these people on a daily basis.”
