A Tony winner for “The Little Dog Laughed,” White should have no trouble as Masha in Christopher Durang’s hit. (Carol Rosegg)
It takes a strong woman to step into Sigourney Weaver’s boots. But that’s what Julie White’s about to do tomorrow, when she debuts in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” the Tony-winning comedy that’s featured the same crackerjack actors — David Hyde Pierce and Kristine Nielsen among them — since it bowed last year in Princeton.
“It’s like jumping on a speeding train,” White says of joining Christopher Durang’s hit, which also raced through Lincoln Center en route to Broadway.
“The fear, of course, is that you’re going to take a bad step and be run over.”
There’s little to fear.
Since bursting out in the 1990s sitcom “Grace Under Fire” — White played wacky neighbor Nadine — the Texas-bred Brooklyn resident has established herself as a comic sharpshooter. In 2007, she even beat Vanessa Redgrave and Angela Lansbury to score a Tony for her hilarious, high-octane portrayal of a fast-talking Hollywood agent in “The Little Dog Laughed.”
But with her thin frame, wide mouth and ferocious energy, White would never be mistaken for the stately Weaver.
So she’s come up with an equally distinct take on the role of Masha, a narcissistic movie star who throws her staid siblings’ life in turmoil when she returns to their family home with a hot young stud in tow.
“Sigourney had the star bit in her hip pocket because, to an audience, she just is,” White says. “I had to go more on the text. [Masha] has starred in a franchise called ‘Sexy Killer’ so I decided to make her a total f – – king badass.”
She laughs. “There’s a soupcon of Bruce Willis in my Masha.”
The way Hyde Pierce sees it, Weaver and White do have a lot in common: “They are both very funny and very sexy. Maybe the difference is that Sigourney is more of a goddess and Julie is more of a spitfire.”
As if often the case with casting, serendipity intervened. White was free to return to Broadway because NBC didn’t renew the Matthew Perry sitcom on which she played a grieving lesbian lawyer.
Or, as White puts it succinctly: “ ‘Go On’ did not go on.”
After that there was just the small matter of having to learn Masha’s reams of dialogue.
“You get used to doing film and television, where it’s, ‘Oh my God, we’re shooting three pages today’ — like that’s a lot!” White says. “I heard that Nathan Lane completely memorizes a show before the first day of rehearsal, so I was like, ‘I’m going to Nathan Lane it!’ I spent three weeks by myself, learning the play and thinking about all that crappy actor crap like your motivation and your backstory.”
Actors are often said to find inspiration in their own experiences, but White’s participation in actual blockbusters — she played Shia LaBeouf’s mom in all three “Transformers” flicks — didn’t help her one bit.
“I was freaking comic relief,” she says. “My secret fantasy in a movie is to be the person wielding the gun. It looks so much fun to be Angelina Jolie. I’m doing a little bit of that in the play — an old, tired, used-up Angelina Jolie.”
As for the bit about Masha’s boy toy, Spike (played with hilarious gusto by Billy Magnussen), White is more reserved.
“I could never ever ever call anyone a boy toy, but I have dated people that felt inappropriately young,” says White, herself 52 and single. “There’s a lot in the play about getting older and the value of acting your age, whatever it may be. At the end Masha is free of all of that artifice. It’s a neat journey. Now, will I have it completely together tomorrow? Arrggggh! I have no idea!”
As for what’s next, who knows? White has had a healthy, varied career, she even moonlighted as a judge on several seasons of “Iron Chef America” — “How do you make seaweed and sea vegetables the star of five dishes?” she wonders. “It’s mucus-y and it’s gross.”
Now she’s pondering what to do after “Vanya” closes shop next month. She wouldn’t be averse to another TV series.
“You start with sexy DAs, but I’m at that point in my career where I’m ready to play a judge,” she says, with a laugh. “And it has to be funny. Funny with a gun!”
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” runs through Aug. 25 at the John Golden Theatre; tickets at 212-239-6200.