For its fourth season, the popular Amazon Prime Video comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will once again center on the fictitious Midge Maisel, a housewife turned stand-up comic.
According to the synopsis, “change is in the air” when the 1960s-set comedy-drama with Rachel Brosnahan as the lead begins. “Midge locates a gig with complete creative freedom as she seeks to improve her performance.
But her dedication to her work, and the places it leads her, causes a split with her friends and family.
The cast of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel consists of both fictitious characters that are largely based on actual individuals, like Midge, and real-life historical figures, such comedian Lenny Bruce and performer Moms Mabley. The Gaslight Café is one of the genuine locations that is woven into the plot of the program.
Is Midge Maisel Based on A Real Person?
Comedian Joan Rivers was one of the influences for the character of Midge, according to Marvelous Mrs.
Maisel writer Amy Sherman-Palladino. Both are Jewish, both are from New York, and both have done stand-up at the actual Gaslight Café, where Midge performs impromptu in season 1. These are just a few of the connections between the two ladies.
MUST BE READ: Due to A Heart Condition, Football Coach Mike Leach Passes Away at Age 61.
- Additionally, Rivers claims that Lenny Bruce supported her at the beginning of her career (Midge also meets Bruce at a pivotal moment for her career in season 1).
- Sherman-Palladino previously told Vanity Fair, “I’m a major Joan Rivers admirer; the world is sadder without her, and will always be sadder without her.
” She also struggled with wanting to be accepted on a feminine level, but you can’t have that many balls and be accepted on a feminine level. Simply put, it doesn’t operate that way.
- However, Joan and Midge have a significant distinction, according to Rachel Brosnahan (who plays Midge).
- “Joan’s humor sprang from a place of feeling unwelcome. She told Vanity Fair that she “always thought of herself as the ugly duckling.
” “Midge is the complete opposite. She will be the first to tell you how gorgeous and talented she is.
- Don Sherman, Sherman-father, Palladino’s was a stand-up comic as well, and she has acknowledged that she frequently relies on her memories of him while writing Midge: “It’s odd, but it’s real.”
- Dan Palladino, Amy’s husband and the show’s executive producer, said that comedians would often perform as the jazz singers’ opening act. He stated to Women’s Health: “Dinah Washington, a vocalist, was preceded by Amy’s dad. He served as Johnny Mathis’s opening act. He performed as many musical performers’ opener.
- “We learned about the highs and lows of being a working comic from his experience. And while we absolutely got to know [it] up close—like, Amy grew up with it—I was able to view it from a more detached perspective.”
- In the television show, Midge also performs as the opening act for Black, openly gay pop star Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain).
- After making a sexual implication about Shy during her appearance on the Apollo program in season 3, Midge was let go.
What Fictional Characters Have Real-Life Counterparts?
Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), a stand-up comedian who forms a will-they-won’t-they relationship with mentee Midge Maisel, was a well-known person in real life in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Kingston Trio, activist Jane Jacobs, comedian Red Skelton, and actress and performer Moms Mabley (played by Wanda Sykes) are some other genuine people that appear in the program.MUST
MUST BE READ: What Was Mike Leach’s American Football Coach-Net Worth At The Time of Death?
- There are also other fictional characters who are loosely based on one or more real-life historical people. Shy Baldwin, for instance, is “sort of a combination of a number of different characters who were that successful, but [real-life singer] Johnny Mathis comes to mind,” Brosnahan said to Refinery29.
- In the play, Shy is a secretly homosexual singer, and Mathis recently came out in public.
- According to Alex Borstein, the character of Susie Myerson, the talent agent for Midge, was inspired by Sue Mengers, a female talent agent in real life.
Later, Mengers took on clients like Cher, Sir Michael Caine, Dame Joan Collins, and Bob Fosse.