Tony Talk: Will Jean Smart’s heartbreaking performance in ‘Call Me Izzy’ be remembered at the 2026 awards?
Welcome to Tony Talk, a column in which Gold Derby contributors Sam Eckmann and David Buchanan offer Tony Awards analysis. The 2025-26 Broadway season is now officially in swing, so we reconvene to discuss its first production.
Sam Eckmann: Jean Smart is dominating Emmy conversations once again thanks to her dynamic role in Hacks, but theater fans are currently enjoying her grand return to the stage. The veteran actress kicked off the 2025-26 Broadway season with the one-woman play Call Me Izzy, from playwright Jamie Wax. Smart portrays the titular character, a would-be poet living in a trailer park and trapped in an abusive marriage. Each night, Izzy sneaks away to her trailer's cramped bathroom to write lines of verse on toilet paper so that her violent husband won't discover her true passions. This role marks Smart's first Broadway show in 25 years, having last been seen on the rialto in the 2000 revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner opposite Nathan Lane. The actress was a Tony nominee for that comedic role. With nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards 10 months away, do you think Smart's dramatic turn will be remembered?
David Buchanan: It is really hard to say definitely whether Smart will be remembered with a nomination next May, given that we only know a handful of the eligible contenders, including Lesley Manville in Oedipus this fall and, depending on placement, Kelli O'Hara and Rose Byrne in Fallen Angels in the spring. But I can answer with no uncertainty that she absolutely deserves to be nominated for her beautiful, heartrending performance! Smart is exactly the right actor for this role, as she's able to instantaneously establish a deep, personal rapport with the audience and take us on a very harrowing journey. She effortlessly embodies different characters throughout the show, including her terrorizing, abusive husband Ferd, her gruff but loving neighbor, and an affluent New York patron of the arts – all with no aid of pre-recorded material or screens — and she maneuvers both the highs and lows of Izzy's journey with such sincerity. She never once overplays a moment, and I was particularly moved when she expresses her extreme grief at what Ferd does to her writing, which is just shattering. We also get glimpses of her supreme knack for comedy, too, and my audience went wild for the scene in which Izzy confesses an unexpected, much earned transgression.
If she does get nominated, Smart would be one of many actresses recently recognized for solo shows, including Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jodie Comer for Prima Facie, Deirdre O'Connell for Dana H. — all of whom won Tonys — as well as Laura Linney for My Name Is Lucy Barton and Holland Taylor for Ann. How do you assess Smart's chances, and do you think Tony nominators have especial appreciation for folks who take on the challenge of a one-person drama?
Eckmann: Tony voters are certainly drawn to this type of acting feat recently. Though it's interesting that you mention Holland Taylor, whom Smart tells The Hollywood Reporter that she phoned for advice, given the Tony Awards outcome in 2013 when Taylor starred in the solo drama Ann. There were three high-profile solo performances in contention that year, but Fiona Shaw and Alan Cumming were ultimately snubbed for their work in The Testament of Mary and Macbeth, respectively. Nominators only found room for Taylor, who also wrote her play about former Texas Gov. Ann Richards. So getting on stage by yourself doesn't automatically guarantee a nomination. Luckily for Smart, Call Me Izzy is, like Ann, a fairly conventional and accessible script, whereas Mary and Macbeth were experimental affairs that likely polarized voters. Wax provides Smart with gorgeous poems to chew on and bring Izzy's inner turmoil and desires to light. Those moments have the audience in a stunned silence and are pure awards catnip. I believe the performance is more than worthy, but the biggest hurdle is the play's spring opening date. I attended Izzy the day before the 2025 Tony Awards, around the same time many of the nominators will have attended. And just this year we saw Sydney Lemmon overlooked for her stellar performance in Job, likely due to that play's summer opening date. Smart portrays some gripping stuff here, and the final moment is at once both triumphant and harrowing. But do you think the nominators will remember all those nuances when they finally cast a ballot in April 2026?
Buchanan: I certainly hope so. The extremely early opening date has certainly stymied other shows in recent years like Home, The Kite Runner, and Pass Over. We have seen nominators allocate many bids for spring productions that they loved while leaving other praised performers behind. Think this year, when Purpose unexpectedly got the brilliant Harry Lennix into Best Actor in a Play over the likes of Kit Connor and Jim Parsons, who gave well-received performances in Tony-nominated revivals of Romeo + Juliet and Our Town that both closed before the spring. Given the show's timing, Call Me Izzy could certainly go the awards route of Lucy Barton and Ann, which received sole bids for their performers Linney and Taylor in 2021 and 2013, respectively. But I think nominators may also spotlight one of its crafts, namely, its evocative lighting design by 14-time nominee and two-time winner Donald Holder, especially as those moments of Izzy reciting poetry, awash in blue, are certainly memorable. Ultimately, all of the show's elements are in service of Smart's star turn, and she is such an endearing industry icon that I doubt many nominators will struggle to remember her transformation.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions