Jane Summerhays

Jane Summerhays is an American actress born on October 11, 1944, in Salt Lake City, Utah, whose career has spanned stage, television, and film across several decades. Her Broadway appearances ran from 1975 to 2000, and she is recognized with a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, received in 1987.

Summerhays began her professional stage career in 1975 as an ensemble member in the national tour of Nash at Nine. The following year she joined the original London production of A Chorus Line, playing Sheila at the Drury Lane Theatre in a run that earned the Laurence Olivier Award. In 1978, she was cast as Lady Kay Wellington in the national touring production of Oh, Kay!, which included a stop at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and she reprised that role the next year at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Later in 1979, Summerhays made her Broadway debut by replacing Kelly Bishop, who had originated the part, as Sheila in A Chorus Line. That same year she joined the Broadway production of Sugar Babies in the role of Jane, replacing Ann Jillian, who had originated the part, and also served as understudy for the lead role of Ann, performing it on several occasions. In 1983, she returned to the Broadway production of A Chorus Line to play Sheila once more, and in 1985 she reprised both the role of Jane and the Ann understudy assignment in the national touring company of Sugar Babies.

Her most prominent Broadway credit came in 1986, when she originated the role of Lady Jacqueline Carstone in Me and My Girl, for which she received the Drama Desk Award and a Tony Award nomination. She remained with that production for three years. In the years that followed, Summerhays accumulated additional Broadway credits, including Diana in Lend Me a Tenor, Elizabeth in Taking Steps, Cynthia in The Real Inspector Hound, the musical revue Dream, the dual roles of Fritzie and Fraulein Kost in Cabaret, and Miss Madelaine True in The Wild Party. Earlier stage work outside Broadway included the roles of Zelda Fitzgerald and Sylvia Beach in the American Place Theatre's production of Paris Lights in 1980, a 1981 appearance in Hey, Look Me Over! at Avery Fisher Hall, and a 1984 appearance as Maria in On Approval at the Roundabout Theatre. Her Off-Broadway and regional theater credits include Sympathy Jones, Camila, Broadway Gypsies, Good News, and Promises, Promises.

Summerhays contributed to two cast recordings: Me and My Girl on Decca Broadway in 1987 and The Wild Party on Decca Broadway in 2000. Her screen work includes the 2001 film This Train, in which she played the role of Love, and the 2005 film Backseat, in which she appeared as the mother. Her television credits include guest appearances on One Life to Live, All My Children, Tales from the Darkside, Working It Out, The Cosby Mysteries, New York News, Law & Order, Sex and the City, and Ed.