Maryann Plunkett

Maryann Plunkett is an American actress and singer originally from Lowell, Massachusetts. A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, she was a founding member of the Portland Stage repertory company in Maine before establishing herself as a significant presence on Broadway, where her career has spanned from 1982 to 2024.

Plunkett made her Broadway debut in the role of Sister Agnes in Agnes of God. In 1985, she stepped into the role of Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, replacing Bernadette Peters. Her performance as Sally Smith in Me and My Girl earned her the 1987 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Nearly four decades later, her leading role in the musical adaptation of The Notebook brought her a second Tony Award nomination in 2024.

Her Broadway work extends across a wide range of productions. She played Elizabeth Proctor opposite Martin Sheen's John Proctor in the 1991 revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, a production that also featured Michael York and Fritz Weaver. As a member of Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre company, she appeared in several productions on Broadway, including Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières's A Little Hotel on the Side in 1992, Anton Chekhov's The Seagull in 1992, and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan in 1993. Additional Broadway credits include A Man for All Seasons.

Plunkett collaborated extensively with playwright Richard Nelson alongside her husband, actor Jay O. Sanders, whom she married in 1991 after the two met on the television series A Man Called Hawk. Together they appeared in all four of Nelson's Apple Family Plays — That Hopey Changey Thing, Sweet and Sad, Sorry, and Regular Singing — which premiered at Off-Broadway's The Public Theater between 2010 and 2013, and later played in repertory there from October 22 to December 15, 2013. Sweet and Sad received both the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance and the 2012 Obie Award for Ensemble Performance. Plunkett herself received a 2013 Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Sorry. She and Sanders also appeared together in all three installments of Nelson's second cycle, The Gabriels: Election Year in the Life of One Family, with Plunkett portraying Mary Gabriel. The three plays — Hungry, What Did You Expect?, and Women of a Certain Age — premiered at The Public Theater in March, September, and November of 2016, respectively.

In 2024, Plunkett won an Obie Award for her portrayal of Ella in the Off-Broadway play Deep Blue Sound by Abe Koogler. Her screen credits include the films Little Women, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Claire Dolan, and The Company Men, as well as television series and films such as Manifest, Dr. Death, The Littlest Victims, and Breaking the Silence. She has also guest-starred on episodes of Matlock, L.A. Law, Murder She Wrote, Miami Vice, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Law & Order. She and Sanders have a son, Jamie.