Jean Smart is having her best moment yet – and it’s much greater than fans could imagine. At 72, she’s not only shining on screen in Hacks, but she’s also back to where she belongs: the stage. Also, Jean Smart is stylish, very deep, and mysterious in her typical fashion.
A Presence as a Ghost of the Past
Probably more than twenty years has distanced Jean Smart from the theatre scene, and she now reappeared at broadway after all these years. The new one-woman stage show, Call Me Izzy, besides being already on the playbill at Studio 54 in New York, has become a big talk of the town.
The protagonist of the play tells a lady living in the city how she has hidden the truth from everyone. The theme is: It’s sensitive, it’s shared – and Smart is perfect in such kind of character. In the performance, her character is in a physical environment of rural Louisiana, not only fighting with her past but also insecure about her future.
“Izzy is a role that you meet once in a lifetime,” Smart stated in a recent interview. “It’s dreadful. It’s also a present for you.”
Really, the response of the audience was overwhelming. The tap-opened buzzing is labeling this power of art as the performance of the season. An extension may be the case with the end of the August 17th show, but nobody is sure at the moment of the show, not discontinuing the experience if excited buyers are still there.
Call Me Izzy: The Flare of Authenticity
The creator of Call Me Izzy was Jamie Wax, with it being the director Sarna Lapine, who is known from her previous work ‘Sunday in the Park with George’. But the narrative was colored by Smart.
For a solid 60 minutes, you can witness the changes in her emotions from a dour to a jolly state, from the funny to the tragic, and that too within the same sentence. There was no huge setup, not even one big star, only Smart, a chair, and a voice that fills the venue.
Fans who know her only from television are now learning more about her background. This particular role goes beyond just another simple acting job, for Smart, it is deeply personal. Not only that, but the part is also an acknowledgment of her long, busy relationship with the theater stage.
“I was theater-trained,” she explains. “It’s where I belong.”
Nevertheless, She Is Not Through With TV Yet
On the one hand, while she is doing a great job with Call Me Izzy at night, Smart is also delivering quality entertainment to the TV audience during the daytime. Earlier this spring, Season 4 of her Emmy-winning comedy Hacks was released and loved by all. Besides, HBO has officially announced that Season 5 will be coming soon.
The show, Hacks, features Smart as Deborah Vance, a retired stand-up star living in a desert casino in Las Vegas and doing whatever it takes to regain fame. Smart’s performance is a standout one. She puts an edge and feeling into the character, thus positioning Deborah as a person of interest in the TV show.
At the 2025 SAG Awards, Smart received the “Ouststanding Female Actor in a Comedy Series” award for her performance in Hacks. Even though she was filming on the day of the ceremony, her pre-recorded words of thanks topped the list of the most shared moments.
More Accolades to Her Repertoire
Last May, Smart was likewise given the Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award at Variety’s FYC TV Fest. The distinction is from women who have left a legacy in television. Smart’s long-term presence in the field — from Designing Women to 24 to Mare of Easttown — says she deserve d the recognition.
She graciously accepted the accolade and in a very humble and funny way, exclaimed, “I never thought I’d be a visionary. I just thought I was lucky to keep working.”
Why Jean Smart Is the Conversation Our World?
Jean Smart’s return is not defined by her appearance in a single show or win of a single award. It is her way of showing she has the ability to be different, strong and phenomenal. She reveals that the idea of strong female leads becoming worse with age is just an old prejudgement.
Smart’s participation in Call Me Izzy, Hacks, and the list of her awards getting longer constantly this year makes it nearly impossible to miss her. Nevertheless, what distinguishes her is the simplicity with which she interacts with the audience. Smart’s presence is irresistible and she makes the people stay till the end whether she is on stage or screen.
Hence, if you are still in the dark as to why Jean Smart keeps appearing all of a sudden in your Facebook news feed, the answer is already in your hands. She is not only staging a comeback but also creating history.
