Besties, hopefully you read the first part of the guide earlier the month (here), so please enjoy the second instalment about the characters of the stage to the Gilded Age, the new American historical drama currently premiering on HBO, which is full to the brim of Broadway stars.

Carrie Coon

Carrie stars as Bertha Russell, a woman with middle-class roots who is determined to make a place for herself and her husband George in New York’s upper-class society. 

Carrie made her Broadway debut in 2012 as Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for which she received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

She’s also starred in a host of television shows including The Leftovers, Fargo and The Sinner, as well as movies like Gone Girl.

Patrick Page

Patrick plays Richard Clay, George Russell’s loyal secretary who is tasked with running the railway tycoon’s business affairs. Like Russell, he isn’t afraid to play dirty.

Patrick has had a long career in theatre and has starred in numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions. He originated the roles of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and The Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and can currently be seen in his Tony-nominated role as Hades in the massive hit Hadestown.

Disney fans will be happy to hear that Patrick has also starred as Scar in The Lion King and Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast!

Audra McDonald

Audra guest stars as Peggy’s mother, Dorothy. She and her husband are estranged from Peggy for reasons that have not yet been completely revealed, but Dorothy is desperate for them to reunite now that Peggy is back in New York.

With six Tony awards, Audra has won more than any other actor and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. She’s starred in Carousel, Ragtime, Shuffle Along amongst others, and was most recently seen on the Broadway stage in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.

Audra also featured as the wardrobe in Disney’s 2017 live action version of Beauty and the Beast.

Kelli O’Hara

O’Hara plays Aurora Fane, the niece of Agnes (Baranski) and is at the top and one of the most prominent figures of New York’s upper crust. She tries to help Bertha and Marian find their place in high society and delicately tries to navigate the system and change it for the better.

O’Hara is a classical soprano and is an alum of the same sorority as fellow Broadway soprano-extraordinaire Kristin Chenoweth.

From her earliest Broadway appearance in Jekyll & Hyde to just five years later appearing in The Light in the Piazza, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Performance of a featured actress in a musical and has won a Tony Award for every Broadway performance since.

She has appeared on Broadway in South Pacific, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Kiss Me, Kate and The King and I, which saw her hop over the pond to reprise her role in London’s West End at the London Palladium.

Debra Monk

Monk plays Armstrong, the maid to Mrs. van Rhijn. Although a maid, Armstrong seems to be at the top of the food chain where the staff of Brook House are concerned. She can’t help but become involved in everyone’s business and secrets.

Monk arrived on Broadway as a co-writer of the 1982 musical Pump Boys and Dinettes, named after the group who wrote it. She has since appeared in many Broadway shows including Chicago, Company and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as well as Picnic, Steel Pier and Curtains for which she received Tony nominations for.

No stranger to the silver or small screens she starred in the 1995 film Bridges of Madison County as well as having recurring roles in such TV staples as Grey’s Anatomy.

Bill Irwin

Bill Irwin plays Cornelius Eckhard, looking for Ada’s hand in marriage to the chagrin of Ada’s father. They were once young lovers in Pennsylvania and now find their paths crossing once again after the Civil War. Ada’s Sister is also dubious of him and believes he’s only there for a “meal ticket”.

Thought of as a Vaudeville styled performer who utilises clowning in his craft, he was one of the founders of Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco in 1975. He is thought to be a major influencer in reviving the American Circus of the seventies. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s.

He starred in the Lincoln Center’s 1988 production of Waiting for Godot playing Lucky opposite the late Robin Williams and received a special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation for his show Fool Moon in 1999, as well as a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In 2005.

Katie Finneran

Finnernan plays Anne Morris, the wife of city alderman Patrick Morris. She doesn’t take ‘fools gladly’ and enjoys the exclusivity of being part of the inner circle of New York’s elite. She believes that there is no place for new money polluting what is rightly hers.

Katie is said to have played a broad spectrum of characters from “barflies and rich girls, giggly ingénues and world-weary lowlifes". She’s also worked various jobs to support herself including a boxing ringside girl.

Finnernan starred as Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival of Cabaret in 2000 as well as Miss Hannigan in Annie and Ahrens & Flaherty’s My Favorite Year. She appeared in the 2002 revival of Noises Off receiving a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Linda Emond

Linda plays Clara Barton, who lived from 1821-1912.  A nurse who founded the American Red Cross in 1881, as well as championing women's education. She was branded as the "Florence Nightingale of America" and the “Angel of the Battlefield” for providing supplies for nurses and soldiers on the front line. She was also a great supporter of equalities for women and people of all races.

Emond made her Broadway debut as Abigail Adams in 1776 and has gone on to receive 3 Tony Award nominations for her parts in Life x3 in 2003, Death of A Salesman opposite the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and more recently as Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret in 2014.

Have you been watching the HBO series, Besties?

Written by Rachel Martin and Josh Coley