5 Broadway stars who made an entrance on The Good Wife

By: Start TV Staff    Posted: July 1, 2019, 2:10PM Tags: Tags: the good wife

Guest stars come and go on popular series like The Good Wife. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep them all straight, and sometimes their faces look all too familiar.

If you have watched the Tony Awards within the last 10 years, you probably do know these celebrity guests from Alicia Florrick's hit (although it can be hard to tell without caked-on makeup or a musical number). Who would have thought that so many Good Wife guests would trade in their courtroom suits for a pair of tap shoes (or roller skates, in some cases)?

Here are five guest stars from The Good Wife who are also big on Broadway. 

1

James Carpinello

The Good Wife character: Detective Anthony Burton

This favorite smart-mouthed detective has plenty of experience on the Great White Way. Carpinello’s experience on Broadway includes playing Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1999-2000), Sonny in Xanadu (2007-2008) and Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages (2009, original cast). In 2002, Carpinello also secured the role of teen hearthrob Link Larkin in the musical version of Hairspray. However, he left this role prior to the show opening in order to shoot the movie The Great Raid.

2

Karen Olivo

The Good Wife character: Giada Cabrini

Olivo plays an eager young law student in the show, but it's hardly her first time in the spotlight. Her first roles on Broadway included three different characters in the 1996 performance of Rent. Following this, she starred as Faith in Brooklyn (2004, original cast), Vanessa in In the Heights (2008, original cast) and Anita in West Side Story (2009 revival). This year, she will originate yet another role as the glamorous, heartbreaking Satine in the Broadway adaptation of Moulin Rouge, based on the 2001 movie of the same name.

3

Stockard Channing

The Good Wife character: Veronica Loy

Stockard dazzled in her role of Rizzo in the movie-version of stage musical Grease, but that doesn’t make her a stranger to Broadway stages. She has a long career of stage work; to name a few roles in the long list, she’s played Sonia Walsk in They’re Playing Our Song (1979), Bunny Flingus in The House of Blue Leaves (1986), Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes (1997), Vera Simpson in Pal Joey (2008) and The Leading Lady in It’s Only a Play (2014).

4

Laura Benanti

The Good Wife character: Renata Ellard

Though her appearance on the show was a brief one, anyone who watches the Tony awards will recognize this Broadway veteran. Benanti got her start as an understudy for Maria in The Sound of Music in the 1998 revival. She starred in well-known roles such as Claudia in Nine (2003 revival), Julia in The Wedding Singer (2006, original cast), Louise in Gypsy (2003 revival), Candela in Women on the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown (2010), Laura in Meteor Shower (2017) and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (2018 revival).

5

Anna Camp

The Good Wife character: Caitlin D’Arcy

Most people know her as villainous Sarah Newlin of True Blood from HBO, or from her leading role in the hit movies Pitch Perfect 1, 2 and 3. She was just as sensational in the spotlight playing Nancy Stoddard in The Country Girl (2008), Jill Mason in Equus (2008), and Hazel Conway in Time and the Conways (2017). While there's no song to sing in The Good Wife, Camp still charms on camera as a young lawyer who joins the firm (thanks to a little nepotism).