Back in February Maggie Gyllenhaal announced she would star in this fall’s Broadway revival of “The Real Thing” opposite Ewan McGregor.
Great for Gyllenhaal, not so great for MCC: The actress also announced that she was bailing out of that off-Broadway company’s spring show, “The Village Bike.”
Boo!
But there’s an upside: Gyllenhaal’s replacement is going to be Greta Gerwig, making her stage debut.
This is just the latest installment in Gerwig’s rise: She’s also picked up a high-profile TV gig as the lead in CBS’ “How I Met Your Dad,” the upcoming spin-off of the mega-popular “How I Met Your Mother.”
It’s quite a departure for a woman who started in the late ’00s in the lo-fi film genre dubbed “mumblecore” and danced wildly in a high-concept Arcade Fire performance.
Gerwig’s mainstream breakthrough — well, sort of, since the daring movie bombed — was 2010’s “Greenberg,” in which she played Ben Stiller’s love interest.
Like Parker Posey, her predecessor in hip moviedom, Gerwig has dabbled with mainstream Hollywood: She played Russell Brand’s love interest in the remake of “Arthur” and was a second fiddle in the Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman rom-com “No Strings Attached.” She’s even done the obligatory Woody Allen stint (“To Rome With Love”).
But Gerwig’s real home is ambitious indies — the middle ground between mumblecore’s insular sensibility and mindless blockbusters. Movies like “Frances Ha” and “Damsels in Distress” are where Gerwig’s quirky, appealing sensibility shines brightest.
If she brings that to “The Village Bike,” the only possible response will be: Maggie who?