Will art imitate life? Luke Kirby teased how The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will pay homage to Lenny Bruce’s real life — and how his potential onscreen relationship with Midge plays out.
“We felt a bit of a kind of duty to sort of start touching on the aspects of Lenny Bruce’s life that kind of led up to his dying young,” the actor, 43, told Us Weekly exclusively ahead of the season 4 premiere of the Amazon Prime sitcom. “We’re sort of bringing Lenny Bruce a little bit down to Earth this season and kind of exploring that a little bit.”
While Kirby noted that it’s “not up to” him if Lenny and Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) will get together, he did confess that he hopes the show will deal with the ramifications of his character’s eventual death. The late comedian passed away at the age of 40 in 1966.
“I don’t know how Midge will feel [when Lenny dies],” Kirby told Us. “Hopefully she’ll be really broken up about it and then hopefully she will do the healthy thing and move on and make herself happy.”
Because Lenny’s fate on the series is already known, any potential relationship between him and Midge will be short-lived. Still, Kirby is hoping that the two comedians will manage to get together at some point. “I’m always a sucker for people going for it,” the Take This Waltz star said. “You know, what’s the point of saying goodbye? We’re all gonna have to say goodbye eventually [so] spend the night together.”
Whatever happens with Midge’s love life in season 4, show runner Amy Sherman-Palladino previously hinted that there will still be plenty of heartbreak and emotion. “We may be doing a little jump within the season, but when we first start up we want to [start after the season 3 finale],” the Gilmore Girls creator, 56, told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2020.
She continued: “I mean, what’s the fun of totally destroying someone’s soul and heart and not getting to see the aftermath? That’s what comedy’s made of, soul-crushing defeat.”
When viewers last saw Midge, she and her manager Susie (Alex Borstein) were left behind in Europe and facing a major professional setback. However, the titular character won’t be the only one thrown for a loop when the sitcom returns.
“We’re going to be telling the Maisel story slightly differently in the coming season,” Sherman-Palladino told Glamour in June 2021. “We’re not here to make anybody feel good. That’s not why we were put on Earth. We’re still figuring everything out.”
Season 4 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel premieres on Amazon Prime on Friday, February 18.