By Andy Abrahams
Last summer, Mary Kate Morrissey went to the Jersey Shore with her family with a purpose: Play golf every day for five days in their own version of golf camp. They played at Shore Gate Golf Club and Avalon Golf Club and others, and the 35-year-old Broadway actor thought she was doing pretty well for someone who only took up the game last year.
But, in a scene familiar to most golfers, her soaring confidence came crashing down when she went out to play a round with her father, John, at Union League National Club in Cape May, N.J. “I completely fell apart,” she says. “I shot like a 126. I’m 30-something, sitting there crying in the cart, and my poor dad doesn’t know what to do. But he’s like, ‘You have a really pretty swing, and pretty scores will follow. You’ve just got to keep playing.’”
Good advice, Dad. With the same commitment and energy she brought to the role of the green-toned Elphaba in Wicked eight times a week at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City until early March, Morrissey spends her days off playing at local tracts like Forest Park Golf Course in Queens and Marine Park Golf Course in Brooklyn to improve and try and notch the lower scores her father said would eventually come.
“I’m really athletic, and I can pick things up pretty quickly,” she says confidently. “I know my body super well, and I’m directable because I’m an actor.”
She added golfer to her CV two years ago when her mother, Mary Beth, gave her a set of golf clubs for Christmas and told her daughter that if she wanted to hang out with the recently retired real estate executive, Morrissey would have to hit the links with her. Morrissey hadn’t shown any interest in golf before, but she knew playing rounds with Mom, whom she calls her best friend, meant quality time together. Morrissey took lessons every Thursday for 25 weeks and loved it.
“The first time I hit the ball and it went really far, I was like, ‘I’m going to be good at this,’” says Morrissey, whose best round is a 98 at Forest Park. “Then you’re just chasing that feeling. That’s kind of where I’m at now – in chase mode.”
Growing up in Downingtown, Pa., Morrissey began her pursuit of another dream, singing onstage. She fondly remembers her paternal grandfather, Patrick, who belted out tunes on Irish radio in Philadelphia, and the whole family joined in.
“The kids started learning these songs, and we would be able to stay up later with our cousins when we were singing,” says Morrissey, whose first musical was a high school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat where her mother cut holes in a sheet so she could play a sheep. “As soon as I heard the applause, I was like, ‘I want more of this.’”
After graduating from Syracuse University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in theater, Morrissey joined the multitudes in Manhattan hoping to make it to the Great White Way. “When you first start out, it’s 4 a.m., and you’re standing outside a crummy high-rise waiting for them to open the door so you can put your name on a list,” she says of the grind just to get to audition. “It’s very gritty, and it’s still that way.”
Morrissey first played Elphaba in a standby role in a national tour of Wicked in 2015, assumed the role full time in 2017, and made her Broadway debut in March 2024. In 2019, she also toured in a production of Hair as Janis Sarkisian. Although she is grateful for the role that has made her a star, it took a toll. It wasn’t the transformation into the pea-colored Wicked Witch of the West, however; that was a surprisingly quick makeup routine of less than 30 minutes. It was the physical demands.
“It was very demanding of my body, and vocally, too,” she says, noting that the stage is inclined, which helps give the audience a better view. “Imagine you have to spend two and a half hours on a hill. My body is never flat. I’m not a young woman, and it destroyed me.”
After her final performance on March 2, she went into full recovery mode. “Doing the same show for two years has been amazing, but I’m looking forward to a new challenge,” says Morrissey, who has an active behind-the-scenes digital presence (you can find her as @maryspacekate on Instagram) and wants to combine her theater and golf passions as a content creator. She thinks there’s a place for her as a newbie to golf to share her journey.
“I’m still learning, so what would it look like to take people with me who have a beginner’s mindset and encourage other women to get into it?” asks Morrissey, who also wants her fellow performers to take up the game. “It’s so good to do something where you’re not thinking about the pressure or the lines you have to memorize or what last night’s show was like. You can’t be putting the ball and thinking about your audition the next day. It’s impossible.”
Her spring calendar is chock full of golf and just “getting my body back to its original factory settings and just go out and have a drink with friends.”
She also looks forward to spending more time with her husband of four years, Trevor Blake, who works in finance, and smelling the magnolias in Augusta, Ga., when she brings her parents to the Masters. The family will also tee it up in Cancun as the Broadway star in their brood sets her sights high as a golfer.