Maxwell made her
Broadway debut as an understudy in the
Cy Coleman –
David Zippel musical
City of Angels in 1989. She eventually took over the dual roles of Carla Haywood and Alaura Kingsley. She appeared in
Brian Friel's
Dancing at Lughnasa in 1992, which won the
Tony Award for Best Play. She replaced original cast member
Brid Brennan in the role of Agnes. In 1997, she appeared in ''
A Doll's House'' opposite
Janet McTeer. In 1998, she played Elsa Schraeder in the first Broadway revival of
Rodgers and Hammerstein's
The Sound of Music. She then starred opposite
John Ritter and
Henry Winkler in
Neil Simon's
The Dinner Party in 2000 and in
Sixteen Wounded in 2004 with
Judd Hirsch and
Martha Plimpton. On television during this time, between 1994 and 2003, she made four guest appearances in the long-running
NBC crime drama
Law & Order, each time as a different character. In 2005, she received a
Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for the role of
Baroness Bomburst in the stage production of
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She also won the
Drama Desk Award for this role. In 2006, she starred in
Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of
Joe Orton's
Entertaining Mr. Sloane for which she received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress. Also in 2006, she reunited with her
Sound of Music co-star
Richard Chamberlain in
Hawaii Opera Theatre's production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's
The King and I in
Honolulu,
Hawaii. In 2007, she starred as Mrs. Lynch in the Broadway production of
Helen Edmundson's
Coram Boy at the
Imperial Theatre, for which she received her second
Tony Award nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Play, as well as another Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. Her Off-Broadway and regional credits include performances in
The Seagull at the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1985, in
House & Garden at the
Manhattan Theatre Club in 2002, in
A Bad Friend at the
Newhouse Theater,
Lincoln Center in 2003 and at
Carnegie Hall in the
Stephen Sondheim concert,
Opening Doors, in 2004. In 2008 she appeared Off-Broadway with the Potomac Theatre Project/NYC in
Howard Barker's
Scenes from an Execution and was nominated for a Drama Desk and NYITT award. In 2008, Maxwell appeared on Broadway in the
Manhattan Theater Club production of
To Be or Not to Be in the role of Maria Tura at the
Friedman Theatre. She appeared as Julie Cavendish in the Broadway revival of
The Royal Family at the
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in late 2009. For this role she won the 2010
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. Maxwell starred as Maria in the Broadway revival of
Lend Me a Tenor, which began performances at the
Music Box Theatre on March 11, 2010. She won the
Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for this role. Maxwell received two 2010
Tony Award nominations: one for her leading role in
The Royal Family in 2009 and another for her featured role in
Lend Me a Tenor in 2010. She is only the fourth actress to receive double nominations in a single year. Maxwell played the role of Phyllis Rogers Stone in the
Kennedy Center production of the
Stephen Sondheim–
James Goldman musical
Follies, running from May 7 to June 19, 2011, at the Eisenhower Theater in Washington, DC. Maxwell received Helen Hayes, Fred Astaire, Drama League,
Outer Critics Circle,
Drama Desk and
Tony Award nominations for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for this role. She appeared in the PTP/NYC (The Potomac Theatre Project) Off-Broadway production of the Howard Barker play
Victory: Choices in Reaction, in a limited engagement in July 2011. In 2013, Maxwell played the role of Skinner in Howard Barker's
The Castle: A Triumph with PTP/NYC at the Atlantic Theatre, Stage 2. She appeared in the Off-Broadway production of the
Anthony Giardina play,
The City of Conversation at the
Lincoln Center Mitzi Newhouse Theater, from May 5, 2014, to July 26, 2014. She was nominated for the 2015
Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play, the 2015
Outer Critics Circle Award, Outstanding Actress in a Play, the 2015
Drama Desk Award, Best Actress in a Play and 2015
Drama League Award, Distinguished Performance Award. In an interview with
Time Out New York in July 2016, Maxwell announced that she was retiring from theatre after the run of her second production of
Scenes from an Execution then in rehearsal. She was also a
voice actress and read several audio books, including
Mary Higgins Clark's
Two Little Girls in Blue and
No Place Like Home. Maxwell starred as a "scheming Senator" in the
CBS TV series
BrainDead alongside
Mary Elizabeth Winstead,
Aaron Tveit and
Tony Shalhoub, which aired from June to September 2016. ==Personal life and death==