NO APOLOGIES Saucy Baranski regrets nothing.

Photograph: Henry Leutwyler

To the country at large, Christine Baranski is best known for her role on the ’90s sitcom Cybill as the acerbic, punch-line-drunk (and just plain drunk) Maryann. But drama queens know that her heart and her history are in the theater. A two-time Tony winner for The Real Thing and Rumors, Baranski, 54, spent almost two decades onstage before joining the Hollywood machine, and even then the native East Coaster refused to relocate from her Connecticut home. (During four seasons on the Los Angeles–based Cybill, she lived in a hotel.) While Baranski has trod the boards over the last few years—most recently as the lead in the Kennedy Center’s lavish revival of Mame—it’s been years since she’s acted in a full-fledged New York production. Now she returns as a society wife torn between her husband and her gay best friend in Paul Rudnick’s marriage-minded Regrets Only at Manhattan Theatre Club.

This is your first New York show in 13 years. What kept you away?

That makes me sound so old! The last full production I did [here] was Loman Family Picnic, also at MTC. I’m very much a theater person: I graduated from Juilliard in 1974 and didn’t go to Hollywood to shoot a sitcom until 1994. But in the early ’90s, New York was so depressing. There was so much crime. And you know, I was raising two daughters, and theater schedules are brutal when you have a family. Doing a half-hour comedy is much more manageable. Cybill was a great opportunity. I got to do the whole red-carpet thing.

You’ve worked with Paul Rudnick on three movies: Addams Family Values, Jeffrey and Marci X. Is this your first stage collaboration?

Yes. I adore Paul. I love that he’s this brilliant comedic author, famous for his satirical writing, but that he can also be touching. Initially, I did a few readings of Regrets Only, but wasn’t sure I would do the show. It seemed to me like gay marriage wasn’t an issue anymore, that it was passé. Last summer, Paul came to see me in Mame, and we went out for drinks and talked. At this point [the producers] were talking about doing Mame in New York, so I was on tenterhooks. But when I got word that they just couldn’t afford to bring it in, I called my agent and came on board with Paul. And suddenly, gay marriage is topical again!

After Cybill ended in 1998, you went on to do two short-lived sitcoms: Happy Family and Welcome to New York. Will you return to the small screen?

It’s great if you can get a well-written comedy on the air. It pays well, and viewers are delighted to see you. When I did CybillI couldn’t believe the response I received. People would stop me everywhere and say how much joy I gave them. Unfortunately, now it seems to be very hard to get a successful comedy. These days [the networks] pull the plug on shows without giving them time to build audiences. At one point [Cybill creator] Chuck Lorre offered me the part of Charlie Sheen’s mother on his show Two and a Half Men. But I felt that I was just a little too young to play Charlie Sheen’s mom. I figured once I put myself in that category, I’d never go back.

You did Sweeney Todd in 2002, opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell at the Kennedy Center. How do you feel about the recent Broadway Sweeney, as well as the impending Tim Burton movie adaptation?

The Broadway Sweeney was a minimalist production with the performers playing their own instruments—very different from what we did with a full orchestra and sets. As for the movie, I waited to find out who would be cast as Sweeney. Once I heard that it was Johnny Depp, I realized they were going younger. I’m just happy that I got to do it at all.

What’s next for you?

I’m supposed to do Antony and Cleopatra with Theatre for a New Audience, but that’s not for a while. And of course I’ll have to wait to see what happens with Regrets Only.

Are there already rumblings of a commercial transfer?

Oh you know, it’s like famous last words. Right now I’m just concentrating on doing it through January.

Regrets Only is playing at Manhattan Theatre Club.