Moore offstage...for good and all?

Well, never say never, but it doesn't sound like Julianne Moore is contemplating a return to Broadway -- or any stage -- anytime soon.

She had a rather highly publicized turn in the premiere of David Hare's "The Vertical Hour" from the end of Nov. 06 to March 07. The reviews weren't exactly ecstatic. Or rather, they weren't exactly ecstatic for anyone (or anything) who wasn't Bill Nighy.

I have this thing, you see, about asking actors who have stage work in their background if they ever plan to, I don't know, GET BACK to the stage. Usually I'm interviewing said actors about movies which, as we all know, will typically pay them considerably more than any play ever will, and will often provide friendlier working hours, maybe some travel, all those things that actors like to get so they NO LONGER HAVE TO work on stage.

I interviewed Julianne Moore by phone about the movie "Savage Grace." My interview should be on-line if not today, then certainly Sunday on LA.com. (It will run in the Daily News that same day).

"Savage Grace" has Moore playing a New York socialite named Barbara Baekeland who was twelve kinds of nuts (her son Tony was equally so). The movie, which is not rated, is a bit extreme. So is/was Barbara. Greek tragedy here.

Moore apparently went on to do "The Vertical Hour" for Sam Mendes -- her Broadway debut -- immediately after wrapping "Savage Grace." Did she enjoy Broadway? Not especially, she told me.

"I loved the people and I loved the play. But I don't know. I don't think Broadway is for me," Moore said. "The demands on my time are too hard. I've got school aged children, and everything revolves around evenings and weekends. There are reasons people with small children don't do plays."

OK, no argument there, and I've heard this from countless other actors male and female. If you want to be around to put your kid to bed, you do movies and TV. A case could, I suppose, be made that rather than commit to a lengthy Broadway run, you come out to L.A. with a pet project and stage it for 4-6 weeks at one of our regionals out here.

Julianne Moore, who played Ophelia at the Guthrie way back in the day and did some other off Broadway stuff, would probably be bottled lightening on stage. "Vanya on 42nd Street," which is essentially a filmed version of an "Uncle Vanya" workshop, gives a teaser.

There's more to it though. As she sees it, Moore is no longer a creature of the stage, or maybe she never was.

"I think for me, with the scale I like to work in, I prefer film. I really do," she continued. "It's just more suited to what I want to do I Don't fundamentally like performing. On stage, it didn't feel right to me. It felt too much like being looked at rather than being inside the story."

Now of course Moore has 10,0001 film projects, so it won't be an issue. Maybe when her kids (who are 10 and 6) get older, she'll reconsider.

People do, y'know. I asked Steppenwolf alum Joan Allen on two separate occasions when she would ever get back on stage, and she basically told me that her time on the boards -- and all those seriously tough roles -- effectively burnt her out.

Until now. Playbill.com reports that Allen will return to Broadway with Jeremy Irons for the world premiere of "Impressionism" in the spring of 2009.