{"id":3930,"date":"2026-07-06T23:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T23:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2026-07-06T23:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T23:09:14","slug":"mariska-hargitays-real-life-family-secret-brings-her-to-theatreworks-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3930","title":{"rendered":"Mariska Hargitay’s real-life family secret brings her to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To launch its 23rd annual New Works Festival, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley is excited to announce that Mariska Hargitay, the TV legend and Taylor Swift cat muse, will come to Palo Alto in early August to provide a series of benefit performances of her recent acclaimed turn in the one-person Broadway play \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But for those wondering how even a well-regarded regional theater company like TheatreWorks can entice Hargitay, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning star of \u201cLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit,\u201d to do some performances on its behalf, they should look no further than the company\u2019s artistic director, Giovanna Sardelli.<\/p>\n

Hargitay and Sardelli are half-sisters, even though the women\u2019s relationship has a life-is-stranger-than-fiction Hollywood backstory that was part of \u201ca lie\u201d that Hargitay said she lived with for 30 years, according to Vanity Fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As 62-year-old Hargitay revealed in her 2025 documentary, \u201cMy Mom Jayne,\u201d a candid but loving portrait of her sex symbol mother Jayne Mansfield, the father she had long known, Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, was not her biological parent. Instead, Hargitay learned at age 30 that her bio-dad was Italian entertainer Nelson Sardelli, with whom Mansfield had a brief relationship while separated from Mickey Hargitay in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

This backstory of Hargitay\u2019s parentage and new family ties will be addressed by Hargitay, Giovanna Sardelli and her other half sister, Pietra Sardelli, in a special post-show panel discussion, following a matinee performance of \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d on Aug. 8, according to a TheatreWorks press release.<\/p>\n

Hargitay will appear on stage at the Lucie Stern Theatre on the evening of Friday, Aug. 7 and for afternoon and evening performances on Saturday, Aug 8. Hargitay recently starred in a six-week run of \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d on Broadway. For TheatreWorks, the Tony-nominated play by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, will launch its annual New Works Festival, which provides playwrights and composers of national stature the opportunity to give Bay Area audiences a glimpse of new plays and musicals in development.<\/p>\n

While \u201cEvery Brilliant Thing\u201d is described as \u201cheartwarming and hilarious,\u201d it also explores depression and grief in an interactive way as its solo performer plays a character creating a list of \u201cbrilliant things\u201d for their suicidal mother. Hargitay\u2019s TheatreWorks performances will benefit both the 56-year-old theater company and Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization she founded that has a Bay Area chapter and supports survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, the press release said.<\/p>\n

Hargitay is famous for playing NYPD detective Olivia Benson on the long-running NBC crime procedural, and her character\u2019s name was famously given by \u201ccat lady\u201d Taylor Swift to one of her three pet felines. Hargitay was also one of the lucky A-listers who received invitations to attend Swift\u2019s Madison Square Garden wedding to Travis Kelce.<\/p>\n

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In \u201cMy Mom Jayne,\u201d Hargitay explored her complicated memories of her mother, who tragically died in a car crash in 1967 when she was 34 years old. Only 3 when her mother died. She also was a passenger in the car when it crashed, though she has said she has no memories of the accident.<\/p>\n

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Dubbed \u201cBroadway\u2019s smartest dumb blonde\u201d by Life magazine, Mansfield spoke several languages and played violin and piano, Vanity Fair reported. But to get ahead in 1950s Hollywood, Mansfield adopted an extreme version of Marilyn Monroe\u2019s breathy voice. She also dyed her hair bleach-blonde and wore ever-tighter dresses to enhance her buxom figure.<\/p>\n

As Hargitay shared in her documentary and in an interview with Vanity Fair, she grew up mortified by \u201cthe blonde bimbo\u201d image of her lost mother, \u201cwho had became the butt of everyone\u2019s joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was embarrassed by the choices that she made,\u201d Hargitay told Vanity Fair. She said Mickey Hargitay, her mother\u2019s second husband who raised her as is own daughter, kept trying to tell her that her mother \u201cwasn\u2019t like that at all. She was funny and irreverent and fearless and real.\u201d<\/p>\n

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While Mickey Hargitay \u201cwas beyond reproach\u201d to his daughter, Hargitay also grew up feeling that she was different from her siblings, two sons that Mickey Hargitay and Mansfield shared, according to Vanity Fair. In her 20s, Hargitay began to realize why when she was showed a photo of Nelson Sardelli, with whom her mother had a well-publicized relationship several months before her birth. She immediately knew he was her biological father, though she said Mickey Hargitay insisted that he was her\u00a0 biological father before his death in 2006.<\/p>\n

At age 30, Hargitay went to see Sardelli perform in Atlantic City and introduced herself. According to Vanity Fair, he burst into tears, telling her, \u201cI\u2019ve been waiting 30 years for this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hargitay said she continued to regard Mickey Hargitay as her father, while she gradually got to know Sardelli and his daughters. \u201cI grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,\u201d she told Vanity Fair.<\/p>\n

After Hargitay\u2019s performances, the New Works Festival continues through Aug. 16, and features the new musical, Vienna,\u201d by \u201cCome From Away\u201d composers Irene Sankoff and David Hein; \u201cFloor 36\u201d by Margot Melcon; \u201cRE\u201d by Kimber Lee;\u00a0 \u201cRoja\u201d by Jaime Lozano and Tommy Newman; and \u201cThe Tell Tale Heart\u202f,\u201d adapted by Carlos Aguirre.\u00a0 For more information on the New Work Festival, visit theatreworks.org\/new-works\/nwf\/.<\/p>\n

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The ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ star and Taylor Swift wedding guest has a personal reason for performing at TheatreWorks New Works’ Fest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-things-to-do"],"yoast_head":"\nMariska Hargitay’s real-life family secret brings her to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=3930\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mariska Hargitay’s real-life family secret brings her to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley - 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