Peil stated, "That was when the light bulb went on. Doing Kiss Me, Kate with my beloved John Reardon made me realize I was a singing actor, not an acting singer." She soon found herself on Broadway. In May 1983 she was cast in a national tour as the twelfth and final Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner's monarch of Siam in a revival of The King and I. The production toured the United States, closing on Broadway shortly before Brynner's death in 1985. In an interview in The New York Times, she described how Brynner could barely walk from his dressing room to the stage, due to his radiation therapy to treat his cancer, but when it was time to go on he somehow managed; "gliding into the light, erect, with the body of a sleek jungle cat." She was nominated for a 1985 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. She later returned to the role of Anna Leonowens for a revival of the musical at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in 1990 with Stacy Keach as the King. In 1986 Peil starred in Michel Tremblay's play The Impromptu of Outremont at the Lincoln Theater on the campus of the University of Hartford. She starred in the 1987 Off-Broadway musical Birds of Paradise. In 1988 she portrayed Desiree Armfeldt in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music with the Opera Ensemble of New York. In 1989 she performed in William Shakespeare's Cymbeline at The Public Theater under the direction of JoAnne Akalaitis. She portrayed President J.F.K.'s secretary, a central character in the musical, in Michael John LaChiusa's Over Texas with the Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1991. That same year she starred in Ödön von Horváth's Tales from the Vienna Woods at the Actors Theater of Louisville. Career on screen and stage: 1992–2003 In 1993 Peil moved back to New York City after divorcing Jerry Kirkbride with whom she had raised two children, Gwyneth and Michael, in Leonia, New Jersey. She had made her film debut earlier in 1992's Jersey Girl and her television debut on Law & Order in 1994. Her first larger role in film was in the 1995 independent drama film Comfortably Numb. She portrayed Felice, the love interest of Felix (played by Jack Lemmon), in the 1999 comedy film The Odd Couple II. She portrayed Nancy Reagan's mother, actress Edith