Tomorrow evening (October 7), Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Driving Miss Daisyfinally makes its Broadway debut after first premiering Off-Broadway 23 years ago.
With David Esbjornson behind the wheel to steer the play, this production has already become a very hot ticket because of its three top-drawer, Tony-winning actors. Vanessa Redgrave will portray Daisy Werthan, James Earl Jones plays her chauffeur and friend Hoke Colburn and Boyd Gaines returns to Broadway as Daisy's son Boolie, who insists his mother's car keys be taken away.
A timeless American play, which inspired the beloved Academy Award-winning film, Driving Miss Daisy tells the affecting story of the decades-long relationship between a stubborn Southern matriarch and her compassionate chauffeur. Their iconic tale of pride, changing times and the transformative power of friendship has warmed the hearts of millions, and is being performed for the first time on a Broadway stage.
Before I ever saw that Oscar-winning film, I caught Driving Miss Daisy on a West End stage in 1988. I was fortunate to see the late Dame Wendy Hiller and a young Clarke Peters in the two primary roles. It didn't matter that the set design was incredibly spare because the two of them were simply magnificent. It remains one of the most memorable nights I've ever enjoyed at the theatre.
Previews for this new "strictly limited engagement" begin October 7 at the John Golden Theatre. The show opens October 25 and is only slated to run through January 29, 2011.
To see this trio of stage greats demonstrate their acting prowess, is it any wonder that many performances are already selling out?
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Starry Driving Miss Daisy Steers Toward Great White Way
No sooner do I post my story on all the plays and musicals that have been confirmed for Broadway this next season and up pops another new show. Well, perhaps not exactly "new."
Directed by David Esbjornson, this revival will be Miss Daisy's first trip ever down Broadway, after having first appeared 23 years ago at Off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons with Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman.
The one and only time I caught Driving Miss Daisy on stage came in 1988 when I experienced the play in London. I'll never forget that incredible evening with the late Dame Wendy Hiller portraying Daisy Werthan opposite a young Clarke Peters as her chauffeur and companion Hoke Colburn. Presented as a three-hander, the stage was virtually bear save for some folding chairs lined up in lieu of car seats. Hiller and Peters didn't need any props to power their story of enduring friendship forward. They were simply magnificent, and it was a night at the theatre unlike any other I've ever enjoyed.
If I have any quibble with yesterday's announcement, it's that James Earl Jones is six years older than Vanessa Redgrave. The entire play's premise is built around Miss Daisy being too old to drive herself, let alone by someone on the cusp of turning 80. That Jones is now six years older than Morgan Freeman, who had just turned 50 when he first took to the wheel of the 1987 Off-Broadway production, makes me wonder how exactly Esbjornson will conceive his Hoke. But given how much I admire both Redgrave and Jones, you can bet that I'm looking forward to seeing this production.
Slated to being previews at the John Golden Theatre on October 7, Driving Miss Daisy will open on October 25. The limited engagement will conclude its run January 29, 2011.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.
SOB's Favorite Shows Of The Noughties: #18 - Long Day's Journey Into Night (2003, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, NY)
Introduction: Hard as it is to comprehend that we're already 119 months into this "new" millennium, we are fast approaching the end of its first decade. While we have yet to agree on what exactly we should call the '00s, I'll take a cue from the fine folks at The Times of London and the BBC and henceforth refer to them at the Noughties. With that small introduction, I'm pleased to present my list of plays and musicals that wowed me the most during that time. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of shows I've seen over the last ten years, I give you my countdown of my 25 personal favorite shows of the Noughties.
One of the most acclaimed productions of its year and quite deservedly so, this Robert Falls-helmed revival of Eugene O'Neill’s semi-autobiographical classic Long Day's Journey Into Night more than captured his family’s deep descent into hell.
Its stellar cast included Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy at their very best. As matriarch Mary Tyrone, Redgrave offered one of the most harrowing downward spirals I've ever witnessed on stage. As patriarch James Tyrone, Dennehy provided a deceptively subtle performance.
Considering that the exceptional Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert Sean Leonard helped round out the cast, this was one must-see theatrical event that exceeded expectations.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for this performance.
SOB's Singular Sensations Of '07 - Honorable Mentions
During the course of 2007, I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to have been in the audience for 82 stage productions ranging from the very small-scale play to the most elaborate of spectacles.
In my quest to see great theatre, my year began in Sydney Australia and took me to such far-flung destinations as London, Beijing, Stuttgart, Tokyo and Winnipeg. I've traversed the United States, crisscrossing from California to Massachusetts, Washington State to Georgia, Nevada to Connecticut, Colorado to Wisconsin. Then there were the three American communities that really know how to do live theatre: Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul and of course, New York.
Throughout my travels, several outstanding plays and musicals captured my heart, thanks in no small part to the enormously talented array of actors who found a way to strike a nerve and tap into a vein like few others. They've mesmerized, wowed and inspired me with a unique turn of a phrase, fluidity of movement or sublime singing voice or a combination of all three -- all provided that rare spinetingling sensation that can only be found through a live performance.
While I’ve been singling out SOB’s 7 Singular Sensations of ’07, please allow me to add my special honor roll of outstanding performances from the past year that simply took my breath away. Although they narrowly missed making my top seven for 2007, I won't soon forget how captivating each of these singular sensations was:
With the addition of these thirteen, I’ve singled out twenty consummate performances that were singularly sensational. Each of these performers has my utmost respect and appreciation, and I look forward to the opportunity to see them perform another day.
Theatre critics who had read the original novel -- that chronicles how Didion coped with the death of her husband John all while dealing with their daughter Quintana's life-threatening illness -- provided reviews expressing severe disappointment. One of their greatest bones of contention inveighed against the show's opening salvo, "You don't want to think it could happen to you, but it will. That's why I'm here."
On the flip side, critics who confessed to never having read the original source material seemed uniformly in awe of the play.
So considering the ramifications of poring over the novel in advance or not, I made the conscious decision not to read Didion's work prior to taking in a performance over the past weekend. From that vantage point, I wanted to enjoy the play for what it is. The result: I was absolutely stunned, not only by the breadth of the heartbreaking virtuoso performance by Vanessa Redgrave, but also by the very exacting and deliberate words Didion herself chose to tell her story to a wider audience.
Coping with the death of a loved one is certainly never easy, but in a beautifully subtle, almost poetic sense, Didion through Redgrave walks herself and her audience through the inevitable phases of denial and acceptance, along with the will to persevere -- at first for the sake of keeping hope alive for the dearly departed, but then to maintain one's own solitary sanity.
I was awestruck by how intoxicating Didion's words were flawlessly delivered by Redgrave, along with the wellspring of heartfelt emotion shown when the acceptance phase finally takes hold, as well as the realization when it does. And although I have not yet read the book -- but I most definitely will now that I've seen the play -- I'm thankful I saw this work on the stage first because it dealt head-on with Quintana's death, something that was not included in Didion's written work.
No small wonder that Didion is so circumspect in deliberately cautioning her newfound audience that this indeed could happen to them. In fact, since Redgrave as Didion so gracefully girds the audience with what is unmistakably a gentle and compassionate embrace, I believe she should be praised for sharing her insights on her tremendous losses. She's certainly earned that right.
The Year Of Magical Thinking is a show that should not be missed.
One of this theatre season's most anticipated plays, The Year Of Magical Thinking, opened last night at Broadway's Booth Theatre. Based on Joan Didion's acclaimed memoir of the passing of her husband while her daughter was dying, the production is directed by David Hare and stars Vanessa Redgrave as Didion. Critics were mixed in their reviews.
Praising the show as "unmissable theatre," Variety's David Rooney seems downright awestruck: "Didion has filleted the text into a spare but compelling solo piece. Whether or not it's a play is difficult to judge in David Hare's audaciously austere production, given how inextricably linked the work is to Vanessa Redgrave's riveting interpretation...[T]he sobriety of this incarnation is entirely true to the tone of her memoir. The startling intimacy and affecting altruism of its insights on loss and their rigorous refusal of any of the standard dealing-with-death rhetoric allow the monologue to continue resonating well after Redgrave has taken her bows."
Proclaiming this "a 90-minute, semi-stream-of-consciousness monologue of virtuoso brilliance by a great actress," New York Post's Clive Barnes provides accolades in his three-star review: "Redgrave and Hare have created a starkly honest theatrical miracle out of Didion's text, which I find admirable yet suspect in its all too rational agony....Slowly, with the certainty of theatrical genius, nothing matters, as Redgrave -- assisted by Hare and Bob Crowley's scenic design, which is simply a series of collapsing curtains patterned like watered silk -- takes both text and audience into a never-never land of acceptance....This is acting at its grandest."
Also offering three out of four stars is Elysa Gardner of USA Today: "The play, directed with rigorous elegance by David Hare, is marked by the same lack of sanctimony and sentimentality. Dignity is the word that comes to mind in describing Redgrave's performance and Didion's script....[T]here are few elements of mystery or, in truth, revelation in their retelling."
Calling it an "arresting yet ultimately frustrating new drama," Ben Brantley of The New York Times divulges that the original source material helped him weather the loss of three individuals close to him. But apparently, the play is a disappointment when compared to the book: "[I]t is in the quiet between the words, as she tastes and digests what she has said, that Ms. Redgrave -- playing a character named Joan Didion -- comes closest to capturing Ms. Didion’s voice and the delicate layering of harsh feelings that made the book such a stunner....I never felt the magnetic pull that I experienced in reading the book. Though the script is by Ms. Didion, with many of its sentences lifted directly from the memoir, I never heard Ms. Didion’s voice when Ms. Redgrave was speaking."
Noting that the piece "still works better on the page than on the stage," the Associated Press' Michael Kuchwara clearly shares Brantley's disappointment: "David Hare, better known as a playwright than a director, has statically staged Magical Thinking. Redgrave is anchored to that chair for much of the evening. Behind her are a series of curtains resembling a shoreline -- perhaps the beach at Malibu where Didion, Dunne and their daughter spent some of their happiest times together....Redgrave wisely refuses to resort to impersonation, although she does affect an odd accent that sounds vaguely mid-Atlantic American."
Even less complimentary is Eric Grode of The New York Sun: "As counterintuitive as it may seem, the stage incarnation has a sterility that the book lacked, despite the presence of a living, breathing presence to lead us through these memories. Ms. Didion (portrayed by Ms. Redgrave) informs the audience that we are all going to lose our loved ones most likely sooner than we think. 'You don't want to think it could happen to you,' she says. 'That's why I'm here.' This shift in tone is understandable but not necessarily wise....Mr. Hare's obvious directorial contributions are few and far between: a few unnecessary dollops of sound effects and a series of wistful, watercolor-style backdrops from set designer Bob Crowley that subdivide the play into what amounts to chapters. He has also helped whittle Ms. Redgrave's performance to a piercing minimum, drawing upon her regal composure and her ability to rivet audiences with the sparest of movements."
Personally, I have not yet taken the time to read Didion's book. Given the disappointment in the reviews by those who already have -- and Clive Barnes' brave admission that he has not -- I think I'll be waiting to do so until after I've taken in the performance in early May.
This evening, one of the most revered theatrical actresses of our time formally returns to the Broadway stage as The Year Of Magical Thinkingopens at the Booth Theatre. Vanessa Redgrave portrays Joan Didion in the stage adaptation of the author's best-selling, critically-acclaimed book.
Yesterday, New York Post's Michael Riedel discussed the prominent buzz surrounding this one woman show, noting how strong the word-of-mouth is already. And considering the limited run production has already generated $4 million in advance ticket sales (I'm personally waiting until May to take in a performance), some are calling it this season's "perfect snob hit."
Whatever you decide to call it, The Year Of Magical Thinking will no doubt provide inspiration for many non-theatregoers to visit the Booth over the next couple of months. I'll let you know tomorrow what the critics thought of their visits over the past few nights.
It's been nearly four years since one of acting's greatest was last seen treading Broadway's boards. But tonight, preview audiences will finally have their first opportunity to see Vanessa Redgrave perform as Joan Didion in the stage incarnation of the author's incredibly personal memoir The Year Of Magical Thinking.
During her last appearance on the Great White Way, Redgrave earned a very well-deserved Tony Award for her haunting, riveting performance as Mary Tyrone in the amazing revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. I was so captivated by it that the production ranked among the five best shows I saw during the 2002-03 Theatrical Season.
As for the source material of this new play, it's interesting to note that Didion once harbored a desire to perform on the stage herself. Her fascinating story on that short-lived quest -- and her disbelief that anyone would want to turn her poignant book on loss into a play -- is included in this past Sunday's The New York Times.
With David Hare at the helm, this all adds up to a must-see event for me. The Year Of Magical Thinking officially opens at the Booth Theatre on March 29. The limited engagement is set to conclude on June 30.
Vanessa Redgrave to Make Broadway Return as Joan Didion
Looks like Broadway's Booth Theatre will be a very popular destination over the next twelve months. As the current home to the critically-acclaimed, limited engagement of Faith Healer, the Booth was named earlier this week as the venue for the Broadway revival of Simon Gray's Butley with Nathan Lane. Now comes word from The New York Timesthat another lofty occupant -- Vanessa Redgrave -- will settle in March 29, 2007.
Redgrave is set to perform a one-woman show based on novelist Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking," her lauded autobiographical account of her personal tragedies over the past few years. In her last foray onto the Broadway stage three years ago, Redgrave expertly carried the audience with her on a downward spiral as Mary Tyrone in the celebrated revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night. That heartbreaking performance won her a Tony.
Direction will be provided by British playwright David Hare (The Breath Of Life, The Blue Room and Stuff Happens).
It seems as though every time I enter the storied Booth Theatre -- named in 1913 for the preeminent American actor of the 19th Century Edwin Booth, who was also the brother to the infamous John Wilkes Booth -- I can count on seeing captivating live theatre. With the addition of Didion's work next year, that trend will surely continue.
Rain: A Tribute To The Beatles Limited run extended through May 31, 2011 (Show will go on hiatus starting January 15 and reopen at Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 8)
Rock Of Ages - Open-ended run (Show will go on hiatus starting January 9 and reopen at Helen Hayes Theatre in March)
As someone who has been involved in both politics and public relations, it's no wonder I love watching theatre. Good or bad, it's the raw energy of seeing a live performance that gets my adrenaline pumping. From the moment I saw my very first Broadway show ("Annie" in London in 1979), I was hooked. Now I see as many as 70 shows each year ranging from soaring musicals to two-hander plays. And these eyes just may be in an audience near you!
