Today we celebrate what would have been Angela Lansbury’s 97th birthday with Broadway’s Best Shows’ 2021 “Show of Titles” special tribute to Angela, “Angie” as friends called her, performed by Len Cariou, Rob McClure and Aaron Tveit. We miss you deeply already, Angie.
All week long Broadway’s Best Shows will be sharing memories from friends and colleagues.
By Lindsey Delahunt
60 years ago on this date in 1962, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? exploded on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theatre; the author was an acclaimed Off-Broadway playwright, Edward Albee, whose previous successes had included The Zoo Story, An American Dream and The Death of Bessie Smith. The director was Alan Schneider, whose reputation soared after this production and went on to direct several Albee plays (Tiny Alice, A Delicate Balance, and The Ballad of the Sad Café) as well as major productions of Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, and Robert Anderson. His life was tragically cut short when he was killed in an accident in London, when he looked to his left for traffic on a cross street, forgetting that motor vehicles traveled on the left side of the road, and was hit by a motorcycle. The play won Tony Awards for its leading actors, Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill, who were supported by George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon and became a cause celebre, as well as the talk of the town, when it was passed over for a Pulitzer Prize despite the recommendation of the advisors to the Pulitzer Prize board. It was said to have been denied the award because of its frank language and explicit sexual themes. It played for 664 performances, it did not have an out of town engagement, there were only five previews when it opened in New York, and the first-string critics all attended the opening night.
One of the intriguing anecdotes concerning the production was the potential involvement of Henry Fonda, the great film actor who periodically returned to the stage every few years beginning in 1948 with Mister Roberts, then Point of No Return, then The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, Two For the Seesaw and Critic’s Choice. His agent rejected the script out of hand, without consulting him. The agent gave as his reason the assertion that, “You don’t want to be in a play about four people yelling at each other all the time.” Fonda, who was an admirer of playwright Edward Albee’s talents, reportedly was furious. Finally seeing the show himself, Fonda was duly impressed by Arthur Hill’s performance in the role, and conceded that he couldn’t have played the part any better.
In 1970, he and Richard Burton approached Albee about doing an all-male version; for the younger couple they wanted Warren Beatty and Jon Voight, but the playwright turned them down.
Virginia Woolf didn’t come to Broadway again until 1976 when Ben Gazzara and Colleen Dewhurst co-starred in a production at the Music Box Theatre. It played for slightly over 3 months and unlike the original production, which had a second company doing matinees due to the length and the fierce, uncompromising battle of the sexes (that second company by the way included Elaine Stritch at one point), Gazzara and Dewhurt played all eight performances.
By that time Virginia Woolf had entered into the canon of major American plays, helped also by the film version which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, with Sandy Dennis and George Segal in support. Major artists who interpreted the roles over the years ranged from Mike Nichols and Elaine May to a recent production in Los Angeles with Zachary Quinto and Calista Flockhart.
The next time that Virginia Woolf appeared on Broadway was approximately 28 years after the first revival, which was 14 years after the original. Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin were Martha and George and Irwin won a Tony for his performance. He had earned the admiration of Albee when he stepped in to do The Goat after Bill Pullman had departed. The play alternated seven and eight performances bi-weekly and played for 177 performances. Since the 60’s when Hagen and Elizabeth Taylor (who won an Oscar), the role of Martha has eluded the top prize but George in the three out of four major Broadway productions has provided Tony Awards for its interpreters.
The most acclaimed revival came to Broadway in a very roundabout way just seven years after the Turner-Irwin. For the first time the artist who staged the play was a woman who had done resident theatre productions of The Play About the Baby (Philadelphia Stage Company), The Goat or Who is Sylvia (the Alley Theatre) and the world premiere of Pete and Jerry at the Hartford Stage Theatre; the latter served an opener to The Zoo Story. Pam Mackinnon, the director, had the previous season brilliantly directed the award-winning play Clybourne Park and wanted to do Virginia Woolf with Amy Morton as Martha Henry. Molly Smyth, Artistic Director, was all set to do the production, which had been approved, when Martha Lavey, the Artistic Director of Steppenwolf, insisted that as Amy Morton was a member of the company it had been to be done at that theatre first. Albee had never allowed a play of his to be done at Steppenwolf, but Mackinnon was persuasive and the play began its life there in 2011-2012 and then traveled to the Arena Stage. The response to the production was overwhelming, there were two performances left, when Lavey called the New York producer Jeffrey Richards and ask him to come and see the production, noting his relationship with Amy and Tracy Letts (portraying George) from August: Osage County and Superior Donuts. The matinee performance was magnificent, so much so that Richards and his producing partner Susan Gallin immediately decided to bring it to New York. Albee’s agent, Jonathan Lomma, was called who met with Richards the next afternoon and granted the rights. The play now titled Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? again awarded the George (Tracy Letts) with a Tony Award, Mackinnon with the Best Director Award, and the play won Best Revival. Noteworthy note: it was the first time two American women directors had won the Tony Award in the same year (Mackinnon for Woolf, Diane Paulus for Pippin).
When Richards met with Albee, he asked why it was now called Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Richards had retitled, with the playwright’s permission, the generic The Best Man to Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. Albee said he had seen a program of a production in a resident theatre in which his name was so small that he felt that it would never happen again if his name was in the title.
At intermission when the play opened, 50 years to the actual date of the first production, Albee agreed to come onstage at the end of the performance and received a standing ovation. It was the last time he was to appear on stage at the conclusion of one of his plays.
A production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was scheduled to open in March 2020 with Rupert Everett (initially Eddie Izzard had been announced) and Laurie Metcalf as George and Martha and Joe Mantello was the director. Sadly it was one of the productions which never reopened after Covid and it was the production which signaled the beginning of the Broadway shutdown when an usher at the theatre was found to have Covid.
By Robyn Roberts
Poland born Martyna Majok—her last name pronounced like “my oak”, which is perfect, really, because her path to get here is like that of a stunning and mighty tree that keeps growing upward—won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for her original play, Cost of Living. The play is a story about the relationships between the disabled and the abled, and the exploration into the parallels between the haves and the have-nots. Without even stopping to catch her breath as the curtain lifted on debut night, Majok graciously answered our most pressing questions we had for the playwright.
Read on to learn how Majok draws on inspiration for her characters, her first peek at theatre (thanks, mom!), and how grief and financial instability led to a Pulitzer.
1). Give us a brief synopsis of your background. What your hopes and dreams were as a child, and how you came to be the playwright you are today.
I was born in Poland and came to America with my mom a few years after the fall of The Wall. We moved to working class North Jersey — right at the end of the PATH train — where my mom worked in factories and cleaned houses. I didn’t grow up with theatre. Then one day, while my mom was cleaning a house, she came across a pamphlet that had been set out for recycling. It was for “something called ‘Cabaret’.” And John Stamos was starring in it. So my mom brought it home for me, informing me that “Uncle Jessie was in NYC!” Around that same time, I’d won $45 playing pool (at a pool hall ironically named ‘Guys & Dolls’), the most I’d ever won. And the cheapest tickets happened to be $45…
I knew nothing about the show going in. This, of course, turned out to be the iconic Sam Mendes’ production at Studio 54, originally starring Alan Cumming. I was shaken to be in a theatre, full of that much life. And I was moved to be experiencing a story that did not compromise the difficulties of the times — and that reality invited me into its world and storytelling. It communicated to me that both things could exist together — truth and generosity — that ultimately connected a group of strangers to each other and to their own lives. There were many steps and struggles along the way to becoming a playwright, but it was that experience that lit the fire in me. I wanted to devote my days to inspiring that much life in others.
2). Tell us a little about your first successful piece of work, when you knew that life and work would be a bit different thereafter.
The most personally meaningful moment at one of my own plays was at the opening night performance of Ironbound in Round House Theatre in DC. The play is largely inspired by my mother’s life. Like many working class immigrants, she spent much of her life doing the physically demanding, undersung work that keeps this country running. I was sitting next to my mother in the theatre. And as the final lights went down on the show, and the audience leapt to their feet for a standing ovation, I felt like they were applauding my mother. Standing up for and seeing her life and her struggles.
3) What inspires you to write a new play or story? Is it the world around you, perhaps? Or, experiences taken from moments and people throughout your life?
A combination. There’s usually something churning in my life that I’m having trouble looking at. Then, something external will unexpectedly hit against that and get my imagination going — a moment I’ve observed, an anecdote I’ve heard, something I’ve read. I start writing once I can hear dialogue. And I learn who my characters are as I go.
Many, though not all, of my characters are composites of people I know or have been. The humor of one person, a particular experience of another, the speaking rhythms of this one or that one, etc — I mix bits of myself and others, and situate them in worlds I’ve lived in. I write to find out what I feel.
4) For Cost of Living, what inspired you to write this story?
Grief. Financial instability. And my experiences as a caregiver.
5) Incredible to have won a Pulitzer. What was that recognition and winning that award like for you?
Absolutely incredible. An amazing, amazing honor. And a complete surprise. When my agent called to tell me, I didn’t believe him for a full ten minutes. I hope most of all that the award, as well as the play being on Broadway, amplifies this story — and its performers — and encourages theatres to more widely produce stories like it. And not just on its small stages.
6) Any particular moments from seeing Cost of Living live that stick with you most?
There is a moment in the play that I don’t want to spoil…but it has to do with the vulnerability of the human body. And every night, the audience has such a strong, collective reaction. At one point, an audience member even got out of her seat and started going toward the stage to try to help what she thought was happening. To me, those audience reactions show me how much we actually care for one another, as humans in the world. How connected we actually are.
7) What do you hope the audience learns, feels, or takes with them, after seeing Cost of Living?
I hope they see themselves and others — and feel more connected, less alone. I hope they find a home with these characters. I hope they yearn with them. I hope they laugh and I hope they cry (I say this as someone who loves crying in the theatre.) I hope they feel every feeling.
When I was preparing to start rehearsals, I worried whether I would be ‘over’ the play. But that first read hit me so deeply. It seemed to hit everyone in that room deeply. I think after having experienced these past two years, after all this collective loss and struggle, Cost of Living and its themes speak to us in a much more impactful way. The play’s been good for my soul. I hope it is for others’ as well.
8) How’s it going so far with The Great Gatsby?
Wonderfully. Florence [Welch, of Florence + the Machine] and Thomas’ [Bartlett, a.k.a. Doveman] music is beautiful and transcendent. All the collaborators have been a joy to work with. I can’t wait to share this piece with the world.
[end]
And we cannot wait to see it. Our sincere thanks to Martyna Majok for indulging us so vivaciously. How fortunate we are, to have her unique perspectives unfold in diverse storytelling to better our own theatre experiences. Get your tickets to Cost of Living on Broadway now, and stay tuned for her upcoming adaptation of Broadway’s The Great Gatsby coming soon!
by Jordan Levinson
With rumors currently spreading regarding a forthcoming transfer of Once Upon a One More Time at the Marquis Theatre in the spring, it means New York City is being treated to three different musicals in the 2022-23 season using fairy tales as their inspiration (also Into the Woods and the forthcoming Bad Cinderella).
Why fairy tales? Perhaps the answer lies in the colorful utopia in which these stories are set: a perfect world free of corruption, plague, and strife, and full of love and magic defined by larger-than-life creatures, humans or not. In this second full Broadway season back from an 18-month COVID-19 shutdown, it can be assumed theatregoers want to forget their troubles and be transported to a different environment — and the familiarity of centuries-old fairy tales can help their cause, serving as lighthearted, bubblegum fare to all those in need of it.
But there’s a twist though…this season, these stories that have been told and retold for generations are not always the ones you think you know. Audiences will head to their seats expecting the familiar, but instead be treated to new, diverse tales with some recognizable figures.
Take, for instance, Once Upon a One More Time. While utilizing the impressive back catalogue of pop princess Britney Spears, Jon Hartmere’s book brings the Brothers Grimm’s princesses together at a book club. There, a fairy godmother introduces the group to Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique”, inspiring them to gain new perspective on themselves and their lives. The women eventually realize that waiting for their princes or knights in shining armor to arrive and kiss them may not be the only path to “happily ever after.”
Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods also combines multiple Grimm stories to form an original creation. Though the show begins rather lighthearted, it eventually becomes the darker side of a fairy tale. James Lapine’s book introduces a common everyman and everywoman — the Baker and his wife — and their quest to start a family. To do so, they must reverse the curse that a witch has placed on their house. The two interact with Jack, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood. It turns out, they all have something they wish for — and the latter half of the show teaches audiences a harsh truth: granted wishes have consequences and repercussions, so “careful the wish you make.”
A second revival kicked off the current Broadway season in late June 2022; it was originally staged in 1987 and revived for the first time in 2002.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bad Cinderella will begin previews at the Imperial Theatre on February 17, prior to a March 23 official opening. Here, the famous titular damsel in distress is both a damsel and a distress. Cinderella is a goth-dressing, rebellious outcast in Belleville, a town that prides itself on beauty and attractiveness. Also, her beloved Prince Charming (as seen in other works) is seemingly dead; his younger brother — the shy Prince Sebastian — is Cinderella’s only friend and love interest. Other plot points in this new adaptation include reflections on body shaming and some recast gender relationships.
Some credit must also be given to Between the Lines, which had a brief Off-Broadway run at the beginning of the season. Although it isn’t based on any particular fairy tale (the basis is Jodi Picoult’s YA novel of the same name), this musical follows a high school girl who escapes her difficult life at home and school by reading books. In particular, she is struck by a fictional fairy tale involving a prince who she has a crush on. When the prince starts talking to her, she longs to escape into his world; however, if the two want to stay together, they must change the story he is stuck in so that they can control their own narrative.
Of course, adapting fairy tales into Broadway musicals is not a brand-new trend; more traditional productions have popped up through the years. As early as 1903, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — considered by some to be America’s first great fairy tale — was musicalized for the first time before receiving a legendary film adaptation in 1939 and a Motown makeover in 1975’s The Wiz. Wicked — the backstory of the two witches of Oz — provided a prequel of The Wizard of Oz in 2003 and is still currently running on Broadway.
In 2013, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella opened on Broadway for the first time. Although more traditional (and true to the Grimm original) than something like Bad Cinderella, librettist Douglas Carter Beane adapted the old tale by throwing in some small additions to bolster the show’s running time, including a romantic subplot, several new characters, and a sympathetic stepsister.
The various stories of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen have also made their way to the Great Bright Way; in 1959, his The Princess and the Pea was adapted into Once Upon a Mattress. The plot chronicles a far-off place in which its inhabitants must abstain from marriage until Prince Dauntless — the Queen’s son — finds a bride of his own. The Mary Rodgers tuner received a Broadway revival in 1996.
Finally, no list on musical fairy tales would be complete without mentioning the success of Disney on Broadway. Under the leadership of Thomas Schumacher, the Mouse has launched many of its films into the theatrical medium. The venture launched in 1994 with the purple-and-gold warhorse known as Beauty and the Beast, running for 13 years at two different houses and ushering in a new era of commercial Broadway theatre that continues to this day, before closing to make way for a splash-hit adaptation of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid (which in turn, was given a Caribbean twist in Once on This Island).
Andersen’s most recent Broadway adaptation was a twist on his short story “The Snow Queen.” Following the runaway success of the 2013 animated feature Frozen, Disney did not miss a beat and brought a stage version to New York five years later. The heartwarming story about two sisters who find love where they least expect it thawed many cold hearts, and it had a solid run at the St. James Theatre before the COVID-19 shutdown provided its knockout punch.
If you’re looking for a modern take on a classic, look no further than the American Airlines Theater. The 1969 Tony Award Winning Best Musical, 1776 is back on Broadway with a modern revival full of comedy and commentary. For the first time on Broadway, the cast of characters, founding fathers from the history books arguing for the fate of a nation, are portrayed by a diverse group of actors who all identify as female, transgender, and nonbinary. Crystal Lucas-Perry commands attention as the fiery John Adams, fighting on the side of independence from the tyrannical rule of Great Britain. Carolee Carmello brings a suave strength to the loyalist John Dickinson. Other stand outs include Elizabeth A. Davis as Thomas Jefferson and Sara Porkalob as Edward Rutledge, who’s haunting rendition of “Molasses to Rum” cuts deep. Directed by Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus, this fresh Roundabout/A.R.T production allows us to reimagine the creation of our country through the lens of those excluded from the room without losing any of the patriotism from Sherman Edwards’ and Peter Stone’s original material.
If you’re feeling the least bit down (or depressed), a play that could make you realize how fortunate you are opened at the Samuel J. Friedman on Broadway. It’s a play about loneliness and loss, relationships and hopefulness and it is a powerful and touching play. The winner of a Pulitzer Prize four years ago for its gifted playwright Martyna Majok it has been beautifully directed by Jo Bonney and the four actors that will imprint themselves on your memory are Greg Mozgala, Katy Sullivan, Kara Young and David Zayas. Young, who was Tony nominated last year for her work in “Clydes” is one of Broadway brightest new stars. A salute to Lynn Meadow who has been the Artistic Director of the Manhattan Theatre Club for 50 years and her colleague Executive Producer Barry Grove (48 years), both who have contributed mightily to the American theatre.
Capsule Review By Aubrey Blaine
Cost of Living is now playing at MTC
By Robyn Roberts
Jayne Baron Sherman has produced a wealth of Broadway shows and her IBDB reads like a laundry list of the theatre’s best hits since the early aughts. From 2004’s A Raisin in the Sun to the long-running Kinky Boots ten years later, Sherman seems to know good storytelling and what might resonate with a wide audience. So we wondered—what inspires Jayne Baron Sherman to want to be a part of a new production? Luckily for us, Sherman obliged. Read on for the producer’s reflections on seeing more headscarves in the audience on Broadway, and the timely stage debut of a 91 year old author.
On the phone with Sherman, we dove right in. What inspires this producer to take on a new Broadway production? Sherman didn’t hesitate to answer, telling us that a story must touch her in a personal way, that she must feel compelled to share these stories and experiences with others. “It must touch my heart and soul, yes, but it also needs to have some impact on the world,” Sherman says. “Therefore, no fluff, but a chance to see everyday lives differently, through a new window.” Keeping her producer’s hat firmly on, Sherman adds that a new production must be commercially viable too, and that her instinct for this isn’t always right, but admits to having a pretty decent track record commercially, and we’d agree to that.
For the current production of American novelist Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler, Sherman tells us that two things have stuck with her most each time she sees it live (which is frequently): The sincere diversity, for starters, does her heart good. “Seeing more women in the audience with headscarves, it sticks with you,” she says. “Witnessing the way the audience is touched by the performances of the actors, and the actors themselves, feels new each time. Each production brings out a new reaction. The majority of times, they jump to their feet and cheer when the lights go on, which is unique for a play—usually reserved for musicals—but it’s a story of redemption that ends on an uplifting redemptive note, which is rewarding in storytelling.”
Sherman goes on to explain that certain scenes from The Kite Runner still bring her to tears after so many times, and seeing the audience react similarly to that is special. “This is a fully authentic cast of fine actors that are so happy to be a part of this production. They are not out of central casting. They have been refugees themselves, or have immigrant family members. They’ve lived the life to truly share this window with you. It’s an experience.”
The Kite Runner on Broadway is a must-see experience indeed, and one that will close soon, at the end of this month.
Speaking of current productions, we were curious about what Sherman thought was inspiring Broadway of late, so we asked her. We especially wanted to know if the producer thought there were any current parallels to the shows, whether that be nostalgia exacerbated by the pandemic, politics or pop culture or all of the above. Turns out, nostalgia will always play a leading role in audience demand, but quality content comes to mind too. “Showgoers are simply thrilled to be back”, Sherman tells us. “Nostalgia is always a big deal for viewers, and maybe more so right now. Into The Woods has a host of celebrity actors, which is a draw for out of towners especially. The Kite Runner is probably more timely now than during its London run. Especially with Afghanistan today, Ukraine, and Iran, most notably recent. The Kite Runner has adopted four different non-profits helping Helping refugees and women to resettle, and aiding women with diminished rights in Afghanistan, and other essential, timely and localized needs. We put inserts in Playbills with QR codes to get involved, and we have them on signage in the lobbies as well. These are vetted organizations and we’re finding that more and more people today want to help beyond their own backyards.”
As for what’s currently inspiring Sherman? We wanted to know where she goes for inspiration, and how she stays creatively motivated to keep going. It’s the old art of people watching for this producer. “I’m always looking for ways to expand people’s horizons and views, to help them see things a bit differently. As an activist in the LGBTQ+ community for years, I’m constantly inspired by storytelling that touches people in unfound ways and opens their eyes a bit wider. The ‘touching’ doesn’t need to be a hammer, it can be a nudge which can actually be more effective.” Sign us up for people watching with Jayne, stat.
Finally, we wanted to know if Sherman could share any small tidbits about her upcoming production of Ohio State Murders, which debuts on Broadway in December. Giving us just a taste in order to entice us into the theatre for more, Sherman exudes excitement that’s a bit harder to contain. “It will be a very interesting evening of theatre! Audra McDonald plays a novelist, and she also plays herself as a younger college student. This is a cast of five actors and it unravels as a mystery—a whodunit—so the audience will be thoroughly engaged! There’s an exploration of race dynamics and how that’s unfolded over the years, which plays into the mystery of the story. Seeing this production live will be a riveting evening of 75 or 80 minutes total but it’s a big one. And, another absolutely thrilling main dish of this show—it’s the author, Adrienne Kennedy’s Broadway debut at 91 years old. Her debut will open the new James Earl Jones Theatre, a gorgeous spectacle to witness on its own.”
Another noteworthy honor from the incredible playwright Adrienne Kennedy—in 2022 she became the sixteenth recipient of the Gold Medal award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Drama. Only two awards in the rotating categories have been given each year since 1909, and the Drama list includes such talent as Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard, to name a few.
Many thanks to Jayne Baron Sherman for allowing us to pick her Broadway-loving brain.
Be sure and see The Kite Runner before its New York close this month, and get your tickets for this December’s production of the must-see mystery, the Ohio State Murders.
Gore’s first venture in the theatre was the result of a teleplay that had been produced on the Goodyear Playhouse in 1955; It was described thusly: “A visitor from another planet arrives on Earth and seems anxious to provoke a war- “one thing you people do really well”. The teleplay starred Cyril Ritchard, at the height of his US popularity having created the role of Captain Hook in Peter Pan. He starred as Kreton, the visitor who had hoped to cover the United States during the Civil War, and through a time warp, had arrived in the 1950’s, upending the household of a General in Manassas, Virginia. The popularity of the Playhouse presentation inspired Gore to expand the “Visit” into a full-length play and it opened to mostly positive reviews in February of 1957.
Brooks Atkinson in the Times called “Planet” “uproarious” and Life Magazine called it “the freshest and funniest invasion of the Broadway season.” Not only did Ritchard create the role, he also directed the production. The play was later adapted into a Jerry Lewis film which bore little resemblance to the original. In the fall of 2000, there was a special reading of “Visit to a Small Planet at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre. The cast included Alan Cumming (as the Visitor), Lily Tomlin (in the gender-changed role of the General), Philip Bosco, Christine Baranski, Kristin Chenoweth and Tony Randall, directed by John Tillinger. One could have charged premium tickets. While the reading was positively received, its future was dimmed when Cumming, who was approached to continue in the role, was unable to schedule a commitment.
His most famous play would open three years later. When it opened in 1960, it was simply titled “The Best Man” and acclaimed as one of the best political plays ever on Broadway. It ran for over a year at the Morosco Theatre and the leading role won Melvyn Douglas the Tony Award for Best Actor. In the fall Douglas had portrayed President Warren G. Harding in “The Gang’s All Here” but here he was merely a former Secretary of State who was was an aspiring Presidential Candidate at a convention. The play was written pre-primary politics which has subsequently become a staple on the American scene, though that spring there would be the first highly publicized major Presidential primary with Senators Stuart Symington, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy vying to be the Democratic candidate. In the play the opposing candidates were famously drawn upon Adlai Stevenson who had twice been the Democratic presidential candidate and Richard Nixon. Almost stealing the spotlight was the character of the ex-President and potential kingmaker (patterned after Harry Truman) portrayed by Lee Tracy, who recreated the role in the film, which co-starred Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.
When the play was revived in the year 2000, it came on the heels of the popular film “The Best Man” which starred Taye Diggs. When the producer Jeffrey Richards, with director Ethan McSweeney, travelled to Ravello to meet with Vidal, it was suggested, to avoid confusion, that the play be retitled “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man”. Gore’s response: “I thought you’d never ask”. The production which co-starred Charles During, Spalding Gray, Chris Noth, Elizabeth Ashley, Michael Learned and Christine Ebersole won both the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Revival and was a surprise success of the fall season. It also benefitted from the five week delay in the Presidential contest which resulted in the George Bush presidency. A line that before the election did not get a laugh was noted to receive one after November 4th when the putative candidate Joe Cantwell remarked “and the last thing we want is a deadlocked convention.”
There was a second revival of the play in 2012 with another all-star cast including John Larroquette, James Earl Jones, Eric McCormack, Angela Lansbury, Candice Bergen, Jefferson Mays, Kerry Butler, and Michael McKean. Again the play was a success. Gore attended the second week of rehearsals in a wheelchair and serenaded the company with stories about the original production and the night that JFK attended a performance. Unlike the first revival in which he joined the company on stage at a glittering opening night with celebrities in the audience included Woody Allen, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Bebe Neuwirth, Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick among others, Gore was unable to attend the second re-opening. He died later that year, during the engagement of the production, which focused attention on his life and work and, consequently, resulted in an extension of the play with a replacement cast of Cybill Shepherd, John Stamos, Elizabeth Ashley and Kristin Davis.
Gore’s third Broadway play was an adaptation of Frederich Durrenmatt’s “Romulus” about the last of the Roman emperors. premiered on Broadway in 1962; once again his director and star was Cyril Ritchard (Vidal quipped- “Cyril was a wonderful actor but as a director he would just tell the actors to stand there, in a line and recite the dialogue”) and Dame Cathleen Nesbitt and Howard DaSilva were also starred.
His fourth play reunited him with the original director of “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man”, Joseph Anthony, but did not repeat the success. The play was “Weekend “and a one sentence description of the play read as follows: “An unscrupulous Republican senator’s son brings home his black girlfriend”. The play opened in March of 1968; the previous December the Spencer Tracy-Katherine Hepburn-Sidney Poitier film had a similar racial theme in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and was Oscar-nominated and a big box office success. “Weekend” was neither a box office success, despite a starry cast which included John Forsythe, Rosemary Harris and Academy Award winner Kim Hunter and introduced Carol Cole, Nat King Cole’s daughter, as the girlfriend, nor was it well received. The producers advertised it without quotes calling it THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE. It wasn’t. It played three weeks at the Broadhurst Theatre.
Gore’s fifth and final play on Broadway was in 1972; a blistering satire called “An Evening With Richard Nixon and…” with George S. Irving in the title role. Originally scheduled to be directed by (Sir) Peter Hall, it was directed by Ed Sherin, who had staged “The Great White Hope”. It opened 50 years ago and was budgeted at $150,000; there was a cast of fifteen (with a very young Susan Sarandon) portraying a gallery of over 50 characters ranging from George Washington to JFK, including, FDR, Harry Truman, Thomas E. Dewey, Dwight Eisenhower, FDR, Gloria Steinem and Pat Nixon – Clive Barnes in his review said “I laughed a great deal at this political bloodletting” but had reservations about the play’s cumulative impact. So did audiences, and without the star power that had been associated with previous Vidal entries, the play last only two weeks after opening at the Shubert Theatre.
Gore’s final play that received a production premiered at Duke as part of Duke Theatres’ Previews in 2005. A glittering cast headed by Charles During, Chris Noth, Michael Learned, Harris Yulin, Richard Easton, Isabel Keating and David Turner brought “On the March to the Sea” to life for a brief engagement. Directed by Warner Shook, who had brought “The Kentucky Cycle” to Broadway, “Sea” was a noble effort that failed to march on to New York. The play concerned a Georgian family’s trial by fire during Sherman’s famous march during the Civil War. Vidal delighted students at a writing class with various bon mots such as “The best writers have been actors…Shakespeare, Shaw, Twain, Wilder.”; “Reading is like going to bed with someone. Save Jane Eyre for a dismal night” and on the staged reading format of the play “naked language…the eye is not distracted by the adventurous and dangerous set designer”…
Gore had developed and was retooling a script inspired by his novel Lincoln (which had also been a mini-series on television in the late 80’s) when he passed away. A reading had been scheduled and ultimately was not realized.