Driving Miss Daisy

Written By Alfred Uhry
Directed By B.J. Underwood

March 2-18, 2019
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm
Sunday Matinee at 2pm

Performed at 5th Avenue Antiques

The place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. But, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other, until, eventually, they become almost a couple.

Featuring: Kathleen Jensen, Matthew Whaley, and others

Alfred Uhry is the only playwright ever to win the Triple Crown: an Oscar, a Tony, and a Pulitzer Prize. He began his career as a lyric writer under contract to the late Frank Loesser. In that capacity he made his Broadway debut in 1968 with HERE'S WHERE I BELONG. He then wrote the book and lyrics for THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM and was nominated for a Tony Award. He followed that with five re-created musicals at the Goodspeed Opera House. In 1987 his first play, DRIVING MISS DAISY, opened at Playwrights Horizons Theatre in New York. It was subsequently moved to the John Houseman Theatre, where it ran for over 1300 performances. The play earned many awards, including the Outer Critics Circle Award and the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. For the film version, he won an Academy Award and the film itself was voted Best Picture of the Year. Other films include "Mystic Pizza" and "Rich in Love." Mr. Uhry's second play, LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, which was commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, opened on Broadway in February 1997. It has been chosen Best Play by the American Theatre Critics Association, The Outer Critics Circle, and the Drama League, and the 1997 Tony Award. He worked on PARADE, a musical play about the Leo Frank case, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown and directed by Harold Prince.