Cast
James Earl Jones (Hoke Coleburn)
James Earl Jones’s voice is known by people of all ages and walks of life – the Star Wars fans who know him as the voice of ‘Darth Vader,’ children who know him as ‘Mufasa’ from Disney’s The Lion King, and those who hear him intone “This is CNN” while watching the news. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1957 and had his first breakthrough role in 1960 when Joseph Papp cast him in Shakespeare’s Henry V, marking the beginning of Jones’s long affiliation with the New York Shakespeare Festival, eventually counting the title roles of Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear among his many distinguished performances for the company. Jones has won Tony Awards for the Broadway productions of The Great White Hope and Fences; a Tony nomination for On Golden Pond; Drama Desk Awards for Othello, Les Blancs, Hamlet, The Cherry Orchard and Fences; Obie Awards for Clandestine on the Morning Line, The Apple, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and Baal; a Theatre World Award for Moon on a Rainbow Shawl; and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Fences. Additional theatre credits include Paul Robeson, The Iceman Cometh, Of Mice and Men and most recently the Broadway and London productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor). Films include: The Great White Hope (Academy Award nomination), Dr. Strangelove, Claudine, The Comedians, The River Niger, The Greatest, A Piece of the Action, Gardens of Stone, Coming to America, The Sandlot, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Matewan, Cry the Beloved Country and Field of Dreams. His wide ranging TV career includes two primetime Emmy Awards (for “Gabriel’s Fire” and “Heat Wave”) and six other nominations. Other highlights include: “Roots: The Next Generation” and a great number of guest roles in series ranging from “The Defenders” and “Dr. Kildare” to more recently, “Two and a Half Men” and “House.” Jones was awarded the National Medal of Arts and is a Kennedy Center honoree. His memoir, last published by Limelight Editions in 2002, is called Voices and Silences.
Vanessa Redgrave (Daisy Werthan)
Vanessa Redgrave’s latest appearance on Broadway was a benefit performance for the Roundabout Theatre of Steven Sondheim’s A Little Night Music as Madame Armsfeldt, her daughter Natasha Richardson playing Desiree Armsfeldt, with a magnificent cast on January 12, 2009. She was seen in Joan Didion’s play The Year of Magical Thinking, at the Booth Theatre, directed by Sir David Hare, and produced by Scott Rudin in 2007. This production transferred to the Royal National Theatre in London in 2008. Vanessa also appeared in New York in Tony Harrison’s RSC production of Euripides’ Hecuba in 2005, in Eugene O’ Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in 2003, as Cleopatra in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra at the Public Theatre in 1996, in Vita and Virginia by and with Dame Eileen Atkins in 1995, and Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending in 1989, directed by Sir Peter Hall, transferred from London’s Haymarket Theatre. Her most recent film was this summer’s Letters to Juliet, directed by Gary Winick, with her husband Franco Nero. Her new season films are Miral, directed by Julian Schnabel, The Whistleblower with Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes’ film of Coriolanus, and Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous. Her professional life’s ambition was fulfilled when she produced and played in HBO Films’ The Fever, written by Wallace Shawn and directed by Carlo Nero, with Angelina Jolie and Rade Serbedzija, televised by HBO in 2007. Vanessa feels very much honored to appear in Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines, directed by David Esbjornson, and produced by Jed Bernstein, Adam Zotovich, and a number of superb Broadway producers.
Boyd Gaines (Boolie Werthan)
Boyd Gaines most recently starred as Guthrie McClintic in The Grand Manner (Lincoln Center). Boyd was last seen on Broadway as Herbie in Gypsy for which he received his fourth Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination. Other credits include: Broadway: Pygmalion, Gypsy (City Centers Encore), Journeys End (Tony Nominee, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Twelve Angry Men, Contact (Tony Award, Lucille Lortel Awards), Cabaret, The Show Off, She Loves Me (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award), Company, The Heidi Chronicles (Tony Award). Off-Broadway: Bach at Leipzig, Major Barbara, The Shawl, Comedy of Errors, The Extra Man, The Maderati, Winter’s Tale, Barbarians, A Month in the Country (Theatre World Award). Regional: Williamstown, Westport Playhouse, Yale Rep, Center Stage, Long Wharf, Guthrie, Kennedy Center. Film: Funny Games, Lovely by Surprise, Second Best, I’m Not Rappaport, Heartbreak Ridge, The Sure Thing, Porkys, Fame. TV: “The Good Wife,” “Angela’s Eyes,” “The Confession,” “Piece of Cake,” “One Day at a Time,” “L.A. Law,” “Frasier,” “Law and Order.” Training: Juilliard.
Maureen Anderman (Standby for Daisy Werthan)
A Delicate Balance (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Broadway: Seascape, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, The Lady from Dubuque, The Year of Magical Thinking, Benefactors, Social Security, You Can't Take It With You, Man Who Came to Dinner, Last of Mrs. Lincoln, Moonchildren, Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello. Off-Broadway: Waverly Gallery, Passion Play, Later Life, Ancestral Voices. Huntington Theatre, Hartford Stage, Williamstown, Long Wharf, Guthrie, Old Globe, Yale Rep. Tony, IRNE, Drama Desk nominations; Connecticut Critics & Theatre World Awards.
Allen Fitzpatrick (Standby for Boolie Werthan)
Broadway: Memphis, Les Misérables, 42nd Street, Sweet Smell of Success, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Damn Yankees, Passion, The Boys From Syracuse. Off-Broadway: Jack’s Holiday, Romola and Nijinsky, Annie Warbucks, The Rothschilds, Mimi Le Duck. National Tours: Six Degrees of Separation, Aspects of Love, Guys & Dolls, Whistle Down The Wind and Sunset Boulevard (as ‘Max’ opposite Petula Clark). Regional theatre: 160 plays. Much TV and film. Artistic Director of The Icicle Creek Theatre Festival (iciclecreekact.com).
Count Stovall (Standby for Hoke Coleburn)
Count Stovall celebrates 42 years of acting and directing. Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Dr. Baugh/Big Daddy), Inacent Black (opposite Melba Moore), A Philadelphia Story (with Blythe Danner), No Place to be Somebody (Pulitzer Prize Winning Play). Off Broadway: Bill Irwin's Scapin, Two Trains Running, Shades of Brown (AUDELCO Recognition Award Best Actor). Television: “The Good Wife,” “Army Wives,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” Film: Jack Goes Boating (2010). Thanks to Cianna, Savannah and my Countess Amianna Stovall, Esq.
Creative Team
Alfred Uhry (Playwright)
Alfred Uhry is distinguished as the only American playwright to have won a Pulitzer Prize, an Academy Award and two Tony Awards. Uhry began his professional career as a lyric writer under contract to the late Frank Loesser and made his Broadway debut in 1968 as the lyricist for Here’s Where I Belong. His first major success was Broadway’s The Robber Bridegroom, for which he wrote the book and lyrics, followed by five re-created musicals at the Goodspeed Opera House. His first play, Driving Miss Daisy, opened Off-Broadway in 1987 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. The film version, starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay in 1990. Other works include: The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Tony Award), Parade (Tony Award), Without Walls (starring Laurence Fishburne), Edgardo Mine (at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis), and the book for the Broadway musical LoveMusik (Drama Desk nomination). His latest play, Carl's Sister, will be presented at the Manhattan Theatre Club later this season.
David Esbjornson (Director)
Premieres include: Edward Albee’s The Goat or Who is Sylvia? (Broadway) and The Play About the Baby (Century), Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and the first staged presentation of Perestroika (Eureka), Homebody/Kabul (London), The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (Broadway) and Resurrection Blues by Arthur Miller (Guthrie), Neal Bell’s Therese Raquin (CSC), In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (Public), Albom/Hatcher’s Tuesdays With Morrie (Minetta Lane), Neil Simon’s Rose & Walsh, Israel Horowitz’ My Old Lady (Promenade), Kathleen Tolan’s Memory House (Playwrights) and Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio (SRT). Recent work: Moira Buffini’s Gabriel and Peter Parnell’s Trumpery (Atlantic), Allison and Margaret Engels’ Molly Ivins (PTC), Kevin Kling’s How? How? Why? Why? Why? (Cincinnati). Revivals include: Death of a Salesman (Gate-Dublin), Hamlet (TFNY), A Few Good Men (West End), All My Sons (Huntington), Much Ado About Nothing (NYSF), The Normal Heart (Public), Mud and Drowning (Signature), The Entertainer, The Maids, Endgame, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (CSC), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Summer and Smoke (Guthrie), Twelfth Night and Lady from Dubuque (SRT), Farmyard (NYTW). David has served as Artistic Director of NYC Classic Stage Company and Seattle Repertory Theatre.
John Lee Beatty (Scenic Design)
John Lee Beatty is happy to be rejoined with colleagues Jane Greenwood and Peter Kaczorowski. This is his 93rd production on Broadway, where he is currently represented by Time Stands Still and Chicago, and he also designed Alfred Uhry's Last Night of Ballyhoo. A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, he is a recipient of the Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle awards and a member of the Theater Hall of Fame.
Jane Greenwood (Costume Design)
Jane Greenwood has designed over 125 productions on Broadway since Ballad of the Sad Café in 1963. She has designed for Off-Broadway, opera, dance and film. 15 Tony Award nominations, Irene Sharaff Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Helen Hayes Award (Washington) and The Lilly Award. She is a professor at Yale School of Drama.
Peter Kaczorowski (Lighting Design)
Select Broadway: Time Stands Still, A View from the Bridge, Waiting for Godot, Young Frankenstein, Grey Gardens, Curtains, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Steel Pier. Recent Off-Broadway: Venus in Fur, Ruined, The Brother/Sister Plays. Extensive credits for most leading resident and regional theaters in the U.S. Opera: The Met, NYCO, San Francisco, Houston Grand, Santa Fe, Seattle. Abroad: Royal Opera, Scottish Opera, Maggio Florence, L’Arena di Verona, La Fenice, Bonn, Lisbon. Awards: Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Dramalogue, Hewes.
Mark Bennett (Composer)
Broadway (Composer & Sound Designer; partial listing): A Steady Rain, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Coast of Utopia (Drama Desk Award; Music/Hewes Award: Sound Design) Henry IV, Golda’s Balcony, The Goat (dir. D. Esbjornson). Off-Broadway: Why Torture is Wrong, Antony and Cleopatra (dir. V. Redgrave) & nine other Shakespeare productions for The Public Theater; Valhalla, Mad Forest, My Children, My Africa, l’Illusion (New York Theater Workshop). 12 Drama Desk Nominations, Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, Bessie, Garland, and Ovation Awards.
Christopher Cronin (Sound Design)
Broadway designs include You’re Welcome America, All About Me, God of Carnage, The Vertical Hour, Faith Healer, Bridge and Tunnel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Life (x)3, The Graduate, Prune Danish, and Much Ado About Everything. Associate Designer: Brief Encounter, La Bête, Hamlet, Enron, Red, Next Fall, Boeing-Boeing, Rock 'n' Roll, Macbeth, Frost/Nixon, Festen, Primo, Pillowman, Democracy, Jumpers, Def Poetry Jam, Noises Off. International: Reel to Real, Spongebob Squarepants, and The Opera Show.
Wendall K. Harrington (Projection Design)
Theatre: The Who's Tommy, Grey Gardens, The Good Body, Putting it Together, Ragtime, The Capeman, Company, Having Our Say, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only, They're Playing Our Song, Angels in America, As Thousands Cheer, Merrily We Roll Along, Hapgood. Opera: Brundibar, Grapes of Wrath, Nixon in China, A View from the Bridge, Rusalka, Ballet: Anna Karenina, Othello, Ballet Mecanique, Concert: Stop Making Sense, Simon and Garfunkel, Chris Rock. She heads the first MFA program in Projection Design at Yale School of Drama.
Dave Clemmons Casting (Casting)
Dave Clemmons, C.S.A., Joy Dewing C.S.A., Alan Lane. Current/upcoming Broadway: Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland, Grumpy Old Men. Past Broadway/Off Broadway: The Boy from Oz (starring Hugh Jackman), Brooklyn, The Civil War, Cinderella, Ring of Fire, Bat Boy, Altar Boyz, Bare. U.S./International Tours: Fosse, Chicago, Movin' Out, Fiddler (starring Topol/Harvey Fierstein), Jekyll and Hyde, Evita (dir. Hal Prince), West Side Story, Legally Blonde, Cats, Grease.
Matthew Farrell (Stage Manager)
Broadway: Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Enchanted April, Talk Radio, August: Osage County, reasons to be pretty and Enron. National Tour: Mrs. Klein with Uta Hagen. Matthew has written and produced award-winning educational media for PBS KIDS, “Dragon Tales,” “Kratts’ Creatures,” “Sesame Street” and “WordWorld.”
Larry Morley (Technical Supervisor)
Larry Morley is pleased to have been a part of the Broadway community for more than 30 years. Broadway and touring credits include: Time Stands Still, Hair, Next to Normal, Equus, Speed-the-Plow, Journey’s End, Spelling Bee, Pippin, Primo, Glass Menagerie, Virginia Woolf, Twentieth Century, The Goat, Three Tall Women, Annie, Noise/Funk, La Cage, Rags, amongst others.
Richards/Climan, Inc (General Manager)
David R. Richards and Tamar Haimes (formerly Climan) currently manage La Bête, The Pee-wee Herman Show, The Scottsboro Boys and A Life in the Theatre. Past credits: Race, Harry Connick, Jr. In Concert, Enron, Superior Donuts, August: Osage County, Blithe Spirit, Speed-the-Plow, All My Sons, Bridge and Tunnel, and Annie.
Jed Bernstein (Producer)
After eleven years as President of the League of American Theatres and Producers, Jed Bernstein launched "Above the Title Entertainment" a theatre/television production company and marketing consultancy. First projects have included: the Off-Broadway critically acclaimed musical revue, Don't Quit Your Night Job, Passing Strange (seven Tony nominations), the smash revival of Equus starring Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe, the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair, and David Mamet’s highly acclaimed Oleanna starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Jed serves as Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute and is on the Actors Fund board.
Adam Zotovich (Producer)
Producing credits include: The Color Purple, Legally Blonde, All My Sons, The Addams Family, A View from the Bridge. His upcoming productions include Sammy & Me at The Alliance Theater in Atlanta and Evita starring Ricky Martin. Adam’s passion for producing emerged from his successful performing career. He has danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performed in several Broadway shows including Chicago, Contact and Fiddler on the Roof and has appeared in many film and television projects from The Producers movie to HBO’s upcoming “Boardwalk Empire.” He holds a degree in Theater and Dance from Santa Clara University and studied Arts Management at NYU.
Elizabeth Ireland McCann (Producer)
Nullius in verba.
Roger Berlind (Producer)
Roger Berlind has been producing for over thirty years. Recent productions include: Copenhagen, Kiss Me, Kate, Proof, Medea, Anna in the Tropics, Caroline, or Change, Wonderful Town, Doubt, The History Boys, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Faith Healer, Deuce, The Year of Magical Thinking, Curtains, Rock ‘n' Roll, Is He Dead?, Gypsy, 13, Equus, Ragtime, A Little Night Music, A Behanding in Spokane and La Bete.
Beth Kloiber (Producer)
Beth Kloiber has been a longtime supporter of the arts on the local level and has invested in productions on Broadway and the West End including Legally Blonde, All My Sons and The Addams Family. She has run several local theaters and is making her Broadway Producer debut with Driving Miss Daisy. Thanks to Adam for his insight and guidance throughout these endeavors.
Albert Nocciolino (Producer)
President of NAC Entertainment, a diversified theatrical company specializing in the presentation of National Touring Broadway shows. He has also co-produced/invested in many Broadway and Touring shows, including Legally Blonde, Spamalot, Peter Pan (with Cathy Rigby), Annie, West Side Story and the recent revival of La Cage. Mr. Nocciolino is celebrating his 35th year in the theatre business.
Jon B. Platt (Producer)
Winner of 4 Tony Awards: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches -Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Perestroika, Copenhagen, God of Carnage. Tony Award nominations: Wicked; Damn Yankees; Peter Pan; Hello, Dolly!; The Diary of Anne Frank; Lonesome West; Man of La Mancha; You’re Welcome America; A View from the Bridge. Winner of 7 New York Drama Desk Awards. Current: Wicked.
Stylesfour Productions (Producer)
John Styles, Dave Clemmons, Jason Styles and Judy Messmer Kent. Broadway: Driving Miss Daisy (James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave), Pee-Wee Herman Show, Spring Awakening (Tony & Drama Desk Awards - Best Musical), Talk Radio (Tony, Drama Desk Nominee). Off-Broadway: Bat Boy (Outer Critics & Lortel Awards, Best Off-B'way Musical), Judy Gold’s 25 Questions..., An Intimate Evening with Frank Wildhorn and Friends.
Ruth Hendel (Producer)
Fela!; American Idiot; Red; A View from the Bridge; Hamlet; Mary Stuart; 33 Variations; All My Sons; In the Heights (Assoc.); Passing Strange; Legally Blonde; Lieutenant of Inishmore; Barefoot in the Park; Steel Magnolias; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Caroline, or Change; Raisin in the Sun; Frozen; Golda's Balcony; 'Night Mother; Metamorphoses; Altar Boyz; Our Lady of 121st Street; The Exonerated; Tick Tick...Boom!. Love to Gabriel.
Shawn Emamjomeh (Producer)
Shawn Emamjomeh is proud to be a producer on Driving Miss Daisy. Broadway investor credits include In the Heights, West Side Story and American Idiot. Performance credits include Chicago, Fosse, Here Lies Jenny. Thanks to Adam and Angelo for their guidance and encouragement through this adventure. Love to family and friends.
Larry Hirschhorn (Producer)
Broadway: The Addams Family; Hair (Tony/Drama Desk Awards); The Seagull (starring Kristin Scott Thomas); Passing Strange (Drama Desk Award); Butley (starring Nathan Lane) and Well. Off Broadway/London: Make Me A Song: The Music of William Finn. Founder of New York’s Melting Pot Theatre. Highlights include: COBB (Drama Desk Award), Cookin at The Cookery; Miss Evers’ Boys and Woody Sez.
Spring Sirkin (Producer)
Spring Sirkin founded Chamber Theatre Productions 30 years ago with the goal of developing the young audiences of tomorrow. Broadway credits include Master Class, Broken Glass, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, King Hedley II, Frozen, Faith Healer, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Passing Strange, Equus, The Seagull and Mary Stuart. Ms. Sirkin served as President of The Elliot Norton Awards in Boston.
Carl Moellenberg (Producer)
Two-time Tony Award-winner for Spring Awakening (Best Musical) and Hair (Best Musical Revival). Other Broadway credits include: American Idiot, The Addams Family, Lend Me a Tenor, Mary Stuart, Hamlet, Speed-the-Plow, and 13. National tours: Spring Awakening and Hair. London: Fiddler on the Roof and Hair. Off-Broadway: Vigil.
Wendy Federman (Producer)
Broadway: Hair (Tony Award, Best Musical Revival), Time Stands Still, Lend Me a Tenor, The Addams Family, Mary Stuart, Blithe Spirit, Ragtime, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Impressionism, American Buffalo, Passing Strange (Drama Desk Award Best Musical), November, A Moon for the Misbegotten. National tours: Little House on the Prairie, Legends!. London: Hair. Wendy has served on the boards of MCC, Bergen PAC, Penguin Rep, Gilda’s Club NNJ.
Daryl Roth (Producer)
Daryl Roth is proud to hold the singular distinction of producing six Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: August: Osage County; Proof; Wit; How I Learned to Drive; Anna in the Tropics; and Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women over twenty-two years of producing over seventy award-winning productions both on and off-Broadway. Love to Steven, my wonderful family, Leo, Lucy.
Jane Bergère (Producer)
Broadway: La Cage aux Folles (Tony); A Little Night Music (Tony nomination); All My Sons; 13; Is He Dead?; Curtains (Tony nomination); Glengarry Glen Ross (Tony); Caroline, or Change (Tony Nomination); Metamorphoses (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway: In Transit, Capture Now, The Exonerated. U.S. producer, Mexico's TJMTC; Former Artistic Director, Connecticut’s Broadway Theatre. As a performer: Broadway, regional and television. www.JaneBergereproductions.com
Michael Filerman (Producer)
Credits include the Tony-winning The Norman Conquests, You’re Welcome America…, Blithe Spirit, November, The Homecoming and Frozen; also All About Me and American Idiot. Developed/executive produced the long-running TV series “Knots Landing,” “Falcon Crest,” “Flamingo Road,” “Sisters” and “Dallas.” TV movies include “Christmas Eve” with Loretta Young and “The Story Lady” with Jessica Tandy.
