Waiting in the Wings
Broadway Comedy
Previews December 3 1999
Opened
December 16 1999
Closed May 28
2000
Run 16 previews | 186 performances
Running Time 2 hrs 30 mins | 1
intermission
Tickets $25 to $70
Prices do not include any taxes,
service charges or other charges
Performances
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Mon
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Tue
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Wed
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Thu
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Fri
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Sat
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Sun
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2:00P |
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2:00P |
3:00P |
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8:00P |
8:00P |
8:00P |
8:00P |
8:00P |
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Creative Noel
Coward author | Jeremy Sams rewrites | Michael Langham
director
With Lauren Bacall | Rosemary Harris |
Dana Ivey | Barnard Hughes | Rosemary Murphy | Elizabeth Wilson |
Patricia Connely | Helena Carroll | Bette Henritze | Helen Stenborg
| Crista Moore | Simon Jones
Review Regally ensconced
in the Wings theatrical retirement home is May Davenport, only
needing a clutch of corgis to cement her claim as theater's Queen
Mother. As played by Rosemary Harris, May Davenport is the haughty
primadonna so often caricatured in popular media. Her comfortable
life is upset with the entrance of recently retired stage star Lotta
Bainbridge. Lauren Bacall's Lotta Bainbridge somehow done May
Davenport wrong 30 years ago. As Lotta has trouble settling in to
her new situation, May and Lotta are troubled by their co-mingled
histories
This Noel Coward show is not as
acerbic as one would expect; at times, this Jeremy Sams adapted show
is as charming as a Miss Marple novel. Might it be that Broadway is
writing down to the out-of-towner?
Ms Harris's interpretation of Noel
Coward's words is, befittingly, the highlight of the evening. It is
a pleasure to watch this 1966
Tony Award-winning actress (A Lion in Winter), practice
her craft. And craft it is, also found in the seven other actresses
'of a certain age' who's pleasure being back on the boards is
palpable. These ladies of the stage know their stuff
Ms Bacall's fame, on the other hand,
was made in cinematic closeups and her relationship with Humphrey
Bogart, neither of which are available at the Walter
Kerr Theater. Though Ms Bacall can lay claim to a 1970
Tony Award for Applause and a 1981
Tony Award for Woman of the Year, those were more for
song-and-dance star turns rather than admiration of her stage craft.
She's in over her head with these gals
Still, keep an eye out for Tony
nominations for the show and Ms Harris, and a possible
sentimental nod to Barnard Hughes for a short, sweet portrait of an
elderly gentleman in love
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