The Gin Game
Tickets from $75 Buy Tickets
Cititour.com Review
You can’t say Broadway is ageist. At least not where acting legends James Earl Jones, 84, and Cicely Tyson, 90, are concerned. The pair have been burning up the boards over the last few seasons. He’s headlined revivals of Driving Miss Daisy and You Can’t Take It With You; she won a Tony Award for The Trip to Bountiful; and now they come together for a moderately successful production of D.L. Coburn’s The Gin Game.
First produced on Broadway in 1977 with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, the play has a quaint exterior that disguises a darker core. Weller Martin (Jones) and Fonsia Dorsey (Tyson) have been left to rot in a home for the aged and poor, much like the beat-up furniture that’s been shoved onto the porch where the play is set. That’s where these two find themselves alone each visitors’ day because no loved ones come to see them. They pass the time playing rounds of gin rummy, a game that Weller tackles with religious fervor but at which Fonsia has more success.
As they talk about children and former spouses, we gradually see that their lives were not mere card games for which the luck of the draw went against them. They angered and ostracized those around them, and they remain as nasty and needy as ever. It’s Jones who anchors the show, especially gripping at depicting Weller as a broken man with a fierce temper who uses cards to try to numb the pain. Tyson, however, is too gentle and likable a presence for a character that’s supposed to be a cantankerous shrew. At times the play seems an uneven contest, with Weller a much more threatening presence next to the frail Fonsia.
As a result, director Leonard Foglia’s production leans a little too heavily on the play’s comedic elements (still sound after all these years) at the expense of its bitterness. But that may not bother audiences coming to see two elder statesman who have been working at their craft for more than 60 years, and who broke new ground for black actors in the entertainment industry.
In that sense, The Gin Game is more than a match between equals.
By Diane Snyder
Visit the Site
http://www.thegingamebroadway.com
Cast
James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson (Ms. Tyson will not be performing Dec. 5 and 6.)
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/14/2015
Closing 1/10/2016
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 9/23/2015
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
John Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
Comments
Sign up for our newsletter !