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Driving Miss Daisy First Night Reviews
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The all-star revival of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy has opened at the West End’s Wyndham’s Theatre. Hollywood icon James Earl Jones stars alongside Vanessa Redgrave and Boyd Gaines. Set in Atlanta, Georgia, in the mid-twentieth century, the play tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a white Jewish woman and her black chauffeur. The driver, Hoke Coleburn, is African American, which causes the socially conservative Miss Daisy some misgivings. UK Tickets presents a roundup of the first night reviews: |
They Say: Driving Miss Daisy Reviews RoundupI think now, as I did when I first saw it in 1988, that Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer prize-winning play is not much more than a pleasing anecdote about the growing amity between a cranky Southern-Jewish matron and her elderly black chauffeur. But, however slight the play, the presence of Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in this Broadway transfer proves the alchemy of acting can have a magical effect. Vanessa Redgrave is at her absolute best in this production — steely, witty, eccentric and with moments of deep feeling as the opinionated, grouchy and increasingly frail retired Jewish school teacher, Daisy Werthan. And the great American actor James Earl Jones is every bit as fine as her patient, kind and long-suffering black chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. Watching these two, you are left in no doubt that you are witnessing acting of greatness. Their developing relationship is caught with detail, depth and persuasive emotional truth. Redgrave suggests the imperiousness of Miss Daisy without overstating it. While she may not sound quite like the stubborn Atlanta matron she's meant to be, she captures the character's mood perfectly - especially the way she discovers prejudices in herself that she had reached her seventies without recognising. She's also funny, as when she poses like Zorro to challenge Hoke about a can of salmon she thinks he has stolen. Yet it's Earl Jones who will last longer in the memory. He invests Hoke with a calm and dignity that feel, paradoxically, both modest and magnificent. |
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Driving Miss Daisy is now booking until Saturday 17th December 2011.
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