Susan Granger’s review of “Driving Miss Daisy” (John Golden Theater)
After winning the Pulitzer Prize and four Academy Awards, Alfred Uhry’s semi-autobiographical character study about his Southern grandmother and her African-American driver in segregated times is not only back on Broadway but this revival is extended through Spring, due to demand for tickets. And it’s easy to understand why.
Cantankerous Daisy Werthan (Vanessa Redgrave) is a widowed, retired grade-schoolteacher, living comfortably outside of Atlanta in 1948. Her social life consists of going to synagogue and shopping for necessities, but she’s wrecked her Packard backing out of the driveway. That’s why, when her son, Boolie (Boyd Gaines), buys her a new Oldsmobile, he’s determined to hire a chauffeur for her, much to Ms. Werthan’s dismay. Eventually, she reluctantly agrees to amiable Hoke Coleburn (James Earl Jones), who really needs the job. As Miss Daisy’s relationship with endlessly patient Hoke grows from antagonism and paranoia to friendship and dependence, the drama evolves, set against historical civil rights events during the rapidly changing times, as illustrated by Wendell K. Harriungton’s newsy slide projections on the rear wall of John Lee Beatty’s spare set.
Under the restrained direction of David Esbjornson, Vanessa Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines not only rise to the occasion but their theatrical craftsmanship elevates Alfred Uhry’s spare, occasionally sentimental, vignette-studded script, delving subtly into the complications that a Jewish woman and black man face as perennial ‘outsiders,’ always repressing their anger but perhaps piquing the social conscience in the populist mainstream. First staged off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons back in 1987, “Driving Miss Daisy” is still a force of nature – and not to be missed.