| Issue #31, October 27, 2006 |
preview: the royal family...by jan silver
The more things change, the more they remain the same. This old French proverb is so applicable to the classic American comedy The Royal Family. First produced on Broadway in 1927, it is superficially a parody of the first family of American theater, the Drew/Barrymore clan. But underlying the witty and sharply-timed dialogue is the theme of the choices people make on how to live a life – the easy way or the more difficult road? family or career? holding on or letting go?
Every generation or so, The Royal Family is produced to remind us that famous people have the same needs, wants and tribulations as everyone else. Recently re-reading this delightful comedy, Tony Walton, the recipient of many awards for theater and film design who turned his talents to directing several years ago, decided it is a perfect vehicle for the current era.
Walton has gathered a few of his stellar Broadway friends to do a staged reading of The Royal Family tonight, 8 p.m., at the John Drew Theater in East Hampton. Tony Award-winning actress Marian Seldes will play Fanny Cavendish, the grande dame of the Cavendish family of actors. Another Tony Award-winning actress, Mercedes Ruehl, portrays Fanny’s daughter Julie, a theater actress at the height of her career, and Daniel Gerroll will play Tony, Fanny’s son who has abandoned the stage to become “Hollywood’s foremost screen lover.” Julie and Tony are, of course, loosely based on siblings Ethel and John Barrymore.
Other Broadway actors enlisted by Walton for this funny piece of squabbles, struts and swoons are Paul Hecht, Jack Ryland, Julie Halston, Jessica Grove, Shashi Balooja, Kate Mueth, Jamie Carmichael, Rob Sedgewick, Terri White, and Michael Nathanson.
The Royal Family was co-written by two Pulitzer Prize-winning authors George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Kaufman sometimes wrote with a partner including Moss Hart for You Can’t Take It With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner. He alone wrote the great Marx Brothers vehicles A Night at the Opera and Animal Crackers. Kaufman also wrote Dinner at Eight with Ferber. She is the author of several best-selling books including Showboat, Giant and Cimarron. Showboat was turned into a wonderful musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and had its debut production on Broadway the same year as The Royal Family. Giant was made into the very popular film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean.
Director Tony Walton recently found out his maternal grandfather, Sidney John Drew, is a descendant of the actor John Drew for whom the East Hampton theater at Guild Hall is named. John Drew’s daughter Georgiana married Maurice Barrymore and that started the Drew/Barrymore acting dynasty.
The Royal Family is a three-act play. Tickets ($20, or $18 for Guild Hall members) will be sold at the box office starting two hours before curtain time. This is the last performance at the John Drew Theater before it undergoes renovation to restore its original circus-tent decor with new state-of-the-art technical equipment, acoustics, dressing rooms and seats. Guild Hall will be using alternate local venues to present its ongoing theater, music, comedy and lecture programs.
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