This year, London plays host to two of the world’s greatest living actors as they star in Alfred Uhry’s timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Driving Miss Daisy.
For a strictly limited season at the Wyndham’s Theatre, London, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones star in this charming, poignant and utterly compelling tale of the unlikely, long-lasting friendship that blossoms between a prickly, elderly Southern matriarch and her kind-hearted driver.
This is, truly, one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. To witness, in London, these two award-winning actors in a production that has dazzled audiences and critics alike on Broadway.
For those of you who may not have seen, or have since forgotten the film, or not read the book, David Esbjornson’s acclaimed, smash-hit production follows the pair as the wheels turn and the decades roll by against a backdrop of prejudice, inequality and civil unrest. Miss Daisy and her driver, Hoke, slowly transcend their differences and ultimately grow to rely on each other far more than either of them ever expected.
Sparklingly funny, irresistibly heart-warming and with an unmissable stellar cast, Driving Miss Daisy is the must-see show of 2011 – what a great highlight to a London theatre break!
This production of Driving Miss Daisy does not disappoint! With just a few props, minimal scenery, excellent acting and back projections to help to set the scene and the passing years, I was totally wrapped up in the change in the relationship between the two main parts. Although this was probably more due to the above rather than the writing which is a bit episodic.
Covering such a long period of time in such a short time may be a problem but it would have been good to get an idea of the more humdrum passing of time so that the highlights or flashpoints came out of something.
But Vanessa Redgrave and especially James Earl Jones were brilliant. I only have to see Jerusalem and I will consider my Autumn theatre-going to be very satisfying in deed.