The thrilling Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece How I Learned to Drive reunites the original stars with their award-winning director for a new production. Tony Award® winner Mary-Louise Parker (The Sound Inside, Proof) and Tony nominee David Morse (The Iceman Cometh) are joined by Tony Award® nominee and original cast member Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers in this remarkably timely and moving memory play about a woman coming to terms with a charismatic uncle who impacts her past, present and future life. Directing is Mark Brokaw (Heisenberg).
And yet 'How I Learned to Drive' is also funny. The play doesn't sink with the gravity of its subject matter; it finds moments of levity without minimizing the tragic parts of the story. Occasionally, however, Brokaw doesn't have the lightest touch with the production's comedy and often fails to give the more stirring scenes the extra beat they require before things move along.
Parker's reprised performance does the heavy lifting in a play that is rightly, and smartly, a memory play told from the woman's point of view. But it is the male character that offers the greater challenge. The playwright does what she can to establish Peck as a human being rather than a monster, but it is David Morse's memorable performance that makes the character credible. Indeed, his performance - gentle, earnest, likable, and thus all the more unsettling - is what I still remember from the production I saw at the Vineyard Theater in 1997. (Was that really 25 years ago?!)
1997 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2012 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theatre Production Off-Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Broadway Premiere Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | How I Learned to Drive |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | David Morse |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | How I Learned To Drive |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | How I Learned to Drive |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Special Achievement Awards | Johanna Day |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | David Morse |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Mary-Louise Parker |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | How I Learned to Drive |
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