DRIVING MISS DAISY to Star Tony Nominee Alison Fraser at Bell Theater
Bernard Dotson and Abe Goldfarb co-star in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, directed by Nate Patten.
Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey will present a new professional production of Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Driving Miss Daisy from August 7–23.
The production stars two-time Tony Award nominee Alison Fraser as Daisy Werthan, alongside Broadway veteran Bernard Dotson as Hoke Colburn and Abe Goldfarb as Boolie. It is directed by Nate Patten, whose Broadway credits include Elf the Musical and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
"When I was asked to direct a new production of this beautiful, Pulitzer Prize-winning gem of a play, I said yes as fast as humanly possible," Patten said. "I'm nearly giddy with excitement to collaborate with this remarkable cast of Broadway vets! Driving Miss Daisy has become an enduring classic, and I'm so honored to get to stage it for our enthusiastic audiences right here in New Jersey."
Inspired by the relationship between Uhry's grandmother and her longtime chauffeur, Driving Miss Daisy follows Daisy Werthan, a fiercely independent Jewish widow living in Atlanta, whose son hires Hoke Colburn to drive her after a minor car accident. Spanning 25 years, from 1948 through the Civil Rights era, the play chronicles the unlikely friendship that develops between two people divided by race, class, religion, and temperament.
Originally premiering Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 1987 with Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman, Driving Miss Daisy ran for three years and won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Uhry later adapted the play into the Academy Award-winning film starring Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd. The film earned four Oscars, including Best Picture, while Uhry received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Fraser, whose Broadway credits include The Secret Garden, Romance/Romance, Gypsy, Falsettos, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Tartuffe, said she was eager to tackle the iconic role.
"I am honored to be making my Bell Theater debut as the quintessentially Southern, sharp-tongued, cantankerous, surprisingly irresistible dowager, Miss Daisy," Fraser said. "I marveled at the economy of the structure—the clean, deep, fast-moving, fascinating narrative and the utterly human dialogue. Global, yet intimate; hilarious yet heartbreaking, this is a salute to meaningful aging, the responsibility of being informed and active about social injustice, the great bonds of family—both blood and chosen—the treasure that is memory, the hope that meaningful change can bring, and above all the pervasive love that is the essence of this play. Driving Miss Daisy is a quiet masterpiece and when called upon to serve it, one jumps at the opportunity."
The creative team includes scenic designer Cody Tellis Rutledge, Costume Designer Mariah Ansaldo Hale, lighting designer Paul Miller, sound designer Gage Baker, wig designer Carissa Thorlakson, production stage manager Roe Manzo, and producer Andrew DePrisco.
Driving Miss Daisy will perform August 7–23 at Bell Theater, located inside Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey. Tickets are now on sale.
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