The Grand Manner

In 1948, playwright A.R. Gurney, then a young boarding school student, traveled to New York where he attended a performance of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, going backstage afterwards to meet the production's star, the great stage actress Katharine Cornell, who was dubbed "The First Lady of the American Stage" by the legendary critic Alexander Woollcott. A mix of remembrance and imagination, THE GRAND MANNER is a love letter to this fabled actress and a heartfelt look back at the glorious heyday of the Broadway theatre.

Playwright A.R. Gurney's many plays include Far East, Ancestral Voices and Big Bill, all produced by Lincoln Center Theater. Director Mark Lamos returns to Lincoln Center Theater where he directed Gurney's Big Bill as well as such past LCT productions as Shakespeare's Cymbeline and Measure for Measure, Sheridan's The Rivals and Edward Albee's Seascape.