The Gin Game

The Gin Game is playing at the John Golden Theatre located at 252 West 45th Street. It runs two hours with one intermission. The play closes on January 10, 2016.

The show premiered at the American Theatre Arts in Los Angeles, California in September 1976. It opened on Broadway on October 6, 1977 at the John Golden Theatre. It ran for 517 performances and was directed by Mike Nicholas. It starred Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy and was succeeded by E. G. Marshall and Jean Stapleton. Jessica won a Tony Award in 1978 for this role. A revival was at the Lyceum Theatre in 1997 and ran for 145 performances. It was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actress (Julie Harris) and Best Direction (Charles Nelson Reilly).

Donald L. Colburn won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play.

Cicely Tyson has been nominated for twelve Primetime Emmy Awards and won three. She won a Tony Award, Outer Circle Critics Award and Drama Desk Award in 2013 for The Trip to Bountiful.

James Earl Jones won two Tony Awards for Fences (1987) and The Great White Hope (1969). He was nominated for two Tony Awards for The Best Man (2012) and On Golden Pond (1987). James was nominated for six Primetime Emmys and won two. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for The Great White Hope in 1970.

Richard Hernandez is the set designer. He won a Tony Award in 1999 for Parade.

Weller Martin (James Earl Jones) is living in a rundown nursing home. He is on the porch reading a paper when a new resident, Fonsia Dorsey (Cicely Tyson) sits on a bench near him. Weller asks her if she would like to play gin rummy. Fonsia does know how to play so teaches her. However she beats him at every game the play . The more games they play the more furious he gets, cursing and screaming at her.

As days go by they get to know each other probing and making comments on things they are not ready to tell each other.

It was wonderful seeing these two talented playing actors together.

However there were times I could not hear either one of them.

The show is still worth seeing.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich

Photo by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.