Driving Miss Daisy

Recorded at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne, Australia, this touching production of Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning Driving Miss Daisy is a sparse affair, featuring one interior set and a bench-and-chair combination that serves (among other things) as a succession of cars. The story takes place over a number of years, beginning in 1945 when Georgia widow and retired schoolteacher Miss Daisy (Angela Lansbury) wrecks her car and is forced by her son, Boolie (Boyd Gaines), to take on a chauffeur. Hoke (James Earl Jones), the new driver, is nearing 70, and as time passes, Daisy and Hoke grow older together in a relationship that is always formal but increasingly familiar and plain-speaking. The understandable temptation would be to bring the epochal and often tumultuous events of the era—race riots, the Cold War, and the Civil Rights movement—into the intimate pocket that Uhry creates for Daisy and Hoke. But while the characters are not isolated from world events, the play's focus consistently remains on a connection that transcends the social differences between these individuals. Jones's performance is a masterpiece of grace and ease; one can hardly tell he is working at creating a humble but wily figure with a great heart and painful memories. And as Daisy, Lansbury is a convincingly stubborn, proud, and secretly frightened matriarch without much to show for family besides Boolie. Featuring two stellar thespians, this presentation of Uhry's powerful stage drama is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)