Previews:
November 25, 2002
Opened:
December 12, 2002
Ended:
February 16, 2003
Country:
USA
State:
New York
City:
New York
Company/Producers:
USA OSTAR Theatricals
Theater Type:
Broadway
Theater:
Ethel Barrymore Theater
Theater Address:
243 West 47th Street
Genre:
Drama w/ Music
Director:
Jack O'Brien
Review:
Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron is an odd, experimental play -- two famous writers, Lillian Hellman (Swoosie Kurtz) and Mary McCarthy (Cherry Jones), in a fantasy that works theatrically. The women are great foils for each other as they literarily and theatrically jab enmity back and forth. There is great style in the play's inventiveness, although the verbal encounters are a tad over-written.
Punctuated by period-style musical numbers by Marvin Hamlisch and Craig Carnelia, and a great tap-dance choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, with the versatile Harry Groener as many men, the show, as directed by Jack O'Brien is both intellectual and quite entertaining, and to see Swoosie's little girl is a rare treat. She should get a special award.
Parental:
TOTALTHEATER David Lefkowitz ?
Cast:
Swoosie Kurtz (Hellman), Cherry Jones (McCarthy), Harry Groener.
Critic:
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2003
