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Broadway actors James Earl Jones and Boyd Gaines stopped by this morning's TODAY to talk about their theatrical production of 'Driving Miss Daisy' heading to movie screens across the country this June. Check out the appearance below!
With esteemed careers spanning 60 to 70 years long, actors Dame Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones will bring the magic of the stage to movie theaters across the country this June. Screenvision and Broadway Near You have partnered to make the stage production of the Pulitzer-Prize winning Driving Miss Daisy available in more than 500 movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada beginning June 4. Click below to watch a trailer for the production!
The film stars five-time Tony Award winning and three-time Academy Award nominee Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote, Sweeney Todd and Blithe Spirit) as Daisy, two-time Tony Award winner and Academy Award winner Jones (Star Wars, The Great White Hope and Field of Dreams) as her driver, Hoke, and four-time Tony Award winner Boyd Gaines (Gypsy, The Heidi Chronicles) as Daisy's son, Boolie. Tickets for Driving Miss Daisy will be available atwww.broadwayonscreen.com.
From its infancy in its Off-Broadway production in 1987, Driving Miss Daisy has been performed thousands of times for theatregoers around the world. Now, people unable to get to Broadway will be able to see the acclaimed stage production captured for film in movie theaters near them. Of this Stagecast(TM), playwright Alfred Uhry said, "Every playwright dreams of having a perfect rendition of his play last forever. I am blessed to have it happen for me with this production of Driving Miss Daisy."
The elegant stage production, directed by the award-winning David Esbjornson, centers around the relationship between Daisy Werthan, a widowed, 72-year-old Southern Jewish woman living in midcentury Atlanta, and her African American chauffeur Hoke Colburn. What begins as a hostile relationship, transforms into a life-altering friendship that has warmed the hearts of millions. The sold-out tour of Driving Miss Daisy was captured for cinema in Australia at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre by film-producers, Richard Moore and Jill Bilcock. The theatrical production was produced by Jed Bernstein, Adam Zotovich and John Frost.
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