Davis/Crawford Hate-Fest Inspires Ebersole/Maxwell Reading of BETTE AND JOAN with Hughes at the Helm

Michael Riedel reports in the New York Post this morning that the famous hate-fest between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis is the inspiration of a new play by British playwright Michael McKay that could hit the New York scene big as early as 2012. BETTE AND JOAN, as the play is called, receieved a private reading last week directed by Doug Hughes and starred Christine Ebersole (Bette Davis) and Jan Maxwell (Joan Crawford). 

Crawford and Davis last collaborated on Hush...Hush, Sweet Caroline, however the reunion was short lived as Crawford quit the film soon in (she was replaced by Olivia de Havilland).  It is on the set of this film that the play takes place.

To read Riedel's full report in the New York Post, click here.

Maxwell made her Broadway debut as an understudy in the Cy Coleman - David Zippel musical City of Angels in 1989. She appeared in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, which won the Tony Award for Best Play. She replaced original cast member Brid Brennan in the role of Agnes. She appeared in A Doll's House in 1997 opposite Janet McTeer; Neil Simon's The Dinner Party in 2000 opposite John Ritter and Henry Winkler and Sixteen Wounded in 2004 with Judd Hirsch and Martha Plimpton. In 1998, she played Elsa Schraeder in the first Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. In 2005, she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for the stage production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the role of Baroness Bomburst. She won the Drama Desk Award for this role.

In 2006, she starred in Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane for which she received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress. In 2007, she starred in the Broadway production of Coram Boy, for which she received her second Tony Award nomination, for Best Featured Actress in a Play. On May 4, 2010, Maxwell received two 2010 Tony Award nominations: one for her leading role in The Royal Family in 2009 and another for her featured role in Lend Me a Tenor in 2010. She is only the fourth actress to receive double nominations in a single year.

Christine Ebersole's Broadway credits include On the Twentieth Century, the 1979 revival ofOklahoma!, the 1980 revival of Camelot, the 2000 revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man, the 2001 revival of 42nd Street (for which she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical), the 2002 revival of Dinner at Eight (for which she was nominated for another Tony Award), and Steel Magnolias. In 2006, Ebersole took the dual roles of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") in Grey Gardens, a musical based upon the film of the same name. After a sold-out off-Broadway run, Ebersole remained with the roles when the production moved to Broadway later in the year. For this role, she won her second Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Most recently she appeared as Elvira in the 2009 revival of the Noël Coward comedy Blithe Spirit. She also has worked on numerous albums. She was featured on the Bright Lights, Big City concept album. She also recently released an album of Noel Coward songs after browsing through them for scene change music for Blithe Spirit.