The Gin Game Revival
Two hours, with one intermission
The Gin Game - 2015 Broadway History , Info & More
John Golden Theatre (Broadway)
252 West 45th St. New York, NY
Weller Martin (James Earl Jones) and Fonsia Dorsey (Cicely Tyson) meet on the porch of their nursing home and strike up a friendship, with Weller teaching Fonsia how to play gin rummy. As they play, they share stories about the lives they led in the outside world. But when Fonsia wins every hand, Weller becomes increasingly frustrated, until their gin games and conversations become a battleground, with each player exposing the other's failures, disappointments and insecurities.
Mr. Jones and Ms. Tyson are sharing a Broadway stage for the first time since 1966, when they appeared in A Hand Is On The Gate at the Longacre Theatre. They also starred in the long-running Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks. They starred opposite each other in the film The River Niger and the TV movie "Heat Wave." Mr. Jones is a two-time Tony Award winner (Fences, The Great White Hope), three-time Emmy Award winner ("Heat Wave," "Gabriel's Fire," "Summer's End") and the recipient of a Grammy Award and an Honorary Academy Award. Ms. Tyson is a Tony Award-winner (The Trip to Bountiful), a three-time Emmy Award winner ("The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All") and an Academy Award nominee (Sounder).
The Gin Game - 2015 - Broadway Cast
PREVIEW The Gin Game - 2015 - Broadway
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FEATURED REVIEWS FOR The Gin Game
'The Gin Game': Theater Review
8 / 10
Foglia leans heavily on the humor in The Gin Game, perhaps dimming some of the more emotionally affecting notes and making the shift into sobering home truths and self-recriminations somewhat abrupt...What keeps the slender piece engaging is the delicate dance between Jones and Tyson, as she gets repeatedly scared off by his bluster and then is coaxed back, following an apology, for a couple more hands of gin. Despite being a little hunched with age, Weller remains a fearsome bear of a man in Jones' well-honed characterization, using his thunderous basso voice to stifle any uncomfortable small talk or implied criticism...Tyson is tiny and birdlike, affecting a butter-wouldn't-melt innocence and a vise-like handbag grip...But this sweet, shuffling figure turns out to be quite passive-aggressive, revealing her barely disguised glee each time she humiliates Weller by piercing his masculine pride.
‘The Gin Game’ Broadway Review: James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson Play to Win
8 / 10
Cicely Tyson doesn't let her approaching 91st birthday get in the way of being downright girlish on stage. She achieves this marvel twice in the new Broadway revival of 'The Gin Game'...She evokes youthful giddiness at beating the pants of James Earl Jones's card-playing veteran in the first act. Later, when she may be falling in love with him, their hands accidentally touch and then they dance. Tyson suddenly has the glow and all of the stability of an adolescent...[Jones'] immense build, especially in comparison to the petite Tyson, is again on display in 'The Gin Game,' but to poignant effect. His character rages at all that power being trapped in an old body that no longer works the way he wants it to...What doesn't work (except as an excuse to watch two pros go at it) is Coburn's play.
The Gin Game History
Other Productions of The Gin Game
| 1977 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 1997 | Broadway |
Broadway |
| 2015 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
The Gin Game - 2015 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Cicely Tyson |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | D.L. Coburn |
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