Some years ago at the Wintergarden Theatre at an Actors Benefit performance of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, I saw Tammy Grimes on stage for the first time and knew that talent of a major American actress had exploded on Broadway. She was the darling of critics that season and won every conceivable award given to performers for her portrayal of Molly. From that moment on, one of my ambitions as a director was to work with her. This happened in the mid-70's as the Kennedy Center with the premiere of Sam Taylor's Gracious Living.
During my second season at the Hartman, Tammy left a lucrative job in the Broadway musical hit 42nd Street to play Shaw's heroine in the The Millionairess at the Hartman Theatre. Her devotion to theatre, particularly those not-for-profit regional ones, is made abundantly clear by this choice. She is joined in our current production by Fritz Weaver, an actor who has made a significant contribution to the American stage and with whom I had the good fortune to meet early on in my career. Shortly after Norris Houghton and T. Edward hamelleton founded the Phoenix Theatre and that large and beautiful playhouse at 2nd Avenue and 12 Street, which for years had featured the great hits of the Yiddish theatre, I acted with Fritz in such productions as Peer Gynt, Henry IV, Parts I and II, and The Power And The Glory. Fritz was the leading actor of that company and although junior members like me were not much younger, his talent was an inspiration to us all. As I recall, my first Broadway job also involved Fritz when I served as his understudy in Miss Lonelyhearts, directed by Alan Schneidr. Two other members of the Over My Dead Body company also represent part of my theatre years: Tom Toner was a member of Washington's Arena Stage when I arrived in 1963 and he and I have worked together since, most notably in the Kennedy Center revival of The Master Builder, and Stephen Newman has appeared in two Broadway productions I directed, Gore Vidal's An Evening With Richard Nixon and Richard Rodgers' Rex. Actors in this company generally move from project to project and place to place with little continuity and permanency. It is at moments like this, the gathering together of people who have known each other for many years and worked together previously, that this unfortunate condition is modified for a time. And there are other interrelationships. Fritz and Tammy first appeared together in Cambridge Drama Festival production of Twelth Night playing Malvolio and Maria. Tom Toner and Tammy were together in California Suite, Richard Clarke with Tammy in Private Lives, William Preston with Tammy in The Imaginary Invalid and, way back, Mordecai Lawner and Tammy were together as students at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Only Walter Atamaniuk has managed to avoid these crisscrossing paths. But in our theatre, the broken skein of past plays and experiences and creating a theatre family again for these few weeks.
Edwin Sherin

CAST

Tammy Griems
Dora Winslow
Miss Grimes is making her second appearance at the Hartman, having appeared as Epifania Fitzfasseden in The Millionairess. She has starred in the following New York productions: Clemenbard by Marecel Aimee; The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein; Bus Stop by William Inge; Look After Lulu bt Feydeau, adapted by Noel Coward; The Only Game In Town by Frank D. Gilroy; The Littlest Revue; Rattle of A Simple Man by Charles Dyer; High Spirits by Noel Cowar; Gabrielle by Gilbert Becaud with book by Jose Quintero; A Musical Jubilee; Neil Simon's California Suite;; Moliere's Tartuffe, translation by Richard Wilbur, directed by Stephen Porter at the Circle In The Square; A Month In The Country at Roundabout directed by Michael Kahn: Father's Day at The American Place Theatre; 42nd Street, directed by Gower Champion; The Unsinkable Molly Brown (for which she won a Tony Award for Best Dramatic actress). She received Best Motherof the Year Award, twice. Off-Broadway, Miss Grimes appeared as Molly in Molly by Simon Gray, directed by Stephen Hollis at the Hudson Guild Theatre, and Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, directed by Brian Bedford, at Stratford, Ontario. Her Shakespearean roles include Mistress Quickily in Henry IV, Part I, and Mopsa in The Winter's Tale, both at Stratford, Ontario; Mria in Twelth Night at the Cambridge Festival Theatre; and Kate in Taming of The Shrew for the Philadelphia Drama Guild. She also starred in the National Company of The Lark. Miss Grimes has appeared in virtually all the major variety and dramatic television programs, the latest being You Can't go Home Again, and starred in her own ABC television series. Her film credits include Three Bites of The Apple with David McCallum; Arthur, Arthur; Play It As IT Lays, directed by Frank Perry; Somebody Killed Her Husband, directed by Lamont Johnson; The Runner Stumbles, duurected by Stanley Kramer; Can't Stop The Music; and Moonbeam, by Robert Downey. Miss Grimes has recorded a number of albums, including Tammy Grimes and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her recordings for Caedmon records include all of Maurice Sendak's works, Higglety-Pigglety-Pop, Kenny's Window and Where The Wild Things are, and William Faulkner's Wash and A Rose For Emily. Miss Grimes regularly performs a one-woman show thoughout the coutry. The show was created by composer, arranger and pianist Richard Jameson-Bell, who accompanies her on the piano.