The thrilling Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece How I Learned to Drive reunites the original stars with their award-winning director for a new production. Tony Award® winner Mary-Louise Parker (The Sound Inside, Proof) and Tony nominee David Morse (The Iceman Cometh) are joined by Tony Award® nominee and original cast member Johanna Day, Alyssa May Gold, and Chris Myers in this remarkably timely and moving memory play about a woman coming to terms with a charismatic uncle who impacts her past, present and future life. Directing is Mark Brokaw (Heisenberg).
It's hard now to imagine someone writing the headline for Ben Brantley's 1997 New York Times review of the off-Broadway production of Paula Vogel's How I Learned to Drive: 'A Pedophile Even Mother Could Love.' Twenty-five years later, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play is still hard to watch, but what audiences might have experienced as complex dynamics, grey areas, and blurred lines of consent back in 1997-the kind of uncertainty that spurred Brantley to describe Uncle Peck's crimes against Li'l Bit as 'in some appalling way, a real love story'-will resonate now with all the ambiguity of a three-alarm fire.
There are many reasons why people are skeptical of revivals, especially ones that trot out an original cast member for box office nostalgia's sake. But How I Learned to Drive, finally on America's most visible stage, is neither showy nor superfluous. Mary-Louise Parker has, quite frankly, never been better, and her chemistry with Morse is enough reason to commit the production to celluloid history. Seldom does a return engagement do complete justice to its source material, but this is the rare production that proves itself absolutely vital with each passing minute of its captivating time.
1997 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2012 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theatre Production Off-Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Broadway Premiere Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | How I Learned to Drive |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | David Morse |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | How I Learned To Drive |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | How I Learned to Drive |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Special Achievement Awards | Johanna Day |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | David Morse |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Mary-Louise Parker |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | How I Learned to Drive |
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