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REVIEWS
BWW Review: DRIVING MISS DAISY at Florida Repertory Theatre
Playing now through February 13!
by Elizabeth James Jan. 31, 2022
Florida Repertory Theatre's production of DRIVING MISS DAISY is playing now in their ArtStage Studio Theatre. The show tells the heartwarming story of an unlikely friendship forged during Civil Rights-era Atlanta.
Daisy Werthan is played by Sara Morsey, and she is phenomenal. She truly captures the essence of Daisy; she is stubborn, independent, and determined. When her son, Boolie Werthan (Jason Parrish) hires a driver for her, Hoke Coleburn (Mujahid Abdul-
Rashid), she is initially very against the idea. It takes time for her to accept her need for a driver, but once she does, they start to develop a special bond. The show progresses through years and decades, and the audience gets to see how their relationship changes as the time passes. Many things diminish over the years, but their friendship only strengthens. I loved watching Daisy and Hoke's friendship grow, and these actors were absolutely brilliant at bringing their characters and this relationship to life. They embodied these roles, making it so special and sweet to watch. It was also very sweet to see how Boolie cared for Daisy despite her protests. He knew what was best for her, and took care of both her and Hoke throughout the story. Parrish did an excellent job portraying the bond that Boolie forms with Hoke as well as his relationship with his mother.
Driving Miss Daisy at the Florida Rep Theatre
Edward Kliszus February 11, 2022
Courtesy of Florida Rep Theatre
Rating
This fantastic sold-out event warmed the heart and charmed the soul. The characters were delightfully conceived and presented by Mujahid Abdul-Rashid (Hoke Coleburn), Sara Morsey (Daisy Werthan), and Jason Parrish (Boolie Werthan). If you’ve seen the 1989 film, it’s clear that the Florida Rep presentation better captures the emotional and memorable qualities of author Alfred Uhry’s work.
From beginning to end, the interactions between the persnickety Miss Daisy and the almost always forbearing chauffeur Hoke tug at one’s heart. Daisy’s son Boolie is caring, lovable, and protective of his mom. She delights in bantering with him about day-to-day matters associated with her advancing years (like fender benders), her humility, loyalty to friends, and frequent references to her dignity and childhood days of poverty. He is patient, humorous and amiable, and one notices and reacts tenderly to the clever mother-son badinage.
When Daisy and Hoke meet, we want them to become pals. While tentative at first, we watch their friendship inexorably mature as their mutual needs and kindness bring them together.
The Florida Rep is commended for presenting an authentic performance set in the author’s intended period. While one may argue that some stereotypes are dated, associated tensions gently bring to the forefront a changing American society in the Atlanta of yesteryear. The fears and plights of both Jews and African Americans are juxtaposed as we sense the emergence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a force for positive change. Daisy, a well-to-do Jewish widow and former schoolteacher, teaches Hoke to read as he becomes an integral part of her life. Although this is not a piece overtly addressing cultural inequities, its subtle messages are clearly and calmly educed.
With simple stage settings, sound effects, recorded music (banjo, cello, and violin), we are drawn into the storyline, sensing the pathos of the delightful characters with their heartache, drama, and spirit. We effortlessly visualize the opening and closing of car doors, humming of the engine, and sounds of the road. Congratulations to Maureen Heffernan (Director), Richard Crowell (Scenic Designer), Adam Trummel (Sound Designer), Todd O. Wren (Lighting Designer), and the rest of the crew for their craft and attention to detail. Well done!
As this story from time fades, we longingly view Daisy’s home appurtenances replete with her phone, knitting needles, and comfortable chair. While it is genuinely heartbreaking when at last she cannot live independently in her home, we are rewarded with a poignant closing scene and reminders of the passing of time, acts of kindness, life’s loves, friends, families, travails, and destinations. The ever kind Boolie promises Hoke that he shall continue to receive the salary paid for caring for Daisy for as long as he lives.
Fellow audience members near me were equally impressed with the troupe’s oeuvre. It was story-telling at its best in this intimate performance space.
Driving Miss Daisy is closing soon, and you’ll need to move quickly to get tickets for its final performances and the upcoming performance of Into the Breeches.
Go to https://www.floridarep.org/the-season/ for the calendar and ticket information.
The Florida Rep Theatre is conveniently located with great free parking for patrons and marvelous pre-theatre restaurants.
2268 Bay Street, Fort Myers, Fl 33901, (239) 332-4488
Edward Kliszus
Performer, conductor, and educator Edward Kliszus began his musical studies at the age of 5 and has since been deeply involved in the fine, performing, and literary arts. He is a long-time and current member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). He studied trumpet performance and music education while attending the Manhattan School of Music. He was a student of Mel Broiles, principal trumpet of the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Lincoln Center. His post-graduate studies at New York University focused on trumpet and piano performance, music composition, and analysis of composer Elliott Carter's 1974 work Brass Quintet. He has performed at Manhattan's West Village venue Monologues and Madness. Currently, he focuses his artistic and creative endeavors in writing, music composition, jazz
piano, and reviewing music and theatre venues for The Front Row Center in NY, NY, and OpeningNight.Online, which serves NY, NY, and sunny Florida.
Books and Recordings
Jewel – Simple gifts
Trying to navigate “Driving Miss Daisy”
ARTS COMMENTARY
Sara Morsey as Miss Daisy and Mujahid Abdul-Rashid as her chauffer, Hoke, star in “Driving Miss Daisy.” JOE DAFELDECKER / FLORIDA REPERTORY THEATRE
What to say about “Driving Miss Daisy”?
There’s the play, and there’s the production.
It’s a good production, but is this really the play to be putting on at this time?
First, the production.
“Driving Miss Daisy,” at Florida Repertory Theatre, is probably one of the better stagings of this Pulitzer Award-winning play that you could hope to see.
This three-hander directed by Maureen Heffernan stars Sara Morsey as the dicult Miss Daisy; Mujahid Abdul- Rashid as her chauffer, Hoke; and Jason Parrish as Miss Daisy’s middle-aged son, Boolie.
This is a trifecta of excellent actors, led by a skilled director.
Ms. Morsey is a superb Miss Daisy: tall, willowy, frail, she’s also strong-minded and prickly. A retired schoolteacher who’s well-off, she doesn’t want to be seen as rich; she’s fearful of others thinking she’s “putting on airs.”
She’s as myopic as Mr. Magoo. She doesn’t think she’s racist, yet refers to Black people as “them” and wants to re her chauffer when she thinks he’s stolen a can of food from her pantry.
It’s a credit to Ms. Morsey’s incredible acting talent that she makes us like such a dicult woman.
Mr. Abdul-Rashid is the voice of calm in chaos. He’s easy-going and agreeable. He not only navigates the car but navigates Miss Daisy’s temper tantrums and spells of disagreeableness.
And Mr. Parrish does an admirable job as a son who’s too busy with his business, so he pays someone else to watch over his mother.
There are moments of humor and true tenderness in this play, performed on a minimal set designed by Richard Crowell. (Note that if you sit in some of the side seats, you’ll not be able to see all the facial expressions as actors will be turned away from you sometimes.)
They all age realistically as the play — and time — progress. And this play, in part, is about the passage of time and how progress comes, often agonizingly slowly, both personally and in our society.
Miss Daisy is slowly losing her autonomy as she grows older, and is not happy about it. (And I can’t say I blame her.)
But, despite my great respect for all those involved in the play, I’m a little dumbfounded a venue would choose to stage “Driving Miss Daisy” at a time when the theater world is acutely aware of the need for diversity on the stage and behind the scenes, in choice of playwrights and in positions of power and inuence. This has been a major topic of discussion among those involved in theater for the past few years at least.
And for people of color, it’s a very old discussion.
The Laboratory Theater of Florida staged “The Color Purple” earlier this season. Theatre Conspiracy just closed “The Colored Museum.” And the Asolo Repertory Theatre has a superb production of “Our Town” with colorblind casting, including a Black stage manager and a Grover’s Corners populated with Black, Asian and Latin actors, as well as white people. (It’s fresh, innovative and moving, highly recommended.)
“Driving Miss Daisy” is about a white, Jewish, southern woman living in Atlanta who becomes aware of prejudice only when it affects her, when her synagogue gets bombed. Some may say it’s a “white savior” show.
Yes, as the civil rights movement comes to the fore, Miss Daisy starts listening to Dr. Martin Luther King’s speeches. But I cringed whenever Hoke would say “yess’m, yess’m,” literally holding his cap in hand and looking at the ground. (I also hadn’t realized in previous productions how the men team up to make decisions about Miss Daisy’s life without her consent.)
If Florida Rep is looking to reach out to a more diverse audience, this is not the play. ¦
In the KNOW
» When: through Feb. 13
» Where: ArtStage Studio Theatre
at Florida Repertory Theatre, Bay
Street between Jackson and Hendry,
downtown Fort Myers
» Cost: Tickets start at $59
» Information: 239-332-4488
or www.FloridaRep.org
