Driving Miss Daisy - review (29 September 2011)

DRIVING MISS DAISY by Alfred Uhry
Directed by David Esbjornson
Wyndham’s Theatre, Leicester Square
29 September 2011

Ask anyone to put together a list of the ten worst jobs in the world and it’s unlikely that any of them would include ‘theatre usher’ amongst their collection of less choice professions.  However, last night at the Wyndham’s Theatre, being an usher can’t have been too much fun. Theirs was the task of announcing that – due to an unknown indisposition – Vanessa Redgrave, the undoubted star of the production, would not be appearing.

For a production that has been conceived and promoted so inextricably alongside its two star names, this is clearly a bit of a headache. Undoubtedly, the chance to see Ms Redgrave will be a significant part of audiences’ draw to the play, and many tickets will have been purchased on the strength of the casting alone. However, aside from one gentlemen furiously checking the small print on the reverse of his ticket, last night’s audience seemed to accept the news graciously enough.

Jenny Lee, replacing Ms Redgrave as the eponymous Miss Daisy with presumably little notice, was in the unenviable position of having to deliver the performance we had expected from her celebrated colleague, without actually being her. So it was a great testament to her own abilities that we had entirely forgotten about Ms Redgrave’s absence after only a few minutes, and - despite the odd moment of understandable hesitancy - she inhabited the role superbly, shining particularly during some business with a tin of salmon. Hand on heart, I’ve never seen a funnier scene based around canned fish.

Making us laugh consistently throughout was James Earl Jones, captivating as elderly chauffeur Hoke. Perhaps best known to modern audiences for his voiceover roles in Star Wars and Disney’s The Lion King, Jones demonstrated an impressive ability to deliver both a comic one-liner and a moment of palpable emotion, and ultimately gave an utterly convincing, show-stealing performance. Boyd Gaines, the third and final member of the cast, was equally good and suitably exasperated as Miss Daisy’s ambitious bank-managing son.

The promotional materials for this production describe it as “sparklingly funny” and “irresistibly heart-warming”, and they’ve got it spot on. It’s not a heavyweight play, and despite being set amongst the birth of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, the ideas of prejudice and inequality are not explored in any great depth. But then, that’s not the intention. “Driving Miss Daisy” is really a rather simple story – a story of an unlikely friendship between two people – and David Esbjornson’s elegant production tells the story beautifully. Aided by an economical set and number of effective projections, which nicely evoke time and place, it’s not an exagerration to say that it’s 90 minutes of near-faultless entertainment, with a bravura performance by Jones at its heart.  I suppose, as some small comfort,  the ushers at the Wyndham’s knew that all along.

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