At least that's what I thought. LONERGAN: I think so. LONERGAN: [As Matthew Broderick put it], it's my most literally autobiographical work. The show is able to balance the painful situation with the humor her family finds in the darkest times. IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. LONERGAN: I'm sure it did. You're there to consult and help. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. It's not tryin' to make you miserable and it's not tryin' to shove your face into misery. And the moments where there's, you know, laughter or that easiness or understanding. Why were the audiences drawn to that film? LONERGAN: "Waverly Gallery" is about the last couple functioning years in the life of a Greenwich Village gallery owner. LONERGAN: Well, they bring so much to it. Gladys is . ALTSCHUL: So, you would have to say, "Mom, things have progressed here. Ink Apr 24, 2019 Jul 07, 2019 . She really liked to talk to people and she really liked to talk. But also I was trying to do with the it's always weird to talk about your own work. And how the brain works and how people make the choices they make? LONERGAN: "Waverly Gallery" is about the last couple functioning years in the life of a Greenwich Village gallery owner. ALTSCHUL: And as someone who you love, dearly, the person is still in there, even though things are scrambled. David Zinns urban set, with its vistas of the city beyond, weighs heavily on the playing area. LONERGAN: I don't think she'd be too happy! What would your grandmother say? The Waverly Gallery By Kenneth Lonergan Directed by Lila Neugebauer Broadway: Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th Street, New York, NY December 14, 2018 Reviewed by Scott Klavan Elaine May in The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Lila Neugebauer. Kenneth Lonergans personal play about a gallery owner losing her memory is a beautifully acted, quietly crushing tragedy. Lucas Hedges, Elaine May in "The Waverly Gallery" This feels like a good choice?". LONERGAN: Oh, it just means make them better. Mr. Lonergan has one of the keenest ears of any working playwright. is also often deeply funny. And also 'cause people tend to push older people aside when they start to slip away. LONERGAN: Oh, you have to. ALTSCHUL: It was 20 years ago that you were writing "The Waverly Gallery." Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. I've always been interested in the way people talk. Beetlejuice Apr 25, 2019 Mar 10, 2020 . (Got any coffee lying around?). That its Elaine May who is giving life to Gladyss war against time lends an extra power and poignancy to The Waverly Gallery, which opened on Thursday night under Lila Neugebauers fine-tuned direction. As far as caring for elderly and people with dementia, aging people with Alzheimer's or any of these diseases, not much has changed today. So when people say there's no story, there are no plot line, it's no beginning, middle and end. The short version is that they didn't trust me to take care of the film after it was shot, in the editing, and I didn't have the smarts to put them at ease. Well, now that I've directed these three films, I really do think of myself as a director, as a filmmaker also. ALTSCHUL: Is it your most autobiographical work? And just to hasten the inevitable by kind of taking people away from their homes and away from their lives because they become an inconvenience, is really not great. But it also is sort of the idea of an attempt to do a play in some kind of documentary theatricalization, 'cause it's very literal, and the events are not written in any way as to try to compress or bend the reality to make it more like a story. The pictures are good. LONERGAN:I don't know that, nobody does that anymore. You don't really choose. LONERGAN: No, I mean the play is about her at a age she wouldn't wanna be seen at, and a state of mind she wouldn't want anyone to be witness to. How are we gonna get her to go to the bathroom without embarrassing her? I think it's just really difficult. As the play continues, he's filled with guilt and remorse. ALTSCHUL: So, speaking of things that stood the test of time, how does "The Wonderful World of Pluto" hold up now? I was asked to come on two weeks before they were supposed to start shooting. Thus, when Gladys's deterioration escalates from eccentricity to complete deterioration, the younger generation can no longer just stay in touch. So that's how that came about. And I thought, "Oh, that sounds like a really good story." I wasn't, like, a saint, spending all my time taking care of her. My best friend's father died quite young, and I was there for a lot of that. Current Totals: 12498 plays, 5653 writers, 356 monologues Title Author More about The Waverly Gallery: Play Details Monologues Add a Monologue Trivia Director's Notes Rate this Play Publisher's Website: Director's Notes for The Waverly Gallery No Notes have been entered yet for this play. Most plays are just talking! ALTSCHUL: "Waverly" opened to critically great reviews. And it's nice to come in and save the day. I miss huge swaths of experience, but (LAUGHS) of little pieces that I remember, I remember pretty well. But not for a lot of money, I don't think. And I thought of faith in other people, faith in other people, and the idea of putting your faith in someone who may not necessarily have earned it. Leave a Comment / Uncategorized (LAUGHS) 'Cause they don't really need you telling them everything all the time. Or this six characters? There's a lot we can learn from the Manchester By The Sea script, from its characters to its dialogue. That she has clearly already lost this battle makes her no less valiant. She also received a Drama League Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. But I didn't know what those would be. So there's a theatrical version and the extended edition. ALTSCHUL: So Martin Scorsese says to you, "I need your help. It is considered a "memory play". Unless it's a sensationalist story, in which case it's great. In ''The Waverly Gallery,'' which opened last night at the Promenade Theater, the octogenarian Gladys Green is played by the octogenarian Eileen Heckart, an actress whose career stretches well. I mean there's two parts. I wrote a science fiction novel when I was 11 and 12, or 12 and 13, something like that. LONERGAN: Well, you know, a bunch of people. [66] That same year, May's film A New Leaf was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". ALTSCHUL: You said she was a lover of life and people, more than the art and the gallery. (Theres a fifth character, Don, an amateur painter played by the current Lonergan go-to Michael Cera and as close as the play gets to comic relief.). She just was very thoughtful and also very, very insightful. LONERGAN: I don't know what they mean exactly, because you know, I often find when I'm watching something, it's when they bring in the sensational event that I start to lose interest. LONERGAN: You know, you can turn the lights on and off, (LAUGHTER) if someone walks in or out. LONERGAN: But that's the system. From the moment Gladys Green opens her mouth which is the moment that the curtain rises on Kenneth Lonergan's wonderful play "The Waverly Gallery" at the Golden Theater it's clear that for this garrulous woman, idle conversation isn't a time killer. One part is that that's the convention for screenplays in this country. LONERGAN: Yeah. I read the script. Mr. Ceras homey painter may be no Picasso. The Waverly Gallery is a play by Kenneth Lonergan. But that doesnt stop Gladys talking, even in her sleep. Neither is watching Kenneth Lonergan's latest play The Waverly Gallery. And I have no religious faith at all, but I'm curious about people who do. ALTSCHUL: But when you do it, you're allowing actors to take the chances and the risks. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. . The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001. (LAUGHS) 'Cause they don't really need you telling them everything all the time. I like it. She'd always know what you were doing. And you kinda wanna say, "Where are you?" At 86, Ms. May in her first Broadway appearance in more than 50 years turns out to be just the star to nail the rhythms, the comedy and the pathos of a woman whos talking as fast as she can to keep her place in an increasingly unfamiliar world. How did you say yes? Her partnership with Mike Nichols is still considered the gold standard for such quick-sketch portraiture. LONERGAN: Well, I just [had] one small theatre experience after another. The playwright's story of family relationships and dementia, now on Broadway in a revival starring Elaine May, Joan Allen and Lucas Hedges, recalls his grandmother's last years in decline. Gladys Green, the proprietor of the gallery of the title, is a crusty old lady on the cusp of the downslide into Alzheimer's disease. They're talking." But that's actually the most complicated thing to do, is to have people simply talking. He has served as Director of the Geriatric . It is a lifeline. the waverly gallery monologue-R$ . Well, I knew that from the beginning, but the more you learn to get out of their way and shut up. I'm sure you heard about Jesus. LONERGAN: Yeah. And it works fine. Could you maybe add some depth to the characters." She might be able to put her personal feelings aside. And there's not exactly a plot in "Waverly Gallery," but there's this progression. LONERGAN: Yeah, they had an idea for a movie that they liked. I have two plays that I directed 'cause I had a real specific idea of how I wanted them to be, the whole design. So they actually delayed shooting for a couple of weeks because they needed to work on the script. I'm movin' in"? "Analyze This." Lucas Hedges and Elaine May in The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Lila Neugebauer. Why shouldn't they? But no word is randomly chosen here, starting with Gladyss opening line: I never knew anything was the matter.. It was a long way getting to the film that I wanted to make in the editing, so by the time I got there I wasn't able to completely execute everything I wanted to. It's not a memoir. Because Matt Damon and John Krazinski came to me with the idea for the story. The two actors were just great. But it is a memoir play, I guess! 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story", Garland to face Congress amid ongoing special counsel investigations, FBI chief says agency feels pandemic likely started with Chinese lab leak. She rang the bell, I could check in. Auditions drew a talented cast of newcomers and alumni. Has a lot of freedom, but no foundation. November 11, 2018 / 10:16 AM ALTSCHUL: They're psychotherapists or psychiatrists? And then what happens? I love this little scene." A small Greenwich Village vanity gallery gives her something to do. And mainly you wanna get a great person in the lead role, and that's where Elaine May comes in. I hadn't had a lot of life experience. ALTSCHUL: And that was what you wanted to make. Where did it go wrong? ALTSCHUL: I mean, it's painful to think about and talk about and to watch. So there was an evening about faith, whatever it meant to you. That movie was so late in the process that every other movie I've ever script doctored, they always rewrite you after you're done anyway. I'm sure she'd get kick outta that. And especially as you're becoming an adult, and becoming not just a function of your family and your parents, to be facing the complexity of the rest of the world, and the fact that other people are just as important as you are at that moment when your own ego is identifying itself, is a very tricky moment in life. And she died, so that was the end of that. That you have to have some flexibility with what you do with the script. The show, first produced Off-Broadway in 2000, follows a grandson watching his grandmother slowly die from Alzheimer's disease. And I really liked it. And then I was unable to write it for eight months. Gladys declines from scene to scene, a decline that the gallerys closing quickens. She rented the gallery from the early '60s to the late '80s, right before the kind of gentrification and real estate boom really hit the Village. The real estate wasn't sky-high in those days. She was kind of a soft communist, I like to describe her. It was pretty clear where it was working and where it wasn't. What happened? LONERGAN: It is difficult. All My Sons Apr 22, 2019 Jun 30, 2019 . Shes a woman of diverse talents acting, directing, writing, sketch comedy so its easy to forget just how talented she is. And she died, so that was the end of that. Anyway, it seemed like this enormous thing that I really didn't know what to make of. Productions [ edit] "The Waverly Gallery" is a memory play told by Daniel, who addresses us from the front of the stage. You know, it's not just awful. And if you get good actors, that's great. (LAUGHTER) But it's nice to have someone who's supportive, but very, very truthful with you. LONERGAN: Well, I try to recreate actual human speech as best I can. People who are lucky who don't mind being in them and the ones that are very nice, if you can afford them, are great. And she just had a very profound understanding of I hate to call it this how the creative process works. ALTSCHUL: You go to the original. And I knew I had a good arc for a full story. But I didn't really feel like I had finished, I didn't feel safe with the material till she'd said it was okay. Gladys Green owns a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. LONERGAN: Unfortunately. ALTSCHUL: Why was that film a hard film to make in the end? May is not alone. Like a spy novel. At the same time, he is assessing the impact of such disjointedness on the helpless members of her family, who without even being aware of it sometimes find themselves adopting Gladyss fragmented worldview. I'm gonna put this on paper and then I can grapple with it better"? Gladys crams all silences with increasingly disconnected bits of autobiography and with peppy questions and catchphrases that she has probably used for decades. It can be really fun. Daniel addresses the audience, chronicling his grandmother's decline. We'll just set them up in this . I like these two characters. And it's interesting for the actors and the director to try to make that come to life. Trying to convince her family and herself that shes still capable of navigating the flux of urban life, Gladys always fills in the verbal gaps that confront her, even with words that may not be the right ones. It's like doing a crossword puzzle. ALTSCHUL: You know, "This Is Our Youth," it's a play, it's young people, and it's just talking. ALTSCHUL: Do you love being given a problem? LONERGAN: As I recall, a couple of years after my grandmother died, I think, or shortly afterwards. It's just about coming to terms as a young person realizing that everybody's really doing their own thing. Just the last couple years of her functioning where, you know, it's a very slow, gradual decline. A little seed in your brain somewhere, and you just let go. LONERGAN: Just a little, well, a lot of the material. ALTSCHUL: I love that she kind of got to the heart of what some of your works were about, before you knew. Make them more approachable? The Waverly Gallery is nominated for two Tony Awards, Best Revival of a Play and Best Leading Actress in a Play for Elaine May. She's incredibly insightful and she's a lotta fun. And when she whimsically describes the loneliness of Ellens dog, who just wants a little attention, you know exactly what Gladys really means. [Whats new onstage and off: Sign up for our Theater Update newsletter]. You had early success in the film business. His particular skills, especially his ear for dialogue, take on a poignant quality here. And I immediately thought of the whole film in a way in my head, when I was watching that play. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. Thats what makes The Waverly Gallery a work of such hard, compassionate clarity. And without that, you don't really have much of anything. Although I think it's something I would be good at and that I would like and be interested in. So I lived off of that script. LONERGAN: Yeah, and it's not your movie. A monologue about love, grief, joy, and a famed production's highs and lows CRITICS' PICKS. The Waverly Gallery is an insightful look into a passionate and feisty woman's final decline and the impact felt by the entire family. And then when she got older she became deaf and her mind started to fall away, and so it became harder for her to enjoy the main thing in life that she liked, which was to connect with people and to talk to them. LONERGAN: Yeah, she was amazing. I rented an apartment in the back of the building she owned. Alzheimer's wasn't quite coined as the catch-all for most forms of dementia. Her moment to moment reality in the play is remarkable. But I was there a lot. Or the locks on the doors, the gas on the stove, or just arrangements of who's gonna take so-and-so to the doctor, to the eye doctor, and that becomes a big part of your life. We're not all having the same experience all the time. (CHUCKLES). He's very undogmatic. ALTSCHUL: I mean that's what it is about, right? That is what you want to do most of all. Since Donald went on the altar boysThere was alcohol on his breath.". LONERGAN: And it makes it a story and not just a dirge. LONERGAN: Well, it gives you backup. LONERGAN: No. LONERGAN: That was unusual, 'cause that was an assignment at first, that became my own project. octubre story: J030us 80 B Cup Size Danger Bay Rock Star . The Waverly Gallery opened October 25, 2018, at the John Golden Theatre. (LAUGHTER) I have a play I wanna write. But it's interesting. LONERGAN: There's all these attachments. It is considered a "memory play". 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