G'Day Miss Daisy

We watched what I thought was a very odd production of DRIVING MISS DAISY on PBS's Great Performances tonight. Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones - a dream cast one would think. But for me it just never took off.  Yes, I am way to close to the subject matter, I was at that Piggly Wiggly many times. There seemed to not even be any attempt to make it a play about Atlanta or even about the American south. At the end I found out why.

This was recorded on a 2013 tour of Australia - which more or less explains why the laughs were just at strange places. You should not really ever compare a movie to a play - just entirely different animals, but not for one minute did I think this was anyone other than the two acting icons Lansbury and Jones.

Especially Jones, who came on as a loud and boisterous Hoke in the deep south of 1947 - when a black mans life was close to disposable, and he simply had to fly under the radar. Morgan Freeman conducted a master class in the movie - James Earl Jones is just letting the Australian audience see James Earl Jones ( which would be totally worth it for me in any other play) Angela Lansbury never seems as frail as Jessica Tandy did in the movie - again, can't compare the mediums - but Lansbury is just a more vivacious actor - eats up more stage, can belt out MAME - when a more somber, genteel approach is what this role calls for. Again, I am sure the fans down under, who dont know a Lullwater from Kudzu were beyond thrilled to see these two great actors.

Hoke and Miss Daisy start out in this production as almost equals - making the great change at the end - well not that great at all. But this is something that would be very hard to explain , that might just be too foreign for non Americans.