DAVID GRIMM
The Learned Ladies of Park Avenue
Translated and Freely Adapted from Molière's "Les Femmes Savantes."
5M, 5F (doubling)
A jazz-age screwball comedy riff on Molière's biting satire of pretense and learning. Betty wants to marry Dicky. Her mother Phyllis, a self-proclaimed intellectual and political activist, has another man in mind — namely, the hack poet and scheming opportunist Upton Gabbit. Set in 1936 Manhattan against the backdrop of the Great Depression and impending war, this romantic comedy skewers those who wear their social conscience on their sleeve and affirms that love conquers all.
Premiere:
Hartford Stage, 2005. Directed by: Michael Wilson
Cast: Tom Bloom, Annalee Jeffries, Nancy Bell, Nicole Lowrance, Nafe Katter, Pamela Payton-Wright, Zach Shaffer, David Greenspan, Natalie Brown, Bill Kux.
Commissioned by Hartford Stage.