'The Gin Game' opens Feb. 4

D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is best known for the two stars who created the leading roles: Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronin. Their amazing performances when the show debuted in 1978 catapulted this show to one of the hottest tickets in New York. A year later, the duo reprised their roles for PBS, which gave the whole country a chance to see this famous couple bring this brilliant script to life.

“The Gin Game” centers on a protracted game of cards between two elderly residents of the Bentley Retirement home in Anytown, USA. Throughout a series of card games the two characters, Fonsia Dorsey and Weller Martin, reveal more about themselves than three months on a psychiatrist’s couch.

Director Randall Hickman remarked, “In my opinion, this is the hardest script any actor can do — at any age.” Hickman’s cast ranges in age from 65 to 71 years and there are two separate casts. “When I held auditions for this show I had so many phenomenal people audition. I had over 40 people vying for two roles. It was daunting. Halfway through the callbacks I leaned over to Douglas Davis, the set designer, and told him that I was going to double-cast the show. And I am so glad I did. This show is so demanding. The script jumps and swerves and pulls new topics out of mid-air right in the middle of a scene. It is quite the script — I guess that’s why it’s a Pulitzer Prize winner.”

To differentiate the casts Hickman is calling the first group Cast A (Monica Wyatt and Michael Thomas Tower) and Cast B (Edwin Eigner and Corinne Williams). “Both casts are so good and so different. Whichever cast you see, you won’t be disappointed,” promises Hickman.

“The Gin Game” is the first show in Premiere Productions’ 2005 Broadway Theater Season, February 4-27. Cast A performs Thursdays and Sundays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Cast B performs Fridays and Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 p.m. This production is not recommended for children due to language. To purchase tickets call the Broadway Theater Box Office at (760) 806-7905. The theater is located behind the Avo Theater in Vista at 340 East Broadway.