It's not every day that you get to see two living legends on stage. Certainly, witnessing one legend in the flesh is an anomaly, but two? As if this weren’t already a nonpareil, add onto that a front row view of them onstage in the John Golden Theatre. Can you imagine? I can, because I lived it. Clearly the stars were in place for me because I, indeed, bore witness to none other than the inimitable Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones in their sharp-tongued rendition of the hit Broadway production The Gin Game.
The best way for me to express to you how powerful of an experience this was is to momentarily place you in my shoes (brown Polo boots with tube socks to be specific).
Picture it:
It is 3:07 P.M. on the last Sunday of November. You're front row in the John Golden Theatre and it is a full house. A line of sweat on your brow, you are the last person to be seated. You make it in the nick of time. You're intimately aware of the stage embellishments before you; the artificial turf, the pseudo soil, the mock brick walkway. The dull hum of anxious patrons vibrates in your ears, circumambient. You begin to take your heavy leather coat off to get comfortable when suddenly the curtain rises and the stage lights up. You freeze. You're greeted by an old porch with a giant glass-paneled wooden door smack dab in the middle. There is a long brown porch chair on the leftmost side, long enough for two people. There are dressers and shelves and various furniture piled up on itself on the rightmost side.
Directly in front of this clutter you see a surly-faced James Earl Jones dressed like a typical grandpa, sitting in a straddling position on a porch chair and looking off into the distance. The stage lights are like stars that focus on him, a planet, as birds chirp in the constructed background. You notice how much he looks like your grandfather (rest his soul); it's uncanny. You are so close you can touch him.
You are in awe. Before you can make another move, a crying goddess shuffles out from the stage left. It is Cecily Tyson, brandishing a curly wig and a crumpled handkerchief. If Jones is a planet, Tyson is a supernova, expanding your eyes with every step. You notice how much she looks like your nana (rest her soul); it’s uncanny. You are so close you can touch her.
And you sigh and you applaud because you are in the presence of two galactic legends. This is your first production with Mister Jones. This ain't your first time at the rodeo with Miss Tyson. You had the pleasure of seeing her in A Trip To Bountiful alongside the moon and sun that are Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams, respectively. That experience touched you more than words could elucidate, yet doesn't disenchant you from the sheer wonder of this moment, seeing her reborn as another character in another play on another stage with a fellow legend, similarly reborn and ready to expand.
Images of their respective roles flash by in your head: for Jones, his voice echoes in your psyche due to movies like Star Wars and Lion King. His face is given the same reverence in films like Coming to America and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. For Tyson, you'll never forget The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman or Roots. They are etched into your childhood and are creating a new etching in your burgeoning adulthood. You are breathless.
You give up on stripping your coat because you're already in the thick of it. You're in the Gin Game, and it’s already taut. You can’t escape. You don’t want to. You surrender to the elements. You strap in tight, punch-drunk; not ready, but ready.
(Photo: Justin "Squigs" Robertson)
On paper The Gin Game reads as a mundane, humorous exploration of two elderly residents in an old folk’s home playing Gin Rummy. Jones explains it as such: “[Cecily] comes out on the stage weeping… desperately. Her life is ruined, her life is over. I’m sitting in a pile of junk. My life is over. And we join over a game of gin.” But onstage it is a transformatory exploration that exemplifies, as Tyson herself describes, “who we really are as people, and what it takes to reveal who we really are as people.” Written by Donald L. Coburn as his first play, the original production premiered in 1976 to rave reviews. Coburn's script would later win the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony that same year for best actress (Jessica Tandy). Fans of the original production will know that couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy brought the house down with their fiery personalities clashing on stage, thus setting an impossibly high bar for any actors following in their footsteps to play Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey. Not unless you are two seasoned pros starring in a dynamic revival like the three-time Emmy and Tony Award winner Cicely Tyson and the two-time Tony Award winner James Earl Jones, whose last Broadway production together was A Hand Is On The Gate in 1966. The results of this reunion turn out to be unparalleled. The Gin Game has a lot of laughs, but underneath them there is a poignancy that tugs at your heart long after the curtains have dropped.
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For more information about The Gin Game and ticket info, visit here.
To watch the original 1980 production, the full PBS broadcast of the Broadway show is on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBSX461X-XI
