A powerfully poignant and often hilarious play, The Waverly Gallery is about the final years of a generous, chatty, and feisty grandmother's final battle against Alzheimer's disease. Gladys is an old-school lefty and social activist and longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson. More than a memory play, The Waverly Gallery captures the humor and strength of a family in the face of crisis.
May brings her comic genius to the role of Gladys, and that very off-center, always marvelously skewed approach to the text goes a long way toward making the character much less of a trial for us in the audience than she is supposed to be for the characters around her.
The Waverly Gallery never quite builds to the emotional power of his most memorable screen work like You Can Count On Me and Manchester by the Sea; its stakes are lower, its humor quieter, and its tragedies less piercing. But it does have a movie-star cast - and a bona-fide living legend, in Elaine May - as well as a low-key, humor-laced melancholy whose impact accumulates as the play goes on.
2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2018 | Broadway |
Broadway Premiere Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Elaine May |
2019 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Waverly Gallery |
2019 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Elaine May |
2019 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | The Waverly Gallery |
2019 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Elaine May |
2019 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Joan Allen |
2019 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | The Waverly Gallery |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Elaine May |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Kenneth Lonergan |
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