{"id":5439,"date":"2025-05-05T20:39:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T20:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/joanna-gleasons-glowing-return-to-new-york-theater\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T20:39:19","slug":"joanna-gleasons-glowing-return-to-new-york-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/05\/joanna-gleasons-glowing-return-to-new-york-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Joanna Gleason\u2019s Glowing Return to New York Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joanna Gleason and Andrew Barth Feldman in We Had A World<\/em> Jeremy Daniel<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Almost four decades have slipped by, but people still recall the love and compassion Joanna Gleason<\/a> poured generously into the Baker\u2019s Wife in Sondheim\u2019s first romp <\/span>Into the Woods<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>It won her a 1988 Tony Award and a place of distinction in the theatrical community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once witnessed, that Gleason glow is not forgotten. Thing is, it hasn\u2019t been seen in some time\u2014at least not on stage in New York. Her last appearance came in Stephen Karam\u2019s 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist, <\/span>Sons of the Prophet<\/span><\/i>. And while TV and film have kept her occupied,\u00a0<\/span>Joshua Harmon<\/a>\u2019s three-hander <\/span>We Had a World<\/span><\/i><\/a> at the Manhattan Theater Club seems to be just the ticket to bring back that warming glow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gleason plays an Upper East Side matriarch named Renee, long estranged from her lawyer daughter, Ellen (Jeanie Serralles<\/a>), but hopelessly devoted to Joshua, her 15-year-old gay grandson (Andrew Barth Feldman<\/a>). A veritable Granny Mame, she loves to introduce the lad to all manner of age-inappropriate pleasures (Diana Riggs\u2019 <\/span>Medea<\/span><\/i> on Broadway, R-rated movies like Mike Leigh\u2019s <\/span>Secrets & Lies <\/span><\/i>and Kevin Costner\u2019s <\/span>Dances with Wolves<\/span><\/i> and an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe\u2019s graphic photographs). He grows up fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tony winners in 1988: Ron Silver (for Speed-the-Plow<\/em>), Joanna Gleason (for Into the Woods<\/em>), Michael Crawford (for The Phantom of the Opera<\/em>) and Joan Allen (for Burn This<\/em>) at the 42nd Annual Tony Awards on June 5, 1988 at the Minskoff Theater in New York City, New York. Ron Galella Collection via Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gleason plays an Upper East Side matriarch named Renee, long estranged from her lawyer daughter, Ellen (Jeanie Serralles), but hopelessly devoted to Joshua, her 15-year-old gay grandson (Andrew Barth Feldman). A veritable Granny Mame, she loves to introduce the lad to all manner of age-inappropriate pleasures (Diana Riggs\u2019 Medea<\/i> on Broadway, R-rated movies like Mike Leigh\u2019s Secrets & Lies <\/i>and Kevin Costner\u2019s Dances with Wolves<\/i> and an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe\u2019s graphic photographs). He grows up fast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis play\u2019s so beautifully written, so true and raw,\u201d Gleason tells <\/span>Observer<\/span><\/i>. \u201cJosh Harmon was very brave to dramatize, right out of his own\u00a0 life, what his relationships were growing up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Gleason connected with her character on first reading. \u201cIt was a part like I\u2019d never had an opportunity to play before,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s my first grandmother role. I <\/span>am<\/span><\/i> a grandmother. I have nine grandchildren.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Gleason liked that Renee is not just<\/em> a grandmother. \u201cShe\u2019s so colorful,\u201d she says. \u201cSo there\u2019s not just one thing to play. The whole cast\u2014Jeanine and Andrew and I\u2014realized that we\u2019re three protagonists in this play, but we\u2019re also antagonists as well. Back and forth, back and forth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Did I mention Renee is an alkie granny? Her lifelong alcoholism is the source of almost all the family conflict. Her daughter keeps this as best she can from her son, who obviously adores granny, but it\u2019s a secret harder to keep when Renee is 93 (about two decades older than Gleason herself) and battling pancreatic cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even in this state, Renee prevails on her playwriting grandson for one final favor\u2014to turn their immediate family history into a play\u2014\u201cand make it as bitter and vitriolic as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The prospect of Renee\u2019s death hovers heavily over the final third of the play. \u201cI watched my own parents die,\u201d Gleason says. \u201cThey died several months apart. They were 96 and 90, and so what I watched the two of them go through, I recalled\u2014but, in a way, I believe that I understand the world that they were going through better now than I did at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Joanna Gleason with her mother Marilyn Hall and father Monty Hall attending a Harvest Moon dinner at the Beverly Hills Hilton, November 1976. Frank Edwards\/Archive Photos\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gleason owes her love of theater to her dad, <\/span>Let\u2019s Make a Deal<\/span><\/i> host Monty Hall, who sent her, at an impressionable age, to shows like <\/span>Bye Bye Birdie <\/span><\/i>and the Robert Morse-Rudy Vallee <\/span>How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying<\/span><\/i>. Proof she was susceptible to this: when Morse and Vallee opted to revive that show years later, she found a place in that company.<\/span><\/p>\n

A musical-theater orientation led her to the stage. She made her professional debut in Burt Bacharach-Hal David\u2019s <\/span>Promises, Promises<\/span><\/i> and, five years later, she braved Broadway with Cy Coleman-Michael Stewart\u2019s <\/span>I Love My Wife<\/span><\/i>, waltzing off with a Theatre World Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

What dramas or comedies that punctuate the music have been well-chosen: Tom Stoppard\u2019s <\/span>The Real Thing<\/span><\/i>, for starters. Peter Nichols\u2019 <\/span>A Day in the Death of Joe Egg <\/span><\/i>put her in the Tony running, as did David Yazbek\u2019s <\/span>Dirty Rotten Scoundrels<\/span><\/i>. On TV, she\u2019s been everything from Leo McGarry\u2019s lawyer on <\/span>The West Wing <\/span><\/i>to Bette Milder\u2019s mother on the short-lived sitcom <\/span>Bette<\/span><\/i>, and her film work\u2014from Woody Allen\u2019s <\/span>Hannah and Her Sisters <\/span><\/i>to Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s <\/span>Boogie Nights<\/span><\/i>\u2014has been equally eclectic. In <\/span>Boogie Nights<\/span><\/i> she played the mother of burgeoning porn star Dirk Diggler. \u201cAgain, something I\u2019ve really never been asked to play before,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky the plays and pictures I\u2019ve done have come my way, and I\u2019ve been lucky that I have followed my instincts as to what I\u2019ve done before. But what\u2019s going to be something that I <\/span>haven\u2019t <\/span><\/i>done before?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even when Gleason makes poor choices, she tends to win anyway. Case-in-point: the 1991 musical <\/span>Nick & Nora<\/span><\/i> which put in nine performances before crumbling into dust. Barry Bostwick and she headed a very starry cast as Dashiell Hammett\u2019s domestic detectives, <\/span>Nick & Nora <\/span><\/i>(Charles). The good news is that she found a husband among the usual suspects\u2014Oscar nominee Chris Sarandon. They\u2019ve settled into New England, not far from roles and work.<\/span><\/p>\n

After several extensions, <\/span>We Had a World <\/span><\/i>will call it a run on May 11, and Gleason admits to mixed emotions about this. \u201cI\u2019m both sorry and grateful, like the song says. I don\u2019t live in New York. Chris and I live in Connecticut, so it\u2019s been a little logistically challenging for us.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gleason has filled the potentially idle time ahead by switching mediums and professions. She\u2019s written and directed a film called <\/span>The Grotto<\/span><\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 A story where grief, laughter and music combine to bring about small miracles, it focuses on Alice, a 40-something woman who uncovers the secret past of her recently deceased lover when she inherits part ownership of a forgotten nightclub in the Mojave Desert. It\u2019s about loss, betrayal and recovery, and who are the people in your life who\u2019ll tell you the truth and who won\u2019t. A host of New York actors ponder that problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Grotto<\/span><\/i> has been screened at several film festivals and even won Best Premier Picture at the Heartland Film Festival. Its first screenings outside a festival come<\/span> May 16 in Los Angeles<\/span><\/a> and May 19 in New York, when it will be shown at the <\/span>Union Square Regal Cinemas<\/span><\/a>. Gleason is planning a talkback at Union Square before the showing. \u201cI\u2019d love for people to come out. It\u2019s what a distributor wants to see: Are people going to the movie? Will they fill the seats? Can they be relied on for word of mouth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

These are new concerns for an actress conditioned to acting the heart and soul out of a play.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"Joanna<\/p><\/div>\n