Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell to Close June 26
By Andrew Gans
24 Jun 2007
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Kathleen Chalfant stars in Spalding Gray.
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The acclaimed Off-Broadway production of Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell will play its final performance at the Minetta Lane Theatre June 26.
When it closes, Stories Left to Tell will have played 16 previews and 129 regular performances.
Tony Award winner Elaine Stritch will join the cast for the final performance. Stritch, in the role of "Career," will join cast members Kathleen Chalfant, Hazelle Goodman and Frank Wood as well as newcomer Roger Howarth, who is now playing the role originated by Ain Gordon.
Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell officially opened March 6, 2007. The production has featured a rotating list of guest stars. Among those actors who have taken part in the tribute to the late Gray are Richard Kind, Fisher Stevens, Estelle Parsons, Josh Lucas, Rachel Dratch, Bruce Vilanch, Valerie Smaldone, Dylan Walsh, Charles Busch, Whoopi Goldberg, David Boreanaz, Christopher Gorham and Michelle Trachtenberg.
Stories Left to Tell was co-created by Gray's widow, Kathleen Russo, and Lucy Sexton, who also directs. The show, according to press notes, "unfolds chronologically, from recollections of childhood swimming trips with his mother (who also committed suicide) and tales of awkward adolescent sexual encounters, to the joy Gray took in being a father himself." The production includes diary extracts as well as excerpts from Sex and Death to Age 14; Terrors of Pleasure; Swimming to Cambodia; Impossible Vacation; Gray's Anatomy; Monster in a Box; It's a Slippery Slope; Morning, Noon and Night; and Life Interrupted.
In a statement Russo said, "I am so pleased that we ran this show for almost 5 months and that I had the privilege to work with so many talented people - from our cast, to the director Lucy Sexton, our brilliant design team and the producers, who all believed in Spalding's work for a larger audience. This project was so important to our children and family and for Spalding's writing and legacy to continue in the future."
Previously titled Leftover Stories to Tell, the work played UCLA's Freud Playhouse in June 2006 with a cast headed by Teri Garr, John C. Reilly, Tony Shalhoub and Frances Conroy.
The Naked Angels Production is presented by Eric Falkenstein and Michael Alden.
Spalding Gray won an Obie Award for Swimming to Cambodia and filmed the monologue with director Jonathan Demme. Other works include Morning, Noon and Night; Monster in a Box; Gray's Anatomy; and It's a Slippery Slope. He performed on Broadway in Our Town and Gore Vidal's The Best Man. After a series of bouts with depression, Gray took his own life in 2004 by jumping from the Staten Island Ferry into the waters of New York Harbor.
Tickets for the final performance, priced $35 -$65, are available by visiting www.ticketmaster.com or by phoning (212) 307-4100.
The Minetta Lane Theatre is located in Manhattan at 18 Minetta Lane, just off Sixth Avenue.
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