Tracy and Hepburn Play Snapped Up by Producers; Zaks to Direct

By Kenneth Jones
05 Jul 2007

Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Hollywood scribe Army Archerd reported on his blog that John Dayton's play, Spence and Me, about "Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's last days at 9191 St. Ives Place in West Hollywood," is on the plate of producers David Brown and Bill Self.

Dayton is a TV writer, producer, director and actor who had a personal and professional association with the late stage and screen star Hepburn.

Archerd reports that the play about the acting legends will be staged in New York City (on or Off-Broadway) by Tony Award winner Jerry Zaks (Guys and Dolls). Zaks will helm a private reading July 23 in the penthouse of David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown, according to armyarcherd.com.

Dayton was a producer of the 1994 TV movie Truman Capote's "One Christmas," in which Hepburn made her final screen appearance.

Iconoclastic Academy Award winner Hepburn had a long professional and romantic relationship with Tracy. Their last film together (and his final film) was "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" (1967, the year he died). Their pictures included "Woman of the Year" (1942), "Adam's Rib" (1949), "Pat and Mike" (1952) and "Desk Set" (1957), among others.

Hepburn's Broadway credits include her famous 1939 "comeback" project, The Philadelphia Story (she later starred in the film), as well as The West Side Waltz, A Matter of Gravity, Coco, The Millionairess, As You Like It, Without Love, The Philadelphia Story, The Lake, The Warrior's Husband, Art and Mrs. Bottle, These Days and Night Hostess (1928).