Multimedia Email this Article Printer-friendly RELATED ARTICLES: 08 Aug 2003 -- Say Goodnight, Gracie Tour Adds Dates 16 May 2003 -- Gorshin Will Take Gracie on the Road Come Fall 27 Mar 2003 -- Calling All Gracies: Say Goodnight, Gracie Offers Free Thursday Tix to Namesakes 27 Jan 2003 -- PHOTO CALL: Say Goodnight Gracie: Jerry Seinfeld and George Wallace 10 Dec 2002 -- Rupert Holmes Holds Post-Performance Discussion at Gracie, Dec. 10

By Andrew Gans
and Robert Simonson
18 Jun 2003

Say Goodnight Gracie will play its final Broadway performance Aug. 24 at the Helen Hayes Theatre, it was announced June 18.

Rupert Holmes' play — starring Frank Gorshin as the late comedian-actor George Burns — will then launch a 26-city national tour, which kicks off Sept. 2 at Connecticut's Hartford Stage.

It's an open secret in the Broadway community that Manhattan Ensemble Theatre's hit solo play, Golda's Balcony, has been circling the Helen Hayes. The William Gibson play is expected to move there from Off-Broadway, but no official announcement has been made.

Didi Conn, who supplies the voiceover of Gracie Allen, will also be heard on tour, which includes fall stops in Washington, D.C. (Sept. 30), Palm Beach, FL (Oct. 7), Boston, MA (Oct. 20) and Wilmington, DE (Nov. 7).

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Say Goodnight Gracie opened on Oct. 10, 2002, following previews from Sept. 17. The play was nominated for a 2003 Tony Award for Best Play, and actor Gorshin won a 2003 Outer Critics Circle Award for his performance. John Tillinger directs the work, which previously played at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. It won Florida's Carbonell Award for Best New Play of 2000. John Lee Beatty is scenic consultant, lighting design is by Howard Werner, sound is by Kevin Lacey.

In Say Goodnight Gracie , comedian George Burns finds himself caught in limbo, unable to enter heaven until he plays his last performance, thereby preserving his perfect record of having never missed a curtain. Beginning with Burns' poverty-stricken youth on the Lower East Side of New York City, Gorshin re-creates the great comedian's life, from his success in vaudeville and on the radio to his marriage to the love of his life, Gracie Allen, and her tragic death; finishing with Burns' late-in life, Academy Award winning success on the silver screen and his establishment as a 20th Century entertainment and comedy icon.

On Broadway, Say Goodnight Gracie plays Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 PM with matinees on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets — $49.50-$70 — are available by calling (212) 239-6200. The Helen Hayes Theatre is located at 240 West 44th Street.

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