ALFRED Uhry’s Pulitzer award-winning play Driving Miss Daisy is at the York Theatre Royal until June 29 with Paula Wilcox, Cory English and Maurey Richards in leading roles and York Theatre Royal Associate Artist Suzann McLean directing.
Made famous by the 1989 Academy Award-winning film with Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, this comedy-drama is set against a backdrop of prejudice, inequality and the American Civil Rights movement.
When proud Daisy Werthan crashes her car, her son decides to hire a driver for her: African-American Hoke Colburn.
Daisy and Hoke’s relationship gets off to a rocky start but, as times change over two decades, a profound friendship blossoms between them.
Director Suzann said: “Driving Miss Daisy is a love story about two unlikely individuals who form a friendship in the South during the time of the civil rights movement.
“The play spans 25 years of the Jewish and African American communities living in Atlanta.
"Key moments in history from the Temple bombing in 1958 to Martin Luther King Jr’s Nobel peace prize dinner in 1964 force us to re-examine where we are as a society today.”
Paula Wilcox (Daisy) starred in two classic 1970s TV comedy series Man About the House and The Lovers.
Recent TV includes Ben Elton’s BBC comedy Upstart Crow (as Shakespeare’s mother), Kay Mellor’s Girlfriends, Living the Dream, Mount Pleasant, The Queen’s Nose and Emmerdale.
Cory English (Boolie) began his career on Broadway in musical theatre, including Hello Dolly with Carol Channing and Gypsy with Tyne Daly. He moved to the UK to study classical theatre and now lives in London.
He starred in The Producers at Drury Lane Theatre Royal and on tour, and played Igor in the West End production of Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein.
Maurey Richards (Hoke) counts Carmen Jones, Buddy!, Starlight Express and Porgy and Bess among his West End credits.
He has been a member of The Platters vocal and recording group for the last ten years.
Driving Miss Daisy is at the York Theatre Royal until June 29.
Tickets are available from the box office on 01904 623568 or go to yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
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