George Burns (January 20, 1896 - March 9, 1996), born Nathan Birnbaum, was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three quarters of a century. At the age of 79, Burns' career was resurrected as an amiable, beloved and unusually active old comedian in the 1975 film The Sunshine Boys, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He continued to work until shortly before his death in 1996 at the age of 100.
On Wednesday, October 29 Ivoryton Playhouse favorite, Bruce Connelly, returns to the Playhouse stage in the hit Broadway show, Say Goodnight Gracie. This stunning tour de force invites you to spend an hilarious, heart-warming evening in the uplifting company of the world's favorite and funniest centenarian, George Burns. Say Goodnight Gracie was Broadway's third longest running solo performance show and was nominated for a 2003 Tony Award for Best Play and won the 2003-2004 National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Play.
In Say Goodnight Gracie, George Burns looks back upon his impoverished, plucky youth on the lower East Side of New York, his disastrous but tenacious career in Vaudeville, the momentous day when he met the fabulously talented young Irish girl named Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen. They had instant chemistry, with his flawless timing to her dizzy delivery. The play tells about his wooing her, their marriage and their rise to the pinnacles of vaudeville, movies, radio and television. Gracie's demise forced George to start from square one in life and in his career, eventually achieving an equal level of success as a solo raconteur and Academy Award-winning actor, portraying everything from a Sunshine Boy to Oh, God.
Bruce Connelly appeared last at the Ivoryton Playhouse as Jim in the summer production All Shook Up. Other notable roles include Barney Cashman in Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Max Bialystock in The Producers, Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Finian in Finian's Rainbow. Since 1993, Bruce has played Barkley, Jim Henson's Muppet dog on Sesame STreet for which he has been honored fifteen times by the National Academy of Television and Radio at the Daytime Emmy Awards.
Say Goodnight Gracie, written by multiple Tony Award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes, is a tender, funny, life-affirming love story...a personal guided tour through an American century in the company of George Burns, a man who laughingly lived and loved each day for all it had to offer, until he finally went "gently in that good night" to forever reunite with his beloved Gracie.
Say Goodnight Gracie runs October 29 through November 16, 2014. Performances are Wendesday through Sundays (matinee performances on Wednesdays and Sundays).Tickets can be purchase by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.
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