The Grand Manner News & Features

In 1948, playwright A.R. Gurney, then a young boarding school student, traveled to New York where he attended a performance of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, going backstage afterwards to meet the production's star, the great stage actress Katharine Cornell, who was dubbed "The First Lady of the American Stage" by the legendary critic Alexander Woollcott. A mix of remembrance and imagination, The Grand Manner is a love letter to this fabled actress and a heartfelt look back at the glorious heyday of the Broadway theatre.

This show is closed.

Performances ended on Aug. 1, 2010.

Show Overview

About The Grand Manner

What Is the Story of The Grand Manner?
Set backstage at a Broadway theater, The Grand Manner is inspired by a real-life event in the life of playwright A.R. Gurney, who briefly met legendary theater star Katharine Cornell in 1948 after a performance of Antony and Cleopatra. The play expands the story to include Cornell’s director husband, Guthrie McClintic, and her personal assistant and “close friend” Gert Macy. Cornell, a dramatic actress in "the grand manner," is experiencing a crisis of confidence as she observes the theater world changing around her, with the emergence of grittier writers such as Tennessee Williams and method actors such as Marlon Brando. Besotted with all things theatrical, young Pete soaks in the atmosphere and forms a quick bond with the star based on their shared background as natives of Buffalo.