Imaginary Friends
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
Previews Began: November 25, 2002
Opening Night: December 12, 2002
Closing Night: February 16, 2003
Music: Marvin Hamlisch
Lyrics: Craig Carnelia
Book: Nora Ephron
Novelist Mary McCarthy’s notorious statement on the Dick Cavett Show calling playwright Lillian Hellman a liar exploded into one of the most famous of all literary feuds. This surreal farce portrays these two literary lionesses battling it out in hell. It chronicles a compelling story of two women shaped by their different but equally unsettled childhoods, their looks (one was a beauty, one was not) and the men in their lives while it brilliantly examines to great comic effect the concept of truth in fiction: Who can you believe? Interspersed throughout are witty songs that enable the ensemble to comment on the action.
CAST
OPENING NIGHT
Cherry Jones Mary McCarthy
Swoosie Kurtz Lillian Hellman
Harry Groener The Man
Anne Pitoniak A Woman
Anne Allgood Abby Kaiser
Others
Bernard Dotson Leo
Others
Rosena M. Hill Mrs. Stillman
Others
Gina Lamparella Beguine Dancer
Others
Dirk Lumbard Fact
Others
Peter Marx Fiction
Others
Perry Ojeda Vic
Others
Karyn Quackenbush Fizzy
Others
Swings: Jim Osorno, Melanie Vaughan
Standby: Anne Allgood (A Woman), Dirk Lumbard (The Man) Susan Pellegrino (Lillian Hellman, Mary McCarthy)