| Relatively Speaking | |
|---|---|
 Softcover edition | |
| Written by | Ethan Coen, Elaine May and Woody Allen |
| Date premiered | October 20, 2011 |
| Place premiered | Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Comedy |
Relatively Speaking is an anthology produced on Broadway in 2011, consisting of three plays: Talking Cure by Ethan Coen, George Is Dead by Elaine May and Honeymoon Motel by Woody Allen.
It opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on October 20, 2011 and closed on January 29, 2012, after 118 regular performances. All three were directed by John Turturro. [1] [2] The plays were produced by Julian Schlossberg and Letty Aronson (Allen’s sister). [3]
The three plays were cast as follows: [4]
Woody Allen said of the plays: “It’s a broad comedy, for laughs, no redeeming social value." The plays are described as involving various family members. [3]
Santo Loquasto "designed sets for each play that suggest each author’s film persona." The design for the Allen play is a "colorful, comical design for the motel, with its circular bed and pink Jacuzzi." [8]
Joel Daniel Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen, collectively known as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Their most acclaimed works include Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), No Country for Old Men (2007), A Serious Man (2009), True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). Many of their films are distinctly American, often examining the culture of the American South and American West in both modern and historical contexts.
Heywood Allen is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many accolades, including the most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, with 16. He has won four Academy Awards, nine BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen was awarded the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, an Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, a milkman in the village of Anatevka, who attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon his family's lives. He must cope with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters who wish to marry for love; their choices of husbands are successively less palatable for Tevye. An edict of the tsar eventually evicts the Jews from their village.
John Michael Turturro is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his varied complex roles in independent films. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler, and Spike Lee. He has received a Primetime Emmy Award and nominations for four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Elaine Iva May is an American comedian, filmmaker, playwright, and actress. She first gained fame in the 1950s for her improvisational comedy routines with Mike Nichols, before transitioning her career as a groundbreaking film director and screenwriter. She has received numerous awards, including a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and a Tony Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2013, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2022.
Jerome Bernard Orbach was an American actor and singer, described at the time of his death as "one of the last bona fide leading men of the Broadway musical and global celebrity on television" and a "versatile stage and film actor".
The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949.
Margaret Julia "Marlo" Thomas is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom That Girl (1966–1971) and her children's franchise Free to Be... You and Me. She has received three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Peabody Award for her work in television and has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.
Elaine Stritch was an American actress, known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films and television series. Stritch was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1995.
Theodore Raymond Knight is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dr. George O'Malley on the ABC medical drama television series Grey's Anatomy, which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2007.
Grant Shaud is an American actor known for his portrayal of the character of Miles Silverberg on the television sitcom Murphy Brown.
No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American neo-Western crime thriller film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel of the same name. Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin, the film is set in the desert landscape of 1980 West Texas. The film revisits the themes of fate, conscience and circumstance that the Coen brothers had explored in the films Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), and Fargo (1996). The film follows three main characters: Llewelyn Moss (Brolin), a Vietnam War veteran and welder who stumbles upon a large sum of money in the desert; Anton Chigurh (Bardem), a hitman who is sent to recover the money and Ed Tom Bell (Jones), a sheriff investigating the crime. The film also stars Kelly Macdonald as Moss's wife Carla Jean, and Woody Harrelson as a bounty hunter seeking Moss and the return of the $2 million.
The London Film Critics' Circle is the name by which the Film Section of The Critics' Circle is known internationally.
Ariel Geltman Graynor is an American actress, known for her roles in TV series such as I'm Dying Up Here, The Sopranos and Fringe, in stage productions such as Brooklyn Boy and The Little Dog Laughed, and in films such as Whip It and For a Good Time, Call... She also starred as Meredith Davis on the short-lived CBS television sitcom Bad Teacher in 2014.
Jason Kravits is an American actor. He is best known for portraying A.D.A. Richard Bay on ABC's The Practice.
Daniel Hoch is an American actor, writer, director and performance artist. He has acted in larger roles in independent and art house movies and had a few small roles in mainstream Hollywood films, with increasing exposure as in 2007's We Own the Night. He is also known for his one man shows.
The Full Monty is a musical with book by Terrence McNally and score by David Yazbek.
Douglas Geoffrey McGrath was an American screenwriter, film director, and actor. He received various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Tony Award, and Primetime Emmy Award.
Julian Schlossberg is an American motion pictures, theatre and television producer. He has been a college lecturer and television host regarding films, as well.
Fred Melamed is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Known as a renowned character actor, he gained prominence for his role as Sy Ableman in the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man (2009) and for his collaborations with Woody Allen, appearing in seven of Allen’s films including Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). Other notable credits include In a World... (2012), Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Shiva Baby (2020).
