By Adam F. Cohen
originally published: 02/10/2018
The quiet freemasonry of pride, time, companionship, and aging provides for a quiet but thought provoking production of Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry’s “Driving Miss Daisy” in Hoboken by Mile Square Theatre. It illustrates the friendship of an African American man and Caucasian woman in the South, largely of convenience but overtime gelling into actual respect and love. Sadly, in today’s fractious time, it also highlights how far we have to go. And this understated but powerful production is a perfect representation of the power and craft of strong acting, writing, and theater.
Miss Daisy (Barbara Broughton) is an Atlanta widow who, after a spectacular car crash, is persuaded by her son, Bookie (Matthew Lawler) to take on a chauffeur in the person of Hoke Coleburn (Count Stovall). Over the momentous quarter-century from 1948 to 1973 embracing the civil rights movement and growing desegregation, we see how their rigid, professional relationship deepens into an amazing friendship.
The play is a series of short scenes. Uhry hints at the political changes American undergoes. The 1958 bombing of Atlanta's oldest synagogue for its support of racial freedom prompts Hoke to observe that African-Americans have long been exposed to bigotry. This is counter-balanced by a later scene in which Miss Daisy's son turns down an invitation to a Martin Luther King dinner fearing acceptance would jeopardize his business. Uhry never follows up a crucial moment when Miss Daisy teaches the unlettered Hoke the rudiments of reading. But the scenes alight into a gentle, vital, poetic friendship.
The beauty of the production is the three actors gracefulness and articulate chemistry. Though Lawler has the smallest part, he evokes a quiet exasperation at dealing with an aging, disapproving mother who he loves wholeheartedly and generously. Broughton imbues Miss Daisy with a fierce pride and willfulness. As a former elementary school teacher, Miss Daisy treats her son and driver as recalcitrant pupils.
Stovall’s Hoke brings out the quiet dignity of a man who has survived life's humiliations but knows his own worth: there is real anger in the scene when he turns on his employer for inviting him, only at the very last second, to escort her to the Martin Luther King banquet. And equal Joy at leaving Georgia for the first time during a road trip to Alabama. It is a superb piece of acting artfully matched by Lawler and Broughton.
Unobtrusively directed by Mark Cirnigliaro, the actors lend Uhry's tenuous play a transforming weight and substance. Uhry’s vignettes portray a classic clash of wills between an immovable object and an irresistible force that eventually melts into something like love. There’s a gentle restraint and maturity to the entire production. The simple, yet elegant set (Matthew J. Fick) reveals a cemetery plot, various cars, Boolie’s office and Daisy’s home.
When Miss Daisy’s steps slow, and Hoke hunches and walks with a cane, we feel a distinct chill of mortal attrition. As it affects Miss Daisy and Hoke. Ms. Broughton and Mr. Stovall have yet to shrink one bit.
The production in the distinctive jewel of a theater in Hoboken, runs through February 25th. Tickets and more information at https://www.milesquaretheatre.org/driving-miss-daisy/
Kean Department Of Theatre Presents "the Drowsy Chaperone"
Sunday, November 15, 2026 @ 2:00pm
Kean Stage - Bauer Boucher Theatre Center
1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJMusic and lyrics by
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Princeton’s Famous Triangle Show: Roswell That Ends Well
Sunday, November 15, 2026 @ 2:00pm
McCarter Theatre Center (Matthews Theatre)
91 University Place, Princeton, NJIf you’re feeling all alone in the universe – or even if you’re not – Triangle’s newest musical comedy is for you! Join us as Triangle explores what it means to have friends in high – or should we say “sky”? – places. Extraterrestrial visitors, crazy conspiracy theories, and intergalactic shenanigans power this year’s annual laugh-fest of witty jokes, lavish production numbers, and, of course, Triangle’s famous kickline. Can interplanetary goodwill blossom in the dystopian desert of our current times? Get your Triangle tickets now and learn if
Roswell That Ends Well!
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when The Rainbow Is Enuf,
Sunday, November 15, 2026 @ 4:00pm
Middletown Arts Center
36 Church Street, Middletown, NJDunbar Repertory Company presents Ntozake Shange’s
FOR COLORED GIRLS Who have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf, the groundbreaking “choreopoem” – a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by Black women. Directed by Darrell Lawrence Willis, SR.
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Wednesday, November 18, 2026 @ 7:30pm
Kean Stage - Bauer Boucher Theatre Center
1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJMusic and lyrics by
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Nyc Musical Marathon & Jack Dallas Presents Musical Comedy Bards Series
Wednesday, November 18, 2026 @ 7:00pm
Divinity Hall @ Centennial AME Zion Church
5 Lewis Place, Closter, NJJack Dallas, AKA, Deacon Jack Beddoe, [@
X.com/JackDallasNYC] is a Musical Comedy Bard, produced by NYC Musical Marathon.
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(MOORESTOWN, NJ) -- Moorestown Theater Company presents 9 to 5, the Musical from November 18-22 at First Methodist Church. Three unlikely friends take control of their office and learn there is nothing they can't do, even in a man's world.
Raritan Valley Community College's Arts & Design department presents "The Laramie Project"
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(MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ) -- Offbook Productions presents The Women of Congress 1776 on Wednesday, November 18, 2026 at the Trailside Nature & Science Center in Mountainside. Showtime is 6:30pm.
Cape May Stage presents "Murder For Two - The Holiday Edition"
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Somerset County Vocational Technical High School Theater Arts Department presents "Come From Away"
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(FORT LEE, NJ) -- Black Box Studios presents 'Writers & Actors At The Barrymore', a unique theatrical event featuring "incubations" of new works for theater and film, takes center stage at The Barrymore Film Center & Museum on Thursday, November 19, 2026 at 7:30pm.
