The comedy “Harvey” opens Friday for a 10-performance run through Nov. 22 at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre
The play won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1945 for playwright Mary Chase. It has been adapted for film and television several times – most notably in a 1950 film starring James Stewart – and was revived in 2012 with Jim Parsons (Big Bang Theory) in the lead role.
"Greg Rambin, a popular CTC actor (Vanya in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike”; Candy in “Of Mice and Men”) makes his directorial debut at the CTC with this production," officials said.
The story: Elwood P. Dowd (played by Jacob Moore) is an affable man who claims to have an unseen (and presumably imaginary) friend Harvey — a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall rabbit. When his social-climbing sister, Veta (Sandra Jennings), fears his embarrassing, eccentric behavior will have a negative effect on her daughter Myrtle Mae’s (Hayley Graham) marriage prospects, she decides to have him committed to a sanitarium, but a comedy of errors leads to Veta being committed instead. The mistake is discovered and the search for Elwood is on, but it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn’t so bad after all.
The cast includes CTC veterans and newcomers: Anne Roza (as Ethel Chauvenet, head of the town’s social circle); Hannah Boulware (a maid); Emma Flynn (Ruth Kelly, nurse); Jim Eernisse (Duane Wilson, the muscle at the sanitarium); Kaleb Moran (Dr. Lyman Sanderson, a young psychiatrist); John Echols (Dr. William Chumley, esteemed psychiatrist); Kim Jenkins (Betty Chumley, Dr. Chumley’s kind wife); and Bruce Shaw (Judge Gaffney, a friend of the Dowd family). US-101 air personality StyckMan makes a cameo appears as the Cab Driver. Julie Van Valkenburg is stage manager.
Performances are as follows:
Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. (Opening night party begins at 7 p.m.);
Saturday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.;
Thursday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. (featuring real-time captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons);
Friday, Nov. 13 at 8 p.m. (Ghostlight Session follows – talk with the cast and director about the production);
Saturday, Nov. 14 at 8 p.m.;
Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2:30 p.m.;
Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.;
Friday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. (Brewer Media Girls’ Night Out with complementary adult beverages and snacks begins at 7 p.m.);
Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m.; and
Sunday, Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m.
Tickets are $12.50 to $25 for this production which is on the MainStage. Opening night, which includes free parking, hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Events With Taste, and drinks, are $30. Tickets are now on sale and are available at TheatreCentre.com or by calling the box office at 423-267-8534 Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.