Six Degrees of Separation
Returns to Broadway
Starring Allison Janney and John Benjamin Hickey
Six Degrees of Separation
Previews Apr 05, 2017
Opening Apr 25, 2017
Closing Jun 18, 2017
Barrymore Theatre NYC
Six Degrees of Separation explores the existential premise that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else in the world by a chain of no more than six acquaintances, thus, “six degrees of separation”.
But our ability to be seduced by money and celebrity remains as relevant as ever, as does another of the play’s themes: you can feel more connected to a stranger than to your own child.
The writer John Guare was a friend of Inger McCabe Elliott and her husband Osborn Elliott. In October 1983 Hampton came to the Elliott’s New York apartment and they allowed him to spend the night. The next morning Inger Elliott found Hampton in bed with another man and later called the police. The Elliotts told Guare about the story and it inspired him to write the play years later.
A strong influence on the play is the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. There are some very overt references to it, as when the protagonist explains the thesis paper he has just written on The Catcher in The Rye to the family who takes him in for the night. There are also more subtle allusions made both in the script and in the cinematography of the film version, such as when various characters begin to take on Holden Caulfield-esque characteristics and attitudes.
The play premiered Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, on May 16, 1990. The production transferred to the Vivian Beaumont Theater for its Broadway debut on November 8, 1990. The production closed on January 5, 1992 after 485 performances.
Directed by Jerry Zaks, the cast featured Stockard Channing as Ouisa, John Cunningham as Flan, and James McDaniel as Paul. After the transfer from the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater to the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Courtney B. Vance assumed the role of Paul and Robert Duncan McNeill played Rick. Swoosie Kurtz and Kelly Bishop moved into the lead role of Ouisa later in the show’s run, and Laura Linney made her Broadway debut as a replacement for the role of Tess.
Full Cast
Allison Janney – Ouisa
Corey Hawkins – Paul
John Benjamin Hickey – Flan
Jim Bracchitta
Tony Carlin – Doorman
Michael Countryman – Larkin
James Cusati-Moyer – Broadway Debut – Hustler
Ned Eisenberg – Dr. Fine
Lisa Emery – Kitty
Keenan Jolliff – Broadway Debut – Woody
Peter Mark Kendall – Broadway Debut – Rick
Cody Kostro – Broadway Debut – Doug
Sarah Mezzanotte – Broadway Debut – Elizabeth
Colby Minifie – Tess
Paul O’Brien – Detective
Chris Perfetti – Trent
Ned Riseley – Broadway Debut – Ben
Michael Siberry – Geoffrey
Movie Trailer
Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 American comedy-drama film directed by Fred Schepisi and adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated John Guare. The movie starred Stockard Channing recreating her stage role to film and Donald Sutherland and Will Smith.
Six Degrees of Separation at Theatregold Database
Six Degrees of Separation at TheatreGold Memorabilia
