Some of these challenges TNB faced and solved with the professionalism we've come to expect. So it was surprising, on Friday night, to see that the script seemed to pose just the kinds of challenges for the company we'd expect from an adaptation of a movie. I had expected that this would not happen with Driving Miss Daisy, because, in fact, it was a play first - indeed, a Pulitzer Prize winning one. One of the problems theater companies have when they choose a play that's also known as a successful movie, hoping to capitalize on its name recognition, is that many successful movies don't adapt well to the stage. Even those who think this sort of thing should have warning labels - 'BEWARE: HEARTWARMING STORY AHEAD' - can enjoy the author's unsentimental view of the social context of Atlanta in the middle and late 20th century, and of the prickly relationship between the two social groups most widely discriminated against in our society. As most people know, the story is about Miss Daisy, an aging Atlanta matron, whose son hires her a chauffeur (over her articulate and amusing protests), and how the black chauffeur and the Jewish matron, over a couple of decades, come to be each others' best friends. In part its effectiveness has to do with its theme.

Driving Miss Daisy, the production Walter Learning has chosen to open Theater New Brunswick's 31st season, is a smoothly professional telling of a story that affected many members of the small opening night audience profoundly, and others rather less so.

Driving miss daisy story by alfred uhry