Theater News

Imaginary Friends Finds Actual Home: Ephron Show to Barrymore Theatre on 12/12

Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron’s play with songs about the fussin’ and feudin’ between Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy, will run at the Barrymore Theatre when it lands in New York, it was announced today.

USA Ostar Theatricals will present the show to Broadway audiences after a tryout at San Diego’s Old Globe; New York previews start November 25 and the official opening is slated for December 12.

Ephron is the author, screenwriter and director whose work includes Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. Plenty of other heavy hitters are on board for Friends, including Cherry Jones and Swoosie Kurtz in the McCarthy and Hellman roles; composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Craig Carnelia, most recently in town with Sweet Smell of Success; and choreographer Jerry Mitchell and director Jack O’Brien, whose apparent monster hit Hairspray opens at the Neil Simon on August 15.

Imaginary Friends is about a notorious libel suit that arose from McCarthy’s televised assertion, regarding Hellman, that “every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.'” The case was settled out of court, in a way: Hellman died in 1984, before it went to trial.

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Imaginary Friends

Closed: February 16, 2003