"Driving Miss Daisy" at TheaterWorks

Here is reporter Jackie Majerus' review of "Driving Miss Daisy," a fabulous show at Hartford's TheaterWorks that is slated to run until Oct. 14:

Times change, chauffer Hoke Coleburn tells Miss Daisy, but "they ain't changin' that much."
The delightful, funny and sometimes-touching "Driving Miss Daisy" by Alfred Uhry, hasn't changed much in 20 years, either.
It's still great.
Directed by Rob Ruggiero and starring Rosemary Prinz as Daisy Werthan and Mel Johnson Jr. as her driver, Hoke Coleburn, the show is playing now to an enthusiastic audience at TheaterWorks in downtown Hartford.
The show offers top-notch acting, an interesting set and a lot of laughs.
The story revolves around the relationship between Miss Daisy, a retired white Jewish schoolteacher, and the gentle and patient Hoke, the black man that her son Boolie (John Leonard Thompson) hired to drive her around after she crashed her car.
Miss Daisy's initial hostility toward Hoke slowly thaws over their many years together.
Though she's the one who is educated, he's easily her intellectual equal and by far the more perceptive of the two. It's often his dry remarks or wry commentary that bring the biggest laughs.
While Hoke slows down over time, Miss Daisy truly ages. Prinz does an outstanding job showing decades of aging in a 90-minute performance.
The set and costumes were nicely done, but Vincent Olivieri, who did the sound design, deserves special recognition.
The perfect timing of each appropriate sound, every time Miss Daisy or Hoke opened or closed a car door or whenever Hoke put the car in gear added much to the show's realism.
"Driving Miss Daisy," which completes the 2006-2007 TheaterWorks season, runs through October 14, at the theater at 233 Pearl St.
TheaterWorks starts its 2007-2008 season in November with "Doubt," John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony-winning drama that runs Nov. 9-Dec. 23. After a holiday break, the theater returns Jan. 25 with a comedy by Douglas Carter Beane, "The Little Dog Laughed," followed by three dramas: "Blackbird," by David Harrower running April 11-May 25; Pulitzer winner "Rabbit Hole" by David Lindsay-Abaire from June 20 to August 3 and finally, the New England premiere of "Gee's Bend" by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, which runs September 5 through Oct. 19, 2008.
Tickets range from $35 to $55, but a season of five shows sells for $122, and "rush" tickets are $10 at show time with a valid student identification. Discounted parking, with theater validation, is available a half block from the theater in the Goodwin Hotel garage.
For more information, call the theater at (860)527-7838 or see its website at theaterworkshartford.org.

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Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com