Falmouth Playhouse - Tennessee Williams

A few years ago, there was a thread on here about the Falmouth Playhouse (on Cape Cod) and the famous (and not so famous) actors who performed there. At least I think there was. I can't find it now.

There was a comment by someone writing about when Tennessee Williams visited the Playhouse to prepare Eccentricities of a Nightingale for Broadway. Betsy Palmer was the star.

The commenter said s/he had driven TW around the Cape. I'm trying to figure out where they traveled to.

Stephen Langley was the manager of the Playhouse during the time but he couldn't have been the one who wrote about the visit because Langley was dead by 2008, which is when I think the original post was written.

Does anyone have any leads? Thanks.

R193 "Billy Boy" drove Williams around:

- I've mentioned this on DL before -

One of my dearest memories was the week I spent with a sober, funny Tennessee Williams. His play "Eccentricities of a Nightingale" was on stage that week, and I was responsible for getting Mr. Williams to his various interviews, rehearsals, and errands. He was with an assistant who was also his boyfriend. They stayed at what was basically an old motel, but he loved it. He wrote for a few hours every day, using an old portable typewriter. He insisted on sitting next to me in my old car, as we cruised along the back roads of Cape Cod and shared so many stories about his life.

Years later, I saw him again in Key West in a drug store. He was staggering up and down the aisles with a basket filling it with non-prescription medication. I turned to my Mom and said, "that's Tennessee Williams". So sad.

I worked there the summer of 1976. I think Langley was long gone by then. Some older couple with the last name Gordon was running it then. I've posted a few stories about Chita, Shatner, Van Johnson, etc. but I don't think anyone found them interesting.

Thank you for your replies! I couldn't find that thread no matter how hard I tried. I appreciate your comments.

Does Billy Boy still visit these boards?

I believe Langley was at the Playhouse until 1978, from what I've read. Langley wrote an essay on Williams' 1976 visit to the Cape for the Tennessee Williams Review in Spring 1983, following the death of the playwright. It's titled, "The Night of Hurricane Williams" (Hurricane Belle was forecast to hit town on opening night, which led to them rescheduling it, which was unnecessary because the storm never hit.)

Langley writes that he himself drove Williams around Cape Cod so I don't know what really happened. No one else is mentioned in the essay except Williams' "go-fer and secretary" whom he calls "Jack". I believe this person's real name was Dan Turner who was traveling with Williams that summer (and who wrote about their time together for the Advocate).

But beyond all that, I don't have any details.

FWIW, OP, it sounds like a wonderful idea for a play...

Sort of a "Driving Miss Daisy" with an lecherous old homosexual playwright as the passenger around the Cape

I was wrong at R3. I was there in 1980. It was Sydney Gordon who dragged her husband who had a stroke the year before. She was a fucking nightmare. She must have sold it to the guy mentioned in the other thread who torched it. It was Equity shows when I was there but by the mid-80's it was all non-equity.