Made for each other - Westfair Communications

From left, Joanne Woodward and Mark Shanahan were part of the Westport Country Playhouse’s 2008 “Script in Hand” presentation of Joseph Kesselring’s dark farce “Arsenic and Old Lace,” which Shanahan, curator of the playreading series, said showed off Woodward’s comedic timing. Photograph by Jen Waldman.

Though they’ve been absent from the stage and screen for almost 20 years, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are sharing another moment in the media spotlight.

In July 2022, the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville presented “The Last Movie Stars,” HBO Max’s six-part documentary on the professional and personal lives of the powerhouse theatrical, cinematic couple, directed by Ethan Hawke. That October, Vintage Books published Newman’s posthumous memoir – he died in 2008 — “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man,” based on interviews and oral histories conducted by screenwriter Stewart Stern.

Then in June of this year, Sotheby’s auctioned clothing, furnishings and artworks from the Westport couple’s collection. Now along with the Newman memoir in paperback comes “Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman Head Over Heels: A Love Affair in Words and Pictures” (Little Brown & Co., 285 pages, $50), a gracious, loving coffee table book by daughter Melissa Newman that captures their personal and professional chemistry as well as their casual yet purposeful lives in Connecticut – where Newman founded Newman’s Own food company to benefit various charities in 1982 and The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Ashford for seriously ill children and their families in 1988; and where Woodward, now retired, served as artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse from 2001 to ’05 and co-artistic director with Annie Keefe in 2008, spearheading a $30 million capital campaign to modernize the playhouse and expand its programming.

The continuing interest in Newman’s and Woodward’s careers – and their relationship on- and off-screen – comes at a moment when the playhouse is fundraising and broadening its mission to serve the community. (See sidebar.)

Their town

“I was always struck at being in a room with icons,” said Mark Shanahan, the playhouse’s incoming artistic director and curator of its “Script in Hand” playreading series, who as an actor appeared with and was directed by Woodward and serves as writer and producer of the annual gala for Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang. “They were in the thick of acting. And yet they were these down-to-earth, wonderful people.”

Shanahan – whom Woodward and Keefe directed in the title role of the playhouse’s well-received 2005 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “David Copperfield” and who starred with Woodward and Christopher Walken in a 2008 “Script in Hand” reading of Joseph Kesselring’s dark farce “Arsenic and Old Lace” – called Woodward “an angel on my shoulder,” who once teamed with Keefe to throw him a baby shower.

As one of the dotty, poisoning aunts in “Arsenic and Old Lace,” Shanahan said, “she was playful with a wicked glint in her eye. How she could parse a joke or comedic line.”

Newman also never missed a cue – starring in the playhouse’s acclaimed production of Thornton Wilder’s poignant “Our Town,” which in 2002 went to Broadway’s Booth Theatre, where it was filmed for PBS’ “American Masters” – or a pool cue for that matter. Staying at a guest cottage on the couple’s Westport property, Shanahan said he once unwittingly picked up the pool cue that Newman used when playing Eddie Felson in “The Hustler” and “The Color of Money,” the later earning him a Best Actor Oscar. Shanahan demurred for touching a movie relic, but Newman told him to go ahead and use it.

The couple’s Westport homestead – from 1981 to ’84, they also owned the horse farm in North Salem that would become Old Salem Farm – was as ramshackle as they were informal, writes Melissa Newman, one of six Newman children. (Newman had three children – Scott, Susan and Stephanie – with his first wife, actress Jackie Witte. He and Woodward had three daughters – Nell, Melissa and Clea.)

“My parents bought the house in 1961, the year I was born, and my husband and I bought it from them 40 years later. They had not bothered to inspect the termite-riddled floors, or anything else really. Pots and pans always dotted the carpet during rainstorms. They were untroubled by the mundanities of home maintenance. They were actors. And they were in love.”

From left, Maggie Lacey, Paul Newman and Ben Fox in the Westport Country Playhouse’s 2002 production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” directed by James Naughton. It would go on to Broadway and PBS. Photograph by Larry Mertz.

The many faces of Joanne

It was not love at first sight, at least not for her. She – a Georgian of French Huguenot descent who attended Louisiana State University and would later graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers (the same year as daughter Clea, 1990) – resented that he always looked as cool as “an ice cream soda” in his seersucker suit on those August auditions in the New York City of the early 1950s. (Little did she know it was his one suit, he would later tell interviewers, and that he washed it out every night.) Even when they understudied in William Inge’s Broadway play “Picnic” in 1953, she still wasn’t impressed. “God, it’s a good thing Paul Newman is handsome,” she told actress Kim Stanley, “because he certainly can’t act.”

Later, she would say: “Paul is not only a great actor – and that’s all I can do, is act – he can write, he can produce and direct, race cars (out of Lime Rock, Connecticut) and run corporations, and he’s a pretty good husband, too.”

But back in 1953, he —an Ohioan of Hungarian-Polish-Jewish descent who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and graduated with a B.A. in drama and economics from Kenyon College — was married to actress Jackie Witte and well on his way to having three children with her.

“My mother was the more inevitable artist,” Melissa Newman writes, “a woman so instinctively herself even her genteel Southern roots couldn’t compromise her. He was uncertain of who he was. It’s easy to understand why he was smitten.”

Smitten? Try besotted. The intimacy of their gazes and body language in the photographs throughout “Head Over Heels” is palpable. Such was his concern for what she thought of him that he would hesitate to buy her art for fear his choice might disappoint. The book opens with this quote from him: “I shall lock myself in an abandoned water closet I love you so very much. And shut my mouth and carry on in silent communion with your soul.”

In 1957, after filming “The Long, Hot Summer” – in which Woodward plays a prim schoolteacher-heiress struggling to resist his charming rogue – Newman divorced Witte. He and Woodward married on Jan. 29, 1958 in Las Vegas. Just short of two months later, she won an Oscar for her tour de force as a woman with multiple personalities in “The Three Faces of Eve.”

Despite striking Oscar gold first, Woodward shrewdly observes in “Head Over Heels,” “Stars are people who are immediately recognizable, who bring their own mystique, their own essence, to whatever role they play. Paul is a star. I think I’m a character actress. Nobody recognizes me when I walk down the street. And I can have a hard time getting checks cashed.”

Indeed, in gorgeous photograph after gorgeous photo in the book, in which he’s often goofing around, Newman still looks like, well, Paul Newman, a Greek god. Whereas Woodward’s looks, and thus persona, are mutable. She could be a Marilyn Monroe-like ecdysiast (“The Stripper”), a glamorous witch of a professional wife (“From the Terrace”) or a spinster yearning for love (“Rachel, Rachel,” Newman’s 1968 directorial debut).

“…When I’m acting, my physical appearance is totally important to me,” “Head Over Heels” quotes her as saying. “I tend to work from the outside in…” – in contrast to the internalized Method system in which she and Newman were trained.

But Shanahan said that any discussion of who was the greater movie star or better actor – Newman delivered an Oscar-nominated character performance in “The Verdict” as an alcoholic attorney seeking justice for his comatose client and redemption for himself – is mooted by the era in which they came of age. Once she became a wife and mother in the late 1950s, Woodward saw her career “take a back seat,” Shanahan added. “It’s a societal issue.”

Joanne Woodward directing the Westport Country Playhouse’s 2005 adaptation of Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding.” Photograph by Michal Daniels.

As Woodward told The New York Times in 1981: “Initially, I probably had a real movie-star dream. It faded somewhere in my mid-30s, when I realized I wasn’t going to be that kind of actor. It was painful. Also, I curtailed my career because of my children. Quite a bit. I resented it at the time, which was not a good way to be around the children. Paul was away on location a lot. I wouldn’t go on location because of the children. I did once and felt overwhelmed with guilt.”

Nonetheless, her various roles on stage and screens big and small would chart the progress of American womanhood: She went from playing a woman with multiple personalities to playing a psychiatrist who aids a woman with multiple personalities in the 1976 telefilm “Sybil.”

One place Woodward never took a back seat was the Westport Country Playhouse. As a director and an artistic director – her knitting ever-present but her mind, in Newman’s words, “snapping like a grasshopper” — Woodward was kind but knew what she wanted, Shanahan said. And what she wanted was for the Westport players to dig deep into their characters in the tradition of that theater.

Shanahan recalled his first performance at the playhouse in the World War I drama “Journey’s End” in 2005. Woodward took him to stand on some of the theater’s original floorboards. Every time he entered the stage door, Shanahan recalled her saying, she wanted him to stand there and remember all the actors who had stepped on those floorboards before.

No doubt those who visit and perform at the playhouse today remember Woodward and Newman in the same way.

From Athena Adamson, chair, Westport Country Playhouse board of trustees:

“Westport Country Playhouse is pleased to announce that we surpassed our $2 million goal for the Save the Playhouse campaign. However, the work never ends, and we will continue to fundraise into the future so that we can produce the highest quality performances.”

 1,941,557 raised to broaden appeal of Playhouse programming in 2024-25.

Westport Country Playhouse has raised $1,941,557 in cash and pledges by the July 31 deadline for its $2 million “Save Your Playhouse” campaign, the Playhouse board of trustees announced today. The campaign’s objective is to transform the Playhouse into a performing arts center that appeals to a broader audience while continuing to produce theater.  

According to Athena Adamson, Playhouse board of trustees’ chair, “The show will go on! We raised an amount very close to our $2 million goal by the July 31 deadline. Major gift conversations are ongoing that very soon could bring us well beyond our goal.

“Every gift is meaningful and treasured,” Adamson noted. “We can thank our wonderful community who stepped up to ‘Save the Playhouse’ and shape it for future generations.” 

Launched in early June, the “Save Your Playhouse” campaign will fund a series of single night events, including cabaret, comedy, music, playreadings, and speakers, from January through August 2024.  From September 2024 through March 2025, the Playhouse will continue its theatrical tradition by mounting three productions.

Overseeing the theatrical stagings will be Mark Shanahan, director, playwright, and actor, who was recently appointed incoming artistic director for the 2024-25 season. He will officially assume the position in March 2024. Currently, Shanahan is curator of the Playhouse’s Script in Hand playreading series.

The campaign’s success signals the Playhouse’s recovery from significant, post-pandemic financial challenges. Contributions continue to be accepted. For campaign information and to donate, visit https://www.westportplayhouse.org/support/save-your-playhouse/. Naming opportunities are available, including engraved paving stones in the Playhouse courtyard and seat plates in the theater. For naming inquiries, contact development@westportplayhouse.org. Donations to Westport Country Playhouse, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, are tax deductible.

 For Westport Country Playhouse information and tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), Instagram (wcplayhouse), and YouTube (WestportPlayhouse). Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. 

Westport Country Playhouse announces that applications are now being accepted for its 2023 Joanne Woodward Internship Program for theater career aspirants. Interns enhance their professional skills and gain on-the-job experience working directly with Playhouse senior staff during summer months.

 Named in honor of actress, director, and the Playhouse’s former artistic director, the Joanne Woodward Internship program is one of the nation’s preeminent theater training opportunities for emerging professionals. Internships have formed a vital part of the Playhouse’s mission since 1946. Among the alumni of the Playhouse’s program is the late composer Stephen Sondheim.

1.8 million raised to date toward $2 million goal ending Monday, July 31

$1.8 million has been raised to date in cash and pledges toward Westport Country Playhouse’s $2 million “Save Your Playhouse” campaign goal which ends Monday, July 31, 2023. Over 300 donors have participated in the recently launched fundraising campaign to transform the Playhouse into a center for a wide array of performances that appeal to a broader audience while continuing to produce high-quality theater.

 “As proven by this vote of confidence from many donors, our community continues to rally to keep the Playhouse doors open and raise the curtain on a new direction,” said Athena T. Adamson, chair, Playhouse board of trustees. “People who believe in our vision are committing dollars. We are confident that we can reach our financial goal.

 “We are indeed grateful to our donors for their exceeding generosity and their commitment to bolster the success of our Save Your Playhouse’ fundraising campaign,” Adamson added.

 “While there’s a deep respect for the Playhouse history and what it is today, there’s also an eagerness for growth, change, and the next chapter,” she stated. “We are listening; we care about what the audience wants to see on the Playhouse stage. In turn, the audience is stepping up to offer their support.”

 Last week, the board of trustees announced that director, playwright, and actor Mark Shanahan has been appointed incoming artistic director for the 2024-25 season. He will officially assume the position in March 2024. Currently, Shanahan is curator of the Playhouse’s Script in Hand playreading series. Shanahan will succeed artistic director Mark Lamos, who announced in May his planned retirement in January 2024 after 15 seasons. Lamos’ final directing work, a new adaption of the classic thriller, “Dial M for Murder,” is now on stage through Sunday, July 30.

 Beginning in 2024, Westport Country Playhouse will be a performing arts center from January through August, presenting a series of single night events, including cabaret, comedy, music, playreadings and speakers. From September 2024 through March 2025, the Playhouse will mount three theatrical productions, under the artistic direction of Shanahan.

 “The community is changing and we must adapt our programming,” Adamson added. “We won’t lose our theatergoers; we simply are looking to increase our audience by offering more entertainment options. Our board of trustees wants the Playhouse to be here for the entire community, with performances on stage to appeal to everyone.

 “Both culturally and economically, the Playhouse has been a valuable asset to Fairfield County for 92 years and it must continue to carry on,” Adamson emphasized. “I’m optimistic. I believe we can save this treasure, but we need the public’s financial support, in any amount, by Monday, July 31 to fully implement our plan.”

 For highlights of the campaign and to donate, visit https://www.westportplayhouse.org/support/save-your-playhouse/. Naming opportunities are available, including engraved paving stones in the Playhouse courtyard and seat plates in the theater. For naming inquiries, contact development@westportplayhouse.org.

A new director and a new direction

“Theaters around the country were hurt during the pandemic, with many of them shutting their doors,” said Mark Shanahan, who becomes artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse in March, having acted in and directed productions there and served as curator of the “Script in Hand” playreading series.

Rather than sink like other theaters, the playhouse is swimming vigorously.

“Westport Country Playhouse is pleased to announce that we surpassed our $2 million goal for the ‘Save the Playhouse’ campaign,” Athena Adamson, chair of the playhouse board of trustees, said in a statement to Westfair. “However, the work never ends, and we will continue to fundraise into the future so that we can produce the highest quality performances.”

Launched early in June, the “Save Your Playhouse” campaign will fund a series of single night events – including cabaret, comedy, music, more “Script in Hand” playreadings and speakers – from January through August 2024.  From September 2024 through March 2025, the 92-year-old playhouse will continue its theatrical tradition by mounting three productions.

Recently, the playhouse presented “First Lady of Song: Cherise Coaches Sings Ella Fitzgerald,” about the Yonkers-raised jazz singer; and “Being Alive,” with Broadway and TV star Mandy Patinkin performing works from The Great American Songbook.

At 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13, Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of the comedy “Theatre People.” Written by West Hartford native Paul Slade Smith and directed by Shanahan, the play is a new adaptation of Ferenc Molnár’s Hungarian farce, “Play at the Castle.”

From Dec. 19 through 23, the playhouse brings Shanahan’s Broadway smash, “A Sherlock Carol,” to Westport. Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” meets Arthur Conan Doyle’s brilliant but idiosyncratic detective Sherlock Holmes as an adult Tiny Tim, now a successful doctor, engages him to investigate the mysterious death of his beloved benefactor, Ebenezer Scrooge.

Many suburban theater companies would be thrilled to have a production on Broadway. Shanahan said he is delighted that “A Sherlock Carol” can make the reverse commute and thinks theatergoers will finally see Scrooge for what he really is. Though we may call someone who is miserly a “Scrooge,” he added, Ebenezer is transformed by his ghostly experience into the light-hearted, big-hearted person who lay hidden within.

So “Scrooge,” Shanahan said, should actually be a compliment.

For more, visit westportplayhouse.org.