1601 Irving Street
Rahway, New Jersey 07065

Graham is one of Philadelphia's most successful playwrights and screenwriters, as well as a sought-after college teacher. Goldman tells the story of one Gavin Miller, a man who might be Graham's doppelganger. Gavin, once a big-time Hollywood player, now lives with his wife, Melanie, in comfortable and affluent Northeast suburbia, where he makes a (much smaller) living as a film professor. This second career has its frustrations -- what to make of students whose lists of great films include The Matrix and Legally Blonde -- but then there's the once-in-a-career pupil who makes it all worthwhile.

Meet Jeremiah Collins, an almost pathologically inarticulate boy whose imagination runs wild. Jeremiah's world experience is narrow but fascinating: The son of Christian missionaries, he grew up in Africa. In his film fantasy life, he belongs to the world of Fred Astaire. It's a paradoxical, compelling combination and one that proves irresistible to Gavin, who himself seems to be searching for something to give his life new meaning.

Goldman traces the triangle of Gavin, Melanie and Jeremiah in a fluent, yes, cinematic style. One scene flows seamlessly into another -- evidence of Graham's structural mastery -- and the audience awaits developments with breathless eagerness. The best of the play rings with sharply bittersweet truths, nowhere more so than in the complicated Gavin, who in middle age is both a cynical critic of Hollywood and a man desperate to stay in the game. Graham is famous for his ear for good dialogue, and he doesn't fail us here (''Is that a martini?'' asks naive Jeremiah. ''No, it's a third martini,'' replies Gavin.).

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Added by UCPAC on March 5, 2011

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