Excellent ensemble makes for smooth 'Trip'

Tammy Grimes doesn't look like she does in the official portrait provided by the Great Plains Theatre Conference anymore. It would be Dorian-Gray strange, at age 73, if she did.

Wednesday night at the Joslyn Art Museum, in a housedress with lace collar, saddle shoes and a long navy sweater, Grimes looked and sounded more like the character she was playing in a radio-theater-style abridged version of Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful."

And like that character, she was a real charmer.

Seated before a microphone, Grimes became Mrs. Watts, an elderly lady living in a tiny city apartment with her son and nasty daughter-in-law. All she wants to do is go back to the little farmhouse she left 30 years ago in Bountiful, Texas, one last time before she dies.

That famous voice, which made Noel Coward a lifelong fan and earned Grimes a 1961 Tony in the title role of "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," is a bit husky, breathy, but strong and with perfect diction. As Mrs. Watts sang or hummed a bit of "Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling" here and there, Grimes brought an added poignancy and power to the role.

Wearing thick reading glasses, she didn't glance up from her script much. She didn't need to. A blessedly sensitive sound system picked up every bit of labored breathing, emotional nuance and inner strength in her voice, and that was more than enough to bring Grimes an instant standing ovation at the hour's end.

Reprising their roles from the 2005 Omaha Community Playhouse production of "The Trip to Bountiful" were Kim Clark-Kaczmarek as the comically nasty daughter-in-law and Nora Vetter as a kind fellow traveler who takes Mrs. Watts under her wing.

Omaha actor Matt Kamprath handled sound effects and several smaller roles, while New York actor Joel Vig played Mrs. Watts' long-suffering son, and took on directing chores and a few bird calls.

They were all terrific, at turns funny and moving, and it's a tribute to Omaha's acting talent that a radio listener would not have been able to tell the Broadway talent from the community theater players.

The piece was introduced by Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal ("Hud," "Breakfast at Tiffany's"), whose deep alto voice is at least as distinctive as Grimes' and instantly recognizable.

Neal reminded the audience the role of Mrs. Watts in "The Trip to Bountiful" first belonged to Lillian Gish on Broadway in 1954 and later earned Geraldine Page a best-actress Oscar in the 1985 film version.

Afterward, the 260 audience members mingled in the Joslyn's Storz Fountain Court, rubbing elbows with Neal and other stage and screen luminaries visiting Omaha for the theater conference, which continues through Monday.

Among attendees Wednesday night were Broadway director Marshall Mason, playwrights Edward Albee, Arthur Kopit and Romulus Linney, and many of the young playwrights participating in the conference, which is co-produced by Albee and Metropolitan Community College President Jo Ann McDowell.

For more on the conference schedule of events, visit www.mccneb.edu/theatreconference or call 457-2618.