Deuce plays final performance on Broadway

Terrence McNally's drama Deuce, starring Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes plays its final performance on Broadway on 19 Aug 2007.

The play opened at the Music Box Theatre on 6 May 2007, following previews from 11 Apr, for a strictly limited 18 week engagement. When the show closes it will have played 121 regular performances and 27 previews.

Directed by Michael Blakemore, Deuce is about Leona Mullen (Lansbury) and Midge Barker (Seldes) as � two former doubles tennis legends, reunited at a championship tournament. As they watch a singles match grow increasingly heated, the two women reminisce on the sidelines, remembering past triumphs and unearthing forgotten truths.

The show opened to mostly poor reviews: "The true tension arises from the fight between two valiant, vibrant actresses against a swamp of a play that keeps trying to suck the life out of them." (New York Times); "Should have been a grand slam. Instead it was a double-fault. And the double-fault was certainly not made by the actresses." (New York Post); "Scarcely any great shakes as drama, but it's pleasant enough." (Star-Ledger); "Imagine a ring made of two precious gems set in pewter." (Usa Today); "Dispiriting waste of talent and time." (New York Sun); "If only the phenomenal talent onstage talked about their own careers instead of fictional tennis players, we'd then have 'match point'" (New York Theatre Guide).

The show suffered at the box office and, despite the presence of Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes, struggled to fill the Music Box Theatre, which was less then 50% full for most of the play's run.

Deuce, marks Ms. Lansbury�s first role on Broadway in almost 25 year, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a play. In her 60-plus year career on stage, film and television, Ms. Lansbury has received four Tony Awards for her starring roles in Mame, Dear World, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd, three Academy Award nominations for Gaslight (her screen debut), The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate, and 18 Emmy Award nominations, including 12 for her long-running television series, Murder, She Wrote.

The play also featured Brian Haley, Joanna P. Adler and Michael Mulheren.

The creative team featured set design by Peter J. Davison, costumes by Ann Roth, lighting by Mark Henderson, sound by Paul Charlier and video and projection design by Sven Ortel.