''The Connection'' is a 1959 play by

Jack Gelber Jack Gelber (April 12, 1932 – May 9, 2003) was an American playwright best known for his 1959 drama ''The Connection (play), The Connection'', depicting the life of drug-addicted jazz musicians. The first great success of the Living Theatr ...

. It was first produced by the Living Theatre, directed by Living Theatre co-founder

Judith Malina Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a German-born American actress, director and writer. With her husband Julian Beck, Malina co-founded The Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York C ...

, designed by co-founder

Julian Beck Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing the Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher ...

, and featured music by jazz pianist

Freddie Redd Freddie Redd (May 29, 1928 – March 17, 2021) was an American hard-bop pianist and composer. He is best known for writing music to accompany '' The Connection'' (1959), a play by Jack Gelber. According to Peter Watrous, writing in ''The New Y ...

Synopsis

The play has a play-within-a-play format, with characters Jim Dunn as the "producer" and Jaybird as the "writer" attempting to stage a production about the underbelly of society using "real" addicts. Some of the addicts are jazz musicians. They all (except for the "producer", "writer", and two "photographers") have one thing in common: they are waiting for their drug dealer, their "connection". The dialogue of the characters is interspersed with jazz music.

Original cast

*Jim Dunn – Leonard Hicks *Jaybird – Ira Lewis *Leach – Warren Finnerty *Solly – Jerome Raphel *Sam – John McCurry *Ernie –

Garry Goodrow Garry Goodrow (November 4, 1933 – July 22, 2014) was an American actor known for his role in the original stage production of the Obie Award-winning play ''The Connection'' (1959) and its 1961 film version, and as one of the original membe ...

*1st Musician –

(composer, piano) *4th Musician – Jimmy Corbett (bass) *First Photographer – Louis McKenzie *Second Photographer – Jamil Zakkai *2nd Musician –

Jackie McLean John Lenwood McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator. He is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their death. Bio ...

(alto saxophone) *3rd Musician – Clyde Harris (drums) *Harry – Henry Proach *Sister Salvation – Barbara Winchester *Cowboy – Carl Lee *Man in audience –

Martin Sheen Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. His work spans over six decades of television and film, and his accolades include three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and ...

(uncredited)

Original production credits

*Written by

*Directed by

*Designed by

Other performances of ''The Connection''

Revised Cast, 1961

Redd's score, new cast *

, composer/piano *

Howard McGhee Howard McGhee (March 6, 1918 – July 17, 1987) was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger bebo ...

, trumpet * Tina Brooks (originally Jackie McLean's

understudy In theatre, an understudy, referred to in opera as cover or covering, is a performer who learns the lines and blocking or choreography of a regular actor, actress, or other performer in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to ap ...

), tenor saxophone *

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

, bass * Osie Johnson, drums

Touring Cast, 1961/62

Score by Cecil Payne and Kenny Drew, Conducted by Cecil Payne * Cecil Payne, baritone sax *

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American Swing music, swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948� ...

, trumpet *

Bennie Green Bennie Green (April 16, 1923 – March 23, 1977) was an American jazz trombonist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, Green worked in the orchestras of Earl Hines and Charlie Ventura, and recorded as bandleader through the 1950s and ...

, trombone *

Duke Jordan Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan (April 1, 1922 – August 8, 2006) was an American jazz pianist. Biography Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regul ...

, piano *

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy Awards, and is also a Cello, cellist who has reco ...

, bass * Charlie Persip, drums

Los Angeles Production

The score to accompany the Los Angeles production was performed by

Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" an ...

who also played "Number One Musician". He later recorded several pieces from this production for his

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

release '' Dexter Calling...'' (1961). Quote (from the liner notes to the Blue Note album): "Soul Sister," the original that launches the first side is one of the themes Dexter wrote for the score of the Hollywood version of ''The Connection'' in which he had an acting, playing, and writing role; it is the equivalent of Freddie Redd's "(Theme for) Sister Salvation"... "I Want More", the significantly titled Gordon theme that closes the first side, is the West Coast equivalent of "O.D. (Overdose)"... "Ernie's Theme", is the last of the three themes on this LP from Dexter's ''Connection'' score. It parallels "Music Forever".

Awards and honors

1959–60 Village Voice Obie Awards

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

for Best New Play * Obie Award for Best All-Around Production * Obie Award for Best Actor - Warren Finnerty

1959–60 Vernon Rice Awards

* Vernon Rice Award for outstanding achievement in the off-broadway theatre - Jack Gelber

Other

* Grand Prix for Best Play at the Théâtre des Nations, Paris, 1961

Related works

Film adaptation * '' The Connection'', produced by Lewis M. Allen, directed by Shirley Clarke, 1961. Released on DVD, Jazz Movie Classics/EFORFILMS 2869032 Recordings * '' The Music from "The Connection"'', music composed by

, with Freddie Redd,

, Michael Mattos and Larry Ritchie, February 15, 1960,

, BLP 4027 (m)/BST 84027 (s). Released on CD, Blue Note 89392. * '' Music from the Connection'', different recording of the above score, issued as under

, with Tina Brooks, I. Ching (Freddie Redd),

and Osie Johnson * ''The Music from "The Connection"'', rewritten score by Cecil Payne and

Kenny Drew Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew (August 28, 1928 – August 4, 1993) was an American-Danish jazz pianist. Biography Drew was born on August 28, 1928, in New York City, United States, and he received piano lessons from the age of five. Feather, ...

, Conducted by Cecil Payne, with Cecil Payne,

and Charlie Persip, Recorded 14, 15, 16 March 1962 - Charlie Parker Records PLP 806 Douglas McLelland, Liner Notes to Cecil Payne release Other productions * London, 1960 * European Tour, 1962: Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands * London, 1974, at

Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. History The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...

Club with Bill Wallis, John Ratzenberger, Harry Ditson, Mark Russel, Richard Moore, and Philip Hinton. Directed by Michael Rudman * New York, 1981, with

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony ...

as Cowboy * Chicago, 1992, the inaugural production of A Red Orchid Theatre, featuring

Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor. Shannon received two Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations, for '' Revolutionary Road'' (2008), and '' Nocturnal Animals'' (2016). He received Screen Actors Guil ...

and Guy Van Swearingen * New York, 2009, 50th Anniversary Production at the Living Theatre, directed by Judith Malina, music director Rene McLean * Seattle, 2011, Sight by Sound productions, directed by Gavin Reub in The Little Theater

References

General references

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

, preface, ''The Connection'', Grove Press, 1960 * Lionel Abel,

Partisan Review ''Partisan Review'' (''PR'') was a left-wing small-circulation quarterly "little magazine" dealing with literature, politics, and cultural commentary published in New York City. The magazine was launched in 1934 by the Communist Party USA–affi ...

, Winter, 1960 - "What adds to the play's power is that the characters are so like other people, though in such a different situation from most people." * Ira Gitler, Liner notes to Blue Note BLP 4027/BST 84027

External links

New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections Guide to the Jack Gelber Papers

Jackie McLean recalls ''The Connection''

Jackie McLean discusses ''The Connection''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connection, The 1959 plays Obie Award–winning plays American plays adapted into films Theatre about drugs