'Tru' comes to American Stage

ST. PETERSBURG -- A revival of the Tony Award-winning Tru, directed by the play's author, Jay Presson Allen, will open at American Stage in January, en route to a possible New York run.

The one-man show centers on Truman Capote, the celebrated author of In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany's.

"It's like a dream to have a project like this drop into our lap," said Lee Manwaring Lowry, managing director of American Stage. "They were looking for a place to try it out."

Tru, which opened on Broadway in 1989 and later toured, was a hit with Robert Morse in the title role. The new production will star Tom Frye, a more or less unknown actor from Kansas. Set during Christmas 1975, it has Capote in his Manhattan penthouse, suffering over the sour reception to the savage portraits of his high society friends in Answered Prayers, his roman a clef that had just been excerpted in Esquire.

This revival has been in the works for a while, since Frye sent Allen and her husband, producer Lewis Allen, a videotape of his 2001 performance at the Wichita Center for the Arts. The Allens were impressed and wanted to mount an off-Broadway production last fall, but that was put off in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

After the St. Petersburg staging, the hope is for the one-person play to go to New York and then on tour. Sonny Everett, a onetime Tampa insurance broker who is now a Broadway producer and was familiar with American Stage, is also a producer of the revival.

Allen, 80, has written some of the classics of American theater and movies. She adapted Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for stage and film. Her screenwriting credits include Marnie, Cabaret, Prince of the City, Deathtrap and Funny Lady.

Tru, largely drawn from Capote's words and work, is an absorbing meditation on life, literature and celebrity, homosexuality, family and friends, alcoholism, insomnia and death.

The playwright will be in St. Petersburg for rehearsals with Frye leading up to the play's Jan. 10 opening.

"It is a wonderful opportunity for us to work with the Allens," Lowry said. "The scheduling happened to work out perfectly, with Tru fitting in before The Importance of Being Earnest gets started at the end of January."

American Stage, which seats 140, will be co-producer. Though Tru is not part of the theater's subscription package, Lowry expects it to sell well. "I would think the community will embrace it," she said.

Tru will have 10 performances Jan. 10-19. Tickets: $20-$30. Call (727) 823-7529.

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