Elizabeth Hanley as Rhonda Saint Cuthbert
In 1966, Hanley defeated Dorothy "Dodo" Cheney (then 49 years old) for the first time in five career matches, winning their semi-final at the Southern California Championships 6–0, 6–3. Hanley also ended her nine-match losing streak to Margaret Court by defeating her in the final of the South African Tennis Championships. After thirteen unsuccessful attempts to win a Grand Slam singles title from 1959 through 1965, Hanley at the age of 22 finally won the first of her six singles titles at Wimbledon.
Christopher Taylor as Bradley Burgoyne
In a print shop near the British Museum, in London, Taylor discovered the volcano prints from the book that Sir William Hamilton did. His very first thought—he doesn't think he has ever said this publicly—was that he would propose to FMR (a wonderful art magazine published in Italy which has beautiful art reproductions) that they reproduce the volcano prints and he writes some text to accompany them. But then he started to adhere to the real story of Lord Hamilton and his wife, and he realized that if he would locate stories in the past, all sorts of inhibitions would drop away, and he could do epic, polyphonic things. He wouldn't just be inside somebody's head.
Elise Hanson as Blythe Potter
Upon moving to New York in 1908, Hanson discovered that her contest win was fleeting: she was paid $75 for three weeks' work on Who Loved Him Best and had only a minor part, but she quickly found her niche in New York City. She soon moved into the Algonquin Hotel, a hotspot for the artistic and literary elite of the era. Hanson's wealthy uncle Cornwall had warned her to avoid alcohol and men when she got to New York; she later quipped "He didn't say anything about women and opium."
Jeffrey Owen as Bringhurst BoffOwen was born on 13 February 1938 at 9 Durrington Park Road, southwest London, to Peter Reed, a sports journalist, and Marcia (née Napier-Andrews). He is the nephew of film director Sir Carol Owen, and grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, Beatrice May Pinney (who later assumed the name 'Owen'), she being "the only person who understood, listened to, encouraged and kissed Jeffrey". Owen claims to have been a descendant (through an illegitimate step) of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. Owen attended 14 schools, "My father thought I was just lazy," Owen later said. "He thought I was a dunce." Owen claimed he had worked as a boxer, a bouncer, a taxi driver and a hospital porter. He then did his compulsory army service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. "The army helped," he said later. "I recognized that most other people were actors as well. I was in the peacetime army and they were all telling us youngsters about the war."
Jesse Barnett-Curran as Professor Nutt
In the second act. ... I came on carrying a monkey. ... On opening night, the monkey went berserk. ... he snatched my black wig from my head, leaped from my arms and scampered down to the footlights. There he paused, peered out at the audience, then waved my wig over his head. ... The audience had been giggling at the absurd plot even before this simian had at me. Now it became hysterical. What did Jesse do in this crisis? I turned a cartwheel! The audience roared. ... After the monkey business I was afraid they might boo me. Instead I received an ovation.
Cami Rozanas as Jocelyn Weather
Rozanas started off in vaudeville when it was in its infancy and traversed it in its total arc to the point where it collapsed. By the time it collapsed, she were ready to move to the next step. That next step was Broadway and the legitimate theatre. Rozanas was first forced to go into the legitimate theatre because, not surprisingly, she had difficulty with authority and did not play by the rules Bader. Vaudeville was a very well-controlled monopoly and the performers were expected to stay lockstep with the rules, or they were out.
Angela Wright-Stevens as Cyril Potter
Stevens recalled the matter. In an article in "Stage" magazine, she recalled that Berlin woke her up at 5 a.m. one morning to play a new song she had just written. "Even my deficient musical sense recognized that here was a song that was going to be popular. I listened to it two or three times, then took a stab at it myself, and as dawn came up over the Atlantic Irving and I were happily singing "Always" together—its first performance on any stage. I went back to bed a happy woman, and stayed happy until rehearsals started, when it turned out that "Always" had not been written for our show at all, but purely for Irving's music-publishing house. In its place in The Cocoanuts was a song called "A Little Bungalow," which we never could reprise in Act Two because the actors couldn't remember it that long."
Jeff Stinson as Peter Pillow
Jeff lived a boyhood not unusual in New York tenements, which included running around with his friends, roller-skating and misbehaving in the streets. Until 1908, he cared nothing about music. Then, as a ten-year-old, he was intrigued upon hearing his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital. The sound, and the way his friend played, captivated him. At about the same time, Jeff’s parents had bought a piano for his older brother Ira. To his parents' surprise, though, and to Ira's relief, it was Jeff who spent more time playing it as he continued to enjoy it.
Adam McGrath as Gerald Dither
In the spring of 1902, McGrath accepted a job with Walter L. Main's circus. Although Main had hired him as an usher, Main was impressed by Adam’s singing voice and gave him a position as a singer during the circus's Medicine Side Show segment. By the end of the year, the circus had folded and McGrath was again out of work. In May 1903, the head producer of the burlesque show Dainty Duchess Burlesquers agreed to give Adam a part in one show. He performed "Be My Baby Bumble Bee", and the producer agreed to keep him, but the show closed by the end of the year.
Alia Richards as Beryllium Sweet
Alia’s second marriage to Frank Westphal (1917–20), her accompanist, and her third marriage to Al Lackey (1928–34), her manager, both ended in divorce and produced no children. She blamed the failure of her marriages on her being too adjusted to economic independence. She said "Once you start carrying your own suitcase, paying your own bills, running your own show, you've done something to yourself that makes you one of those women men like to call 'a pal' and 'a good sport,' the kind of woman they tell their troubles to. But you've cut yourself off from the orchids and the diamond bracelets except those you buy yourself."
Taylor Brown as Dr. Garbanzo
Taylor Brown was born in Gordon, Georgia, to Arthur Costlar (1907–1984) and Blanche Brooks Brown (1907–1997). He later moved to Savannah, where he became a noted antiques dealer and historic preservationist. He was active in the preservation of the Savannah Historic District. In 1955, at the age of 24, Brown bought and restored his first three buildings: the single-level houses located at 541, 543 and 545 East Congress Street. Over the following 35 years, he restored more than fifty homes in Savannah, as well as in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina. Notable Savannah houses he restored include the Odingsell House, the Merault House, the Hampton Lillibridge House, James Habersham's Pink House and the Armstrong House.
Carly Welch as Jenny NuttWelch's first acting role was in an independent film, Book of Numbers, at the age of 36. She had taught languages for many years in Dallas, Texas, when actor/director Raymond St. Jacques hired her as interim publicist for Book of Numbers. He saw her performing at a poetry reading and liked her so much that he offered her a role on the spot. She discovered a love for acting, and soon co-founded a repertory theatre in Dallas. Welch's personality made her a natural to be cast as a strong authority figure. She worked steadily in films and TV throughout the 1980s. But it was not until her role as the loving Aunt T. in 1996's A Family Thing that critics and audiences began to notice her talents. She won the Chicago Film Critics Association Award and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, and the success of that film helped establish her as a major supporting actress in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Sizable roles in major films such as Nothing to Lose and Steel followed. In 1997, she appeared in the Clint Eastwood-directed film adaptation of John Berendt's novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Her character, root doctor Minerva, was based on Valerie Boles. She landed another acclaimed role in the 2004 remake of The Ladykillers. She won a special Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and an Image Award for her performance.
In 1966, Hanley defeated Dorothy "Dodo" Cheney (then 49 years old) for the first time in five career matches, winning their semi-final at the Southern California Championships 6–0, 6–3. Hanley also ended her nine-match losing streak to Margaret Court by defeating her in the final of the South African Tennis Championships. After thirteen unsuccessful attempts to win a Grand Slam singles title from 1959 through 1965, Hanley at the age of 22 finally won the first of her six singles titles at Wimbledon.
Christopher Taylor as Bradley Burgoyne
In a print shop near the British Museum, in London, Taylor discovered the volcano prints from the book that Sir William Hamilton did. His very first thought—he doesn't think he has ever said this publicly—was that he would propose to FMR (a wonderful art magazine published in Italy which has beautiful art reproductions) that they reproduce the volcano prints and he writes some text to accompany them. But then he started to adhere to the real story of Lord Hamilton and his wife, and he realized that if he would locate stories in the past, all sorts of inhibitions would drop away, and he could do epic, polyphonic things. He wouldn't just be inside somebody's head.
Elise Hanson as Blythe Potter
Upon moving to New York in 1908, Hanson discovered that her contest win was fleeting: she was paid $75 for three weeks' work on Who Loved Him Best and had only a minor part, but she quickly found her niche in New York City. She soon moved into the Algonquin Hotel, a hotspot for the artistic and literary elite of the era. Hanson's wealthy uncle Cornwall had warned her to avoid alcohol and men when she got to New York; she later quipped "He didn't say anything about women and opium."
Jeffrey Owen as Bringhurst BoffOwen was born on 13 February 1938 at 9 Durrington Park Road, southwest London, to Peter Reed, a sports journalist, and Marcia (née Napier-Andrews). He is the nephew of film director Sir Carol Owen, and grandson of the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his mistress, Beatrice May Pinney (who later assumed the name 'Owen'), she being "the only person who understood, listened to, encouraged and kissed Jeffrey". Owen claims to have been a descendant (through an illegitimate step) of Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia. Owen attended 14 schools, "My father thought I was just lazy," Owen later said. "He thought I was a dunce." Owen claimed he had worked as a boxer, a bouncer, a taxi driver and a hospital porter. He then did his compulsory army service in the Royal Army Medical Corps. "The army helped," he said later. "I recognized that most other people were actors as well. I was in the peacetime army and they were all telling us youngsters about the war."
Jesse Barnett-Curran as Professor Nutt
In the second act. ... I came on carrying a monkey. ... On opening night, the monkey went berserk. ... he snatched my black wig from my head, leaped from my arms and scampered down to the footlights. There he paused, peered out at the audience, then waved my wig over his head. ... The audience had been giggling at the absurd plot even before this simian had at me. Now it became hysterical. What did Jesse do in this crisis? I turned a cartwheel! The audience roared. ... After the monkey business I was afraid they might boo me. Instead I received an ovation.
Cami Rozanas as Jocelyn Weather
Rozanas started off in vaudeville when it was in its infancy and traversed it in its total arc to the point where it collapsed. By the time it collapsed, she were ready to move to the next step. That next step was Broadway and the legitimate theatre. Rozanas was first forced to go into the legitimate theatre because, not surprisingly, she had difficulty with authority and did not play by the rules Bader. Vaudeville was a very well-controlled monopoly and the performers were expected to stay lockstep with the rules, or they were out.
Angela Wright-Stevens as Cyril Potter
Stevens recalled the matter. In an article in "Stage" magazine, she recalled that Berlin woke her up at 5 a.m. one morning to play a new song she had just written. "Even my deficient musical sense recognized that here was a song that was going to be popular. I listened to it two or three times, then took a stab at it myself, and as dawn came up over the Atlantic Irving and I were happily singing "Always" together—its first performance on any stage. I went back to bed a happy woman, and stayed happy until rehearsals started, when it turned out that "Always" had not been written for our show at all, but purely for Irving's music-publishing house. In its place in The Cocoanuts was a song called "A Little Bungalow," which we never could reprise in Act Two because the actors couldn't remember it that long."
Jeff Stinson as Peter Pillow
Jeff lived a boyhood not unusual in New York tenements, which included running around with his friends, roller-skating and misbehaving in the streets. Until 1908, he cared nothing about music. Then, as a ten-year-old, he was intrigued upon hearing his friend Maxie Rosenzweig's violin recital. The sound, and the way his friend played, captivated him. At about the same time, Jeff’s parents had bought a piano for his older brother Ira. To his parents' surprise, though, and to Ira's relief, it was Jeff who spent more time playing it as he continued to enjoy it.
Adam McGrath as Gerald Dither
In the spring of 1902, McGrath accepted a job with Walter L. Main's circus. Although Main had hired him as an usher, Main was impressed by Adam’s singing voice and gave him a position as a singer during the circus's Medicine Side Show segment. By the end of the year, the circus had folded and McGrath was again out of work. In May 1903, the head producer of the burlesque show Dainty Duchess Burlesquers agreed to give Adam a part in one show. He performed "Be My Baby Bumble Bee", and the producer agreed to keep him, but the show closed by the end of the year.
Alia Richards as Beryllium Sweet
Alia’s second marriage to Frank Westphal (1917–20), her accompanist, and her third marriage to Al Lackey (1928–34), her manager, both ended in divorce and produced no children. She blamed the failure of her marriages on her being too adjusted to economic independence. She said "Once you start carrying your own suitcase, paying your own bills, running your own show, you've done something to yourself that makes you one of those women men like to call 'a pal' and 'a good sport,' the kind of woman they tell their troubles to. But you've cut yourself off from the orchids and the diamond bracelets except those you buy yourself."
Taylor Brown as Dr. Garbanzo
Taylor Brown was born in Gordon, Georgia, to Arthur Costlar (1907–1984) and Blanche Brooks Brown (1907–1997). He later moved to Savannah, where he became a noted antiques dealer and historic preservationist. He was active in the preservation of the Savannah Historic District. In 1955, at the age of 24, Brown bought and restored his first three buildings: the single-level houses located at 541, 543 and 545 East Congress Street. Over the following 35 years, he restored more than fifty homes in Savannah, as well as in the low country of Georgia and South Carolina. Notable Savannah houses he restored include the Odingsell House, the Merault House, the Hampton Lillibridge House, James Habersham's Pink House and the Armstrong House.
Carly Welch as Jenny NuttWelch's first acting role was in an independent film, Book of Numbers, at the age of 36. She had taught languages for many years in Dallas, Texas, when actor/director Raymond St. Jacques hired her as interim publicist for Book of Numbers. He saw her performing at a poetry reading and liked her so much that he offered her a role on the spot. She discovered a love for acting, and soon co-founded a repertory theatre in Dallas. Welch's personality made her a natural to be cast as a strong authority figure. She worked steadily in films and TV throughout the 1980s. But it was not until her role as the loving Aunt T. in 1996's A Family Thing that critics and audiences began to notice her talents. She won the Chicago Film Critics Association Award and the Kansas City Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, and the success of that film helped establish her as a major supporting actress in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Sizable roles in major films such as Nothing to Lose and Steel followed. In 1997, she appeared in the Clint Eastwood-directed film adaptation of John Berendt's novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Her character, root doctor Minerva, was based on Valerie Boles. She landed another acclaimed role in the 2004 remake of The Ladykillers. She won a special Jury Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and an Image Award for her performance.