STAGE REVIEW : ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ Takes Its Journey Simply and Well

“Driving Miss Daisy” has driven into town and parked at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. It’s not a flashy vehicle. But it gets great gas mileage.

This series of brief scenes about an elderly Jewish widow and her chauffeur manages to cover 25 years in a mere 90 minutes, without stooping to melodrama, without seeming too sketchy, without ignoring the greater cultural and historical context of the South during the civil rights era.

Plenty of Hollywood writers could take lessons in Economy 101 from the creator of “Miss Daisy,” Alfred Uhry. Actors could benefit, too, from observing the no-gesture-wasted acting of Julie Harris as Daisy.

The story follows a conventional arc: Two characters are thrown together. At first they’re at odds, but gradually they come to terms; eventually they cherish each other. It’s an oft-told tale, but seldom is it told this well.

It begins in 1948, when 72-year-old Daisy Werthan totals her car and loses her insurance. Against Daisy’s wishes, her son (Stephen Root) hires 60-year-old Hoke Colburn (Brock Peters) to drive Daisy around Atlanta. Within six days, Hoke breaks down Daisy’s determination to ignore him.

But a thin layer of friction remains, rooted in Daisy’s much-denied racial prejudice and reinforced by her growing awareness of what she and Hoke have in common--they’re both outsiders, they’re both aging, they’re both lonely.

Daisy is the more complicated of the two. It’s her willpower that must be budged for the story to move forward, and later it’s the remnants of her racial insensitivity that provide the play with much-needed tension.

Hoke doesn’t change much, except for the actual aging, nor does he need to change. From the beginning, he’s almost too good to be true: scrupulously honest, diplomatic but frank, steadfastly helpful but not at the price of his own dignity, willing to admit his own inexperience (he can’t read; he has never left Georgia) but also canny enough to use another job offer to get a raise.

Because he’s so admirable in every way, Hoke may be the more difficult role to play. Peters knows and honors the character almost too well. His face registers emotion more easily and graphically than most, and his performance occasionally verges on the obvious. At least early in the play, Hoke probably would try to suppress his feelings more than he does.

Still, the teamwork between Peters and Harris is as beautifully timed as if they have been together as long as Daisy and Hoke. Their final scene is undeniably affecting. It’s Harris who gets the play’s best moments, and not surprisingly she makes them indelible. She gets the biggest laugh of the evening in the middle of the most potentially troubling scene, but that’s Uhry’s handiwork as much as hers. Probably her most unforgettable scene is a silent one, late in the play, when she slowly helps herself out of the car after a minor tiff with Hoke and pauses briefly to consider whether to try to make amends. That moment is worth a dozen speeches.

Throughout, Harris knows precisely how to toughen and then how to tenderize her portrait. We exit with the impression that we know Miss Daisy almost as well as Hoke does, but we would never presume to predict how she would behave. The performance has that kind of vitality.

Meanwhile, let us not forget Root as Daisy’s middle-aged son. Although we see him primarily as a mediator, he’s not a mere sounding board for the others. He’s also the representative of the greater world outside these two rather insulated souls, and he handles that position with perception and grace.

Director Ron Lagomarsino, who staged the original “Daisy,” has kept this touring production on its toes. Thomas Lynch’s simple, mobile set design does its job well, though it’s odd that the stools used for the driving scenes remain on stage thereafter, even during scenes that occur behind them.

Arden Fingerhut’s lighting and Michael Krass’ costumes are unobtrusive but unfailingly correct. And while Robert Waldman’s incidental music may not be enough to satisfy those Los Angeles Civic Light Opera subscribers who are still wondering why this non-musical is part of the LACLO season, his blend of violin and banjo does help suggest the play’s locale and era and mood.

At 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2 p.m., Sunday matinees at 3 p.m., through April 30, then through May 14 with a slightly altered schedule: no Wednesday matinees, and Sunday evening performances at 7 p.m. Tickets: $28.50-$37.50; (213) 410-1062 and (714) 634-1300.