George C Wolfe

For playwright - director George C. Wolfe, theater is "a way to connect to that which you come from." He explored the African-American experience in "Jelly's Last Jam," his Tony-winning musical about jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton , and , before that, in both his satirical revue "The Colored Museum" and his play "Spunk," a dramatization of Zora Neale Hurston stories.

- George C. Wolfe is flummoxed. He's describing the gestation of "Lucky Guy," the Nora Ephron play he is directing with Tom Hanks playing an ambitious and cocky New York newspaper reporter. It began, he says, with Ephron asking him: "What's more fun than hanging out with the boys in the bar?" It ended, nine months later, with a phone call from her agent saying she had died. "I didn't even know that Nora was sick until the actual day she died," he says, sitting in a Midtown Manhattan coffee shop on a rainy spring afternoon.

A major shake-up in the New York Shakespeare Festival is expected to see director George C. Wolfe replace JoAnne Akalaitis today as boss of one of Manhattan's most prestigious and productive theater companies. Akalaitis has been artistic director since August, 1991, shortly before festival founder Joseph Papp died.

George C. Wolfe announced Thursday that he would leave his job as producer of New York's Public Theater, bringing to three the vacancies in the leadership of New York's leading cultural institutions. Wolfe's announcement followed the Jan. 30 death of Robert J. Harth, artistic and executive director of Carnegie Hall, and the news Monday that Joseph Volpe will retire in 2006 as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera.

Ten years ago George C. Wolfe put himself on the theatrical map with his play "The Colored Museum," a hilarious vaudeville send-up of every oppressive stereotype the black community endured since the dawn of man, it seemed. Today Wolfe runs the noble institution that produced his play, now called the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Unlike Papp, whom he has since succeeded, Wolfe is also a brilliant director, currently represented on Broadway by an airy and magical "Tempest."

George C. Wolfe, the brilliant and voluble producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, likes to tell friends that, in a past life, he was aboard the Titanic's doomed maiden voyage. It would be understandable for the onetime steerage passenger to be feeling "deja vu all over again," to borrow the famous phrase of Yogi Berra.

An assistant bounds into George C. Wolfe's office, the nerve center of the Public Theater in downtown Manhattan, to tell him that Harry Belafonte is on line 2. And by the way, is there anything he'd like from the deli on this chilly winter afternoon? "Yeah, I need some crack," the director-producer says, a provocateur's smile spreading across his lips.

Anyone familiar with George C. Wolfe's satire, "The Colored Museum," might be surprised to discover that the playwright has written his new play--"Jelly's Last Jam," a musical about the early 20th-Century jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton--with the words "Honor the Source" taped over his computer. Wolfe's "Museum" savaged several popular myths and figures from black American culture, including fellow playwrights Ntozake Shange and Lorraine Hansberry, the author of "A Raisin in the Sun."

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has recently vowed to crack down on jaywalking New Yorkers, but it's unlikely the law could ever catch up with George C. Wolfe, the willful, energetic and restless producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Roger Rabbit himself couldn't better navigate the cars speeding down Lafayette Street, the wide boulevard in front of the bustling downtown theater complex Wolfe has headed since 1993.

Like a song with a false ending, "Jelly's Last Jam" is not quite over. The show may have broken all previous records for an eight-week run at the Mark Taper Forum before shutting down on schedule April 21, but that was hardly the end. Whatever one's thoughts on George C. Wolfe's exuberant musical about jazzman Jelly Roll Morton, one thing was always predictable: a Broadway future. According to Wolfe and producer Margo Lion, Jujamcyn Theatres has come aboard as a co-producer, Wolfe has taken a couple of second looks at the show, a meeting of the collaborative team is set for June to discuss changes, and a low-profile reworking of the piece is planned for the fall.

An assistant bounds into George C. Wolfe's office, the nerve center of the Public Theater in downtown Manhattan, to tell him that Harry Belafonte is on line 2. And by the way, is there anything he'd like from the deli on this chilly winter afternoon? "Yeah, I need some crack," the director-producer says, a provocateur's smile spreading across his lips.

George C. Wolfe, the brilliant and voluble producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, likes to tell friends that, in a past life, he was aboard the Titanic's doomed maiden voyage. It would be understandable for the onetime steerage passenger to be feeling "deja vu all over again," to borrow the famous phrase of Yogi Berra.

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has recently vowed to crack down on jaywalking New Yorkers, but it's unlikely the law could ever catch up with George C. Wolfe, the willful, energetic and restless producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Roger Rabbit himself couldn't better navigate the cars speeding down Lafayette Street, the wide boulevard in front of the bustling downtown theater complex Wolfe has headed since 1993.

Composer Anthony Davis and librettist-journalist-playwright Thulani Davis ought to be in pictures, or so it seems. They have a nice knack for beating Hollywood to the punch. The cousins' first operatic collaboration, "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X," landed on stage at New York City Opera a full six years before Spike Lee filmed his version in 1992. This fall, they're doing it again, although this time Hollywood is quicker on the rebound.

Ten years ago George C. Wolfe put himself on the theatrical map with his play "The Colored Museum," a hilarious vaudeville send-up of every oppressive stereotype the black community endured since the dawn of man, it seemed. Today Wolfe runs the noble institution that produced his play, now called the Joseph Papp Public Theater. Unlike Papp, whom he has since succeeded, Wolfe is also a brilliant director, currently represented on Broadway by an airy and magical "Tempest."

With reference to "Forget Jelly, George Is Jammin' " (by Patrick Pacheco, Nov. 20) and "It's a Public With a Punch" (by Laurie Winer, Nov. 27), I would like to correct a now-common misconception. While George C. Wolfe is indeed a writer and a director, he did not direct the stage production of his play "The Colored Museum" at New York's Public Theater in 1986. The director was L. Kenneth Richardson, then-artistic director of the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey, where the play had its world premiere under Richardson's direction.

Doors have of ten played a central role in George C. Wolfe's produc tions. "Up for Grabs," which he wrote and directed as a student at Pomona College, saw a young black man metamorphose from corporate executive to revolutionary to superhero as he moved through a revolving door. "Jelly's Last Jam," Wolfe's 1991 Broadway musical about Jelly Roll Morton, used an upstage door as a portal through which figures of the jazz great's past are evoked to tell his bitter story.

With reference to "Forget Jelly, George Is Jammin' " (by Patrick Pacheco, Nov. 20) and "It's a Public With a Punch" (by Laurie Winer, Nov. 27), I would like to correct a now-common misconception. While George C. Wolfe is indeed a writer and a director, he did not direct the stage production of his play "The Colored Museum" at New York's Public Theater in 1986. The director was L. Kenneth Richardson, then-artistic director of the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Jersey, where the play had its world premiere under Richardson's direction.

What's happening at the Joseph Papp Public Theater would make Joseph Papp sit up in his grave, throw a white silk scarf over a black cashmere coat, and light a cigar. While not the impresario's designated successor, George C. Wolfe is certainly Papp's rightful heir.

Doors have of ten played a central role in George C. Wolfe's produc tions. "Up for Grabs," which he wrote and directed as a student at Pomona College, saw a young black man metamorphose from corporate executive to revolutionary to superhero as he moved through a revolving door. "Jelly's Last Jam," Wolfe's 1991 Broadway musical about Jelly Roll Morton, used an upstage door as a portal through which figures of the jazz great's past are evoked to tell his bitter story.