It doesn’t take too much to put on a production of D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer-Prize winning drama The Gin Game. All you need are two experienced older actors who can bring the play to life. You barely need any scenery, other than a card table and a couple of chairs. Hell, you don’t even really need a theater.
If you doubt the veracity of that last statement, be aware that the play is now being wonderfully performed not on Broadway, not Off-Broadway, but rather in a small space at the back of the Housing Works Bookstore in Soho. There you’ll find three-time Academy Award nominee Debra Winger and her real-life husband, veteran stage and screen actor Arliss Howard (Amistad, Full Metal Jacket) in a full staging of the work, directed by David Blum. The audience, numbering in the dozens, sit but a few feet away from the actors. It’s as intimate as theater gets, and the ticket price is only $20. Except that the limited run is already sold out and tickets on the resale market are listed for hundreds of dollars.
Like Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, who famously originated the roles on Broadway, Winger and Howard are married in real life. Their chemistry is undeniable in their performances as the deliciously named Fonsia Dorsey and Weller Martin, two elderly residents of a nursing home who begin playing a series of gin rummy games. Seems like a harmless enough bonding activity for two obviously lonely old souls. Except that Fonsia’s amazing streak of winning every game rattles and then thoroughly unnerves Weller, who reacts with increasing degrees of frustration and anger.
As the games continue, both characters reveal details about their past and what brought them to their current circumstances. And as Fonsia continues to win and Weller’s behavior threatens to become violent, they increasingly turn their ire toward each other.
The Gin Game is a brief, efficient, and darkly funny work that has proven a reliable star vehicle for aging performers and probably will remain so for many, many years to come. Besides Tandy and Cronyn, other notables who have essayed the dueling seniors are E.G. Marshall and Maureen Stapleton, who took over the roles in the original production directed by Mike Nichols; Charles Durning and Julie Harris, who starred in a 1997 Broadway revival; and James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, who made their final stage appearances in yet another 2015 revival. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore even co-starred in a 2003 television production.
Winger, still displaying the luminosity that made her a screen star in the 1980s with such films as An Officer and a Gentlemen, Urban Cowboy, and Terms of Endearment, makes for a terrific Fonsia, fully conveying the character’s prim reserve while slyly revealing the increasing delight with which she taunts her opponent at cards. Howard starts out stiffly at first, his voice barely heard even from just a few feet away. But he quickly comes into his own, becoming increasingly effective at depicting Weller’s meltdown as his confidence withers away and he fully reveals his anger and bitterness about what his life has become.
The venue is not really ideal for theatrical presentations, featuring a tiny stage, uncomfortable seats, and bad sightlines. But it does provide the opportunity for this indelible experience of watching two terrific, well-known actors performing their hearts out practically within arm’s reach. It’s a treat.
The Gin Game opened July 20, 2026, at Housing Works Bookstore and runs through August 9. Tickets and information: thegingameplay.com
