Oscar, Emmy  and  Golden Globe nominated actress JoBeth Williams and Award winning Broadway, film and television actor Harris Yulin are set to star in the next monthly digital presentation of the new play We Have To Hurry, streaming live via Broadway on Demand for two performances only, Saturday, July 10th at 8pm and Sunday, July 11th at 3pm. The heartwarming new play, about a pair of mature people reigniting their spark during the sunset years of life, is written by playwright, director and actor Dorothy Lyman and is directed by Patricia Vanstone. Producers Stuffed Olive, Inc. and Davina Belling will donate all profits from the streaming of We Have to Hurry to The Actors Fund Home East and West. Tickets for the streaming event are priced at $15 per household, with VIP tickets priced at $25, which includes an exclusive post-show talkback with the creators and stars. Tickets for June 10th are available by logging on to www.broadwayondemand.com 

At a retirement community in sunny Cedar Key, Florida,  Margaret and Gil are forced to be apart in their adjacent condos due to a mandatory isolation order for all residents.  From their neighboring balconies, love struck Gil witnesses Margaret’s increasing frustrations at their circumstances and realizes he must use his humor and wit to turn her spirits around. Keenly aware that every moment is precious, Gil knows We Have to Hurry, but can he get Margaret to take a walk on the beach and the first step toward happily ever after?

We Have to Hurry premiered on Broadway on Demand’s exclusive live stream event in May 2021, starring theatrical luminary Kathleen Chalfant and Oscar nominee Elliott Gould. The June 2021 stars were stage and screen favorite  Alfred Molina with the playwright Dorothy Lyman who is also an Emmy Award winning, Broadway, New York stage actress and director.  A cast of who’s who from stage and screen will pair up each month in the series.  In keeping with the play’s touching message, all profits from performances of We Have to Hurry will be donated to The Actors Fund Home East and West. Owned and operated by The Actors Fund, the residences offer short-stay rehabilitation, assisted living, skilled nursing, and memory care services for individuals who have dedicated a major portion of their professional lives to the performing arts and entertainment.

The cast and creators of We Have to Hurry are also revamping one of the most beloved theatre rituals for the streaming age. Since audience members currently can’t wait outside the stage door to have their Playbills signed and meet JoBeth Williams, Harris Yulin, Dorothy Lyman and the company, who will host a Virtual Stage Door for VIP ticket holders. Audience members who purchase the VIP access will be able to submit questions to be answered during a live, invite-only post-show Q&A.   Tickets for the live stream of We Have to Hurry are priced at $25 (VIP) and $15 per household and are valid for one live stream performance only. The performance schedule is as follows: Saturday, July 10th at 8pm and Sunday, July 11th at 3pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.broadwayondemand.com

JoBeth Williams has made over thirty films, including Poltergeist, The Big Chill, Kramer vs. Kramer, Switch, Stir Crazy, American Dreamer, Fever Pitch, and The Big Year.  Her television credits include series leads, in Payne, with John Laroquette, John Grisham’s The Client, Your Family or Mine with Richard Dreyfuss, and recurring roles on Private Practice and Marry Me, among many others. In New York theatre, she has starred in Annie Baker’s Body Awareness at the Atlantic, Last Dance at Manhattan Theatre Club, Moonchildren, Lady House Blues, A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking in addition to Gardenia by John Guare.  Some of her many regional credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (McCarter), Idiot’s Delight with Stacy Keach ( Kennedy Center), Antony and Cleopatra (The  Old Globe).  In Los Angeles, she has starred in Jane Anderson’s The Quality of Life with Laurie Metcalf at the Geffen, Other Desert Cities (Taper,)The Night is a Child (Pasadena Playhouse), and The Fall to Earth (Odyssey). Ms. Williams has been nominated for three Emmys, two Golden Globes, and an Oscar for directing the short film On Hope.

Harris Yulin is well known to television audiences as Buddy Dyker in the Netflix series Ozark.  He made his New York debut in 1963 in James Saunders’ Next Time I’ll Sing To You, with James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons at the Phoenix Theatre. Broadway credits include Hedda Gabler, The Price, The Visit, A Lesson From Aloes, Watch On The Rhine and Off-Broadway: Hamlet (three times) Richard Nelson’s Frank’s Home and Steve Tesich’s Arts And Leisure (Playwrights Horizons) in addition to Lanford Wilson’s Raindance at the Signature Theatre. Recent stage appearances: The Plot by Will Eno (Yale Rep Theatre); Frost/Nixon (Bay Street Theater); Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Court Theatre, Chicago); Death Of A Salesman (Gate Theatre, Dublin);  Hamlet (CSC) and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Chautauqua Festival). Mr. Yulin has extensive credits as a director.  One of his award winning productions, Horton Foote’s The Trip To Bountiful with Lois Smith and Hallie Foote played an extended run at the Signature Theatre in New York and subsequently moved to Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. Some of his many film credits include Scarface (Brian de Palma), Multiplicity (Harold Ramis) and most recently, All Square (John Hyams), Wanderland (Josh Klausner), The Sounding (Catherine Earton), Norman (Joseph Cedar) and The Family Fang (Jason Bateman).

Dorothy Lyman (Playwright) is a two-time Emmy© Award-winning actress for her work as Opal Gardner on All My Children and is widely known for her co-starring role on Mama’s Family, alongside Vicki Lawrence and Carol Burnett. Her other plays are Enemy (an adaptation of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People), A Rage in Tenure and Soft Landing (directed by John Tillinger) all developed and produced by Players Workshop in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In The Bleak Midwinter, the prequel to We Have To Hurry was produced in New York City and Westchester in 2019. In addition to her numerous film and television appearances, Ms. Lyman also directed 75 episodes of the Fran Drescher sitcom The Nanny. Her directing career began in 1980 when she produced and directed the original off-Broadway production of A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking starring Susan Sarandon and Eileen Brennan, and the subsequent national tour starring Elizabeth Ashley and Susan Anton. Her feature films, The Northern Kingdom and Split Ends, are available on Netflix.

Patricia Vanstone (Director) is an award-winning Canadian director, performer, and dramaturge. In addition to her over 150 acting and directing credits in Canada and abroad, she co-founded The Foster Festival in Niagara, Canada in 2016, where she produced four successful seasons and directed seven world premiere productions, including Halfway There, Screwball Comedy, and Lunenberg. Under her direction and dramaturgy, the Young People’s Theatre production of Beo’s Bedroom won a DORA Award for Outstanding TYA Production and was a finalist for a Chalmers Award for Outstanding New Play, TYA. She is the recipient of the “Established Artist Award” at the St. Catharines Arts Awards. Her Foster Festival production of Old Love, a Stage Door Top 10 production, was subsequently presented at Players Workshop in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Visit wehavetohurry.com.

Photo: Patricia Vanstone.