What is it about this production of Driving Miss Daisy that is selling tickets so fast?

The answer is a brilliant plot plus some heavyweight star power. James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave are really pulling them in and it looks like the twosome have tapped into some fantastic energy onstage at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. Driving Miss Daisy tickets have always been an eye-catcher; the play’s title being one that drives curiosity in theatergoers. This time around the play comes on the heels of another African-American themed production, Fences, starring Denzel Washington. Theater buffs will recall that it was James Earl Jones who starred in the leading role in Fences when that play enjoyed its original run on Broadway.

Now Earl Jones is back, with Vanessa Redgrave, and they couldn’t have chosen a better story to enact.

Fences is the story of Daisy Werthan, a Jewish 72-year old Atlanta widow, whose son hires Hoke Colburn, an African-American chauffeur, to drive Miss Daisy around because she is too old to drive herself. Initially, there is awkwardness between tthe two, but the walls quickly melt and the two find common ground in a part of the Deep South not accustomed to such friendships.