1966

From left to right: Peter Bellwood, Brendan Burke, John Heffernan and Geoff Garland.

1966 opened with Beyond The Fringe starring John Heffernan, Geoff Garland, Peter Bellwood and Brendan Burke.  In the supporting cast was Alan Bennett, Peter Cook Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore.  The production was directed by Christopher Hewett.
Stephen Elliott
The second show of the season was Arthur Miller’s After The Fall starring Stephen Elliott.  Directed by Milton Katselas, the cast included, among others, Joseph Mascolo, Philip Sterling and Nancy R. Pollock. 
Imogene Coca
King Donovan
The first three week run in Playhouse history took the stage from May 30 to June 18 when husband and wife team Imogene Coca and King Donovan starred in Kaufman and Hart’s You Can’t Take It With You.  Kaufman and Hart were both Bucks County residents.  Coca had played to Playhouse audiences in 1965 as Laura Partridge in The Solid Gold Cadillac.  Also in the cast was James Coco.
Lisa Kirk
Robert Alda
Lisa Kirk and Robert Alda starred in the next production, Riverwind from June 20 thru July 9.  The musical comedy was described as a captivating show about pleasant, personable, cheerful, engenious and thoroughly delightful people.  Alda had been seen on Broadway in What Makes Sammy Run? and won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Sky Masterson in the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls.  Included in the supporting cast was Bernadette Peters.  The production was directed by James Hammerstein, son of Oscar Hammerstein. 
Colleen Dewhurst
George C. Scott
One of the most important productions of the 1960s ran from July 11 thru July 23.  George C. Scott and his wife, Colleen Dewhurst in The Lion In Winter.  Both had achieved fame and success on Broadway and film.  Scott had starred on Broadway in Comes A Day, The Wall and The Andersonville Trial.   Dewhurst had previously appeared on the Playhouse stage as Martha in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Witness For  The Prosecution and A View From The Bridge.
From left to right: Helen Rayburn, Gene Rayburn and Lynn Rayburn.

From July 25 thru August 6, Playhouse favorite Gene Rayburn returned to the stage in The Impossible Years.  The play was described as “the perfect family show”.  Making it truly a family affair, Rayburn played the psychiatrist-father while his wife Helen Rayburn and daughter Lynn Rayburn also starred.  Former Playhouse producer Mike Ellis and son Gordon Ellis also appeared. The show focused on the idiosyncrasies of teenagers and the continuous havoc they create in any household.  Rayburn was well known to audiences for his role as host of television’s “The Match Game”.  He was previously seen on the Playhouse stage in Under The Yum-Yum Tree (1962), Come Blow Your Horn (1960), Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? (1959), Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) and The Love Of Four Colonels (1957). Rayburn would return again in the 1990s in productions of La Cage aux Folles and Sugar Babies.
Dick Shawn
Mariclare Costello
From August 8 to 20, Dick Shawn starred in the English comedies The Private Ear and The Public Eye, two stories by Peter Shaffer.  The first play concerned an awkward young man who picks up a girl he believes to be a kindred spirit at a a concert and invites her to his attic apartment for a dinner prepared by a too helpful friend.  The second play focused on an eccentric London detective engaged by a well-to-do accountant to follow his young ex-waitress wife.  Shawn had appeared in 1965 in The Typists and The Tiger.
Anne Jackson
Anne Jackson starred in S.N. Behrman’s comedy entitled Biography.  Jackson portrayed Marion Froude an uninhibited portrait artist who sets out to write her biography for a tiny little magazine.  Directed by Harold Stone, the cast included Roland Winters, Stefan Schnabel, Kevin O’Connor, Olga Fabian and Lane Bradbury.
Don Porter
Marsha Hunt
Don Porter directed and starred in the next production entitled Any Wednesday.  Porter best known to television audiences as Gidget’s father in the comedy series, "Gidget".  The Playhouse hosted one of the first stock productions of Any Wednesday which had closed about one month prior to the Playhouse run.  Porter had portrayed the role of John Cleves, the millionaire industrialist for over two years during the production’s Broadway run.  Starring opposite him was Marsha Hunt.  Hunt was making her Playhouse debut but had been seen previously on Broadway in Tunnel Of Love with Johnny Carson, Legend of Sarah and Borned In Texas among others. 
Joe Ponazecki
Carol Cole
The last play of the season was The Owl And The Pussycat starring Joe Ponazecki and Carol Cole, daughter of Nat King Cole.  Ponazecki had appeared earlier in the summer in You Can’t Take It With You and The Impossible Years. 
A special "Thank You" to Mr. Jack Conant for allowing us to borrow his Bucks County Playhouse programs in order to document this season. Mr. Conant served as Technical Director at the Bucks County Playhouse during the 1965, 1966 and 1967 seasons.