Interview With Director Scott Wittman on “The Subject Was Roses”

Great news! “The Subject Was Roses,” a Pulitzer Prize and two-time Tony Award-winning play, will be the first show on the Mainstage at Bay Street Theater starting on May 28th. It is a fantastic choice to kick off the 2024 season. This play, based on the book by Frank D. Gilroy, will feature stars Talia Balsam and John Slattery, along with their son Harry Slattery.

Director Scott Wittman was kind enough to share his thoughts with Hamptons.com about this play, which is a poignant drama set in The Bronx in 1946. It will be produced at Baystreet Theater in Sag Harbor with previews starting May 28^{th –} 31st a red carpet opening on June 1^st, and run through June 16. Also scheduled are “talkbacks” on June 4^th  & 11^th.

Like roses, family relationships are beautiful but thorny, and “The Subject Was Roses” is about the emotional struggles and hidden tensions within a family as their son returns from service in WWII. As they confront their past and present, this timeless play explores enduring themes of reconciliation and the fragility of love.

Director Scott Wittman explained, “This is a play I always liked and that has always been in my head. I live in the Springs pretty much most of the time, and I am very good friends with John Slattery, Talia Balsam, and Harry (who also live locally), so last summer, I said we should do a play! It was that simple. So, I called Scott Schwartz (Bay Street Theater’s Artistic Director) and asked if you have a space for next summer. He asked,  ‘What do you want to do?’  I told him, and he said he loved to do it.”

Wittman then mentioned that this summer is the 60^th anniversary of the play having opened on Broadway in 1964 at the end of May. That production starred Jack Albertson, Irene Daily, and a very young (23 yrs. old) Martin Sheen. Shifting gears, Director Wittman, mentioned what is unusual about this production is that he doesn’t know if this play has ever been cast with an actual natural family, that being a father, a mother, and their son. “This gives this production a kind of a different chemistry,” said Wittman, then adding, “It is an interesting play because even though it takes place in 1946 and was written in the 1960s, a lot of the issues and what they are talking about are the same. It’s about a child who comes back from war as a man…with a new perspective on the relationship that he grew up with. It’s very contemporary in that way.”

“Working with a family as the cast was easier,” said Wittman, “Because John and Talia are all fantastic actors and they have a rhythm as a family, it informs the play. Plus, they can go home and rehearse.” Asked about the cast, Wittman replied, “Talia Balsam is a fantastic actor. She comes from a line, a lineage with her father being Martin Balsam and her mother being Joyce Van Patten, both great actors. John Slattery is an exceptional talent, and Harry is a new actor, so it is great to watch them take care of him with his great instincts that he has inherited.”

When asked about what he learned after diving into this project, Director Wittman answered, “First of all, it is so much like and about my childhood, so I learned a great deal about myself in doing this. That is because, as a director, you have to share those personal experiences that inform the play.” Then he added how excited he is about doing “The Subject Was Roses” at Bay Street because (Playwright) “Frank D. Gilroy’s son lives in the Hamptons, and I am excited for him to see it.”

Summing things up, he stated, “It’s a play that won the Pulitzer Prize, won the Tony, practically won every award the year it opened. It is not done very often, so I believe people will be pleasantly surprised because we have a fantastic design team so it all kind of looks like a painting from Edward Hopper (painter and graphic artist,1882-1967). Scott Wittman believes this production will “thrill” people, and because it is only running for three weeks, from May 28th until June 16th, he still hopes many get to see this production. He also said, “I think it’s a great play, it breezes by, it could have been done in one act, it’s kind of fantastic, it’s to the point!”