Alan Safier stars as George Burns in the Tony Award nominated, on man show “Say Goodnight Gracie” on September 23 at The Ridgefield Playhouse

Alan Safier stars as the show business legend, George Burns in this Tony Nominated Broadway play. With vintage photographs and video clips from film and TV performances "Say Goodnight Gracie" brings George Burns' fascinating story to life! The Ridgefield Playhouse and Ridgefield Magazine Broadway and Cabaret Series presents Say Goodnight Gracie, by Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) on Friday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m. It’s a hilarious, heart-warming evening in the uplifting company of the world’s favorite and funniest centenarian – George Burns! Say Goodnight Gracie is Broadway’s third-longest running one-man show. It won the National Broadway Theatre Award for Best Play and was nominated for a Tony Award in the same category.

In Say Goodnight Gracie, George Burns looks back upon his impoverished, plucky youth on the lower east side of New York, his disastrous but tenacious early years in vaudeville, the momentous day when he met a fabulously talented young Irish girl named Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen, their instant chemistry (with his flawless timing a perfect match for her dizziness), his wooing of her, and their rise to the pinnacles of vaudeville, film, radio and television. Gracie’s early retirement and untimely death forced George to start from square one in life as well as in his career. Eventually, he achieved an equal level of success as a solo raconteur and Academy Award-winning actor in The Sunshine Boys and Oh, God! Make it a great night out with dinner and a show! Visit Bernard’s (20 West Lane · Ridgefield) and enjoy a Prix Fixe Menu when you present your tickets to this performance – Reservations suggested. Media sponsor for this event is 800AM WLAD.

Alan Safier (George Burns) celebrates more than five decades on stage, on television, in commercials, and in voice-overs, with this, his ninth season playing everyone’s favorite centenarian, both off-Broadway and across the country. In addition to playing George Burns in Say Goodnight Gracie, Alan has portrayed many other famous people in his stage career: John Adams in 1776, Spiro Agnew in Gore Vidal's An Evening with Richard M. Nixon, Charles J. Guiteau in the Los Angeles premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, Albert Einstein in the world-premiere musical The Smartest Man in the World, and Truman Capote in the hit off-Broadway 30th-anniversary revival of New Faces of 1952.

Alan Safier may also be familiar to audiences from hundreds of television and radio voice-overs (perhaps most recognizably as the Kibbles ’n Bits dog) and from guest appearances on TV series. He’s the author of the play My Father’s Voice and of several published short stories. His CD of American standards from the ’30s and ’40s, Alan Safier Sings the Songs of George & Gracie’s Heyday, was released in 2011. He also composed the song “Another Tuesday Morning,” featured on the Jim Brickman CD Simple Things.

For tickets ($40), call the box office at 203-438-5795, or visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org. The Ridgefield Playhouse is a non-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT.