26 Oct 2002
Originally published at www.playbill.com

Ruth Warrick, the last surviving member of Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” cast, will attend the Oct. 26 performance of Genesis Repertory’s War of the World, based on the original radio broadcast which made Welles a star. The production, presented as a one-act radio drama, plays through Nov. 2 at RAW Space.

Warrick played the first Mrs. Kane in “Citizen Kane.” She is an Emmy winner for “Peyton Place” and has appeared on Broadway in Take Me Along (opposite Jackie Gleason), Pal Joey and Irene. Warrick has starred as Phoebe Tyler Wallingford on “All My Children” since the show’s inception in 1970.

War of the World‘s depicts a fictional alien invasion of New Jersey and New York, but Welles’ Mercury Theatre on the Air performed it in October, 1938 as if the H.G. Wells-based drama were an actual news broadcast. The result was a panic, as listeners, believing Martians were attacking the United States, jammed phone lines and highways, trying to find out the truth – or escape. The broadcast made Welles’ name and led to his debut in Hollywood.

Jay Michaels stars as Welles. Also in the cast are Mary Elizabeth MiCari, Derek Devareux, Michael D’Antoni, Frank Rosner and Robert F. Saunders. MiCari and Michaels direct War of the Worlds.

Tickets are $15. RAW Space is located in Studio L at 543 West 42nd Street. For reservations, call (718) 932-3577. Genesis Repertory is on the web at http://www.genesisrep.org.

— By Christine Ehren