Ava: The Secret Conversations Tickets
About Ava: The Secret Conversations
ELIZABETH MCGOVERN CASTS A SPELL AS CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD FEMME FATALE AVA GARDNER!" — Los Angeles Times
Academy Award, Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated actor Elizabeth McGovern stars as Hollywood's original femme fatale Ava Gardner in a critically acclaimed new play lauded by Entertainment Weekly as "mesmerizing and electric!"
The Golden Age of Cinema's Ava Gardner sat for a series of real-life interviews with writer Peter Evans in an attempt to glean the juicy details about her life story, her marriages to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra, and her turbulent relationship to Howard Hughes. Initially barred from publication, Evans' stories of a bygone era were published twenty-five years later with permission from Gardener's estate and is now reimagined on stage played by "two powerful forces" Elizabeth McGovern as Ava and Aaron Costa Ganis as Peter.
Run time
1hr 30min. No intermission.
Venue
Categories
Age
Ages 12+.
Start date
July 29th, 2025
End date
September 14th, 2025
Stars on stage
Elizabeth McGovern
Ava: The Secret Conversations cast and creative team
By: Elizabeth McGovern
Director: Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Cast list: Elizabeth McGovern (as Ava Gardner), Aaron Costa Ganis (as Peter Evans), John Tufts (as Ed Victor)
Sets: David Meyer
Costumes: Toni-Leslie James
Lighting: Amith Chandrashaker
Sound: Cricket S. Myers
Other info: Projection design by Alex Basco Koch, wig design by Matthew Armentrout
Venue
Accessibility
Wheelchair access, assistive listening devices
More information about Ava: The Secret Conversations
The show ran at the Geffen and was a hit, with BroadwayWorld calling it "entrancing and hypnotic. McGovern embodies Ava Gardner in a gutsy exploration, and she does so with fire." Now, the new work comes to New York City to give fresh life to the actress's legacy.
What to watch for
- The LA run was met with acclaim; Entertainment Weekly called it "mesmerizing; more interesting than an Oscar-winning biopic."
- Elizabeth McGovern is a stage, television, and film veteran best known from her Emmy nominated role of Cora Crawley in Downton Abbey, an Oscar nominee for Ragtime, and stared in notable films such as Ordinary People and opposite Robert De Niro in Once Upon a Time in America.
- Moritz von Stuelpnagel, a Tony nominee, directs this production.
