Production History
The play “Gemini” had its Broadway premiere 30 years ago, in May 1977. This photo of the dinner scene shows Danny Aiello as Fran on the far left, with Anne DeSalvo (Lucille) next to him. Far right is Robert Picardo, who played Francis.
Picardo and DeSalvo also appeared in the 2004 premiere of “Gemini the Musical” at the Prince Music Theater. In that production, Picardo played Fran, with DeSalvo reprising her performance as Lucille.
The play “Gemini” had a revival off-Broadway at Second Stage in 1999. Linda Hart appeared as Bunny Weinberger in that production.
Hart also played the role of Bunny in the premiere of “Gemini the Musical.” The Prince Music Theater production received several Barrymore Award nominations, including one for Outstanding Original Music by composer Charles Gilbert.
From program notes written by playwright Albert Innaurato for the premiere of Gemini the Musical at the Prince Music Theater in 2004:
Written in New York while I had a Guggenheim, the play shocked people when it was new - rough language and some of its concerns were novel at the time. But much as anything - Gemini was about my affection for the rough good nature and earthy wisdom found in the backyards and narrow streets of South Philly, my native town.
Gemini was first performed for just two weeks in an old Burlesque house. No one would come to see it from the profession, the language was too rough, the central issue too controversial. But the Friday before it was going to close, the head of a theater on Long Island called. They had just lost a play and needed something right away. Gemini got a new lease on life; but no one would come from New York City to see it.
On the Friday before it was to close I was in a Greenwich Village bank. It had just been robbed. The Police had locked us all in. I recognized the head of the Circle Rep, an important off Broadway Theater. I went up to him, “Darling!” He said. “We just lost a play and we have to slot something in immediately, could we move Gemini with no problems?” That night he and his colleagues went to see the play, decided to move it, and eventually moved it to Broadway, where it ran for four years.
