Successful writer, notorious name dropper, and unapologetic social climber, Truman Capote was all these things and more. His closest friends were among the richest and most famous names in Hollywood and of the Park Avenue jet set. They loved and adored “Tru” until the day in late 1975 he allowed Esquire Magazine to publish a chapter from his unfinished semi-fictionalized novel “Answered Prayers” that exposed the deepest and darkest secrets of his nearest and dearest pals.
TRU, a play by Jay Presson Allen (Marnie, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Forty Carats), is based on the words and works of Truman Capote. It premiered on Broadway in 1989 in a production that starred Robert Morse and ran for 297 performances. Set over the course of two evenings in December 1975 after the recent publication in Esquire Magazine of the chapter La Cote Basque from his upcoming and unfinished novel Answered Prayers, the audience finds Tru alone in his New York City apartment where, without his best friends, socialites Babe Paley and Nancy “Slim” Keith to entertain him and keep him company he struggles to maintain his dignity in the face of universal rejection and find a joie d’vivre in his usually festive and social holiday season. Fighting the need to anesthetize his feelings of loss and bitterness with pills and alcohol, he looks back on his life; family, friends, business relationships and lovers and recounts the events that led him from his humble roots in Monroeville Alabama to the pinnacles of New York society.
