Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

In a small-town dime store in West Texas, the “Disciples of James Dean” gather for their 20th reunion. Now middle-aged women, they were teenagers when Dean filmed Giant two decades ago in nearby Marfa. One of them, an extra in the film, has a child whom she says was conceived with Dean during the shoot. The ladies’ congenial reminiscences mingle with flashbacks to their youth; then the arrival of a stunning-but-familiar stranger sets off a series of confrontations that smash their delusions and expose bitter disappointments.

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean was first produced by Players Theatre in Columbus, Ohio, in September 1976. The production was directed by the author. The play then made its professional premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1977, directed by Fred Chappell, starring Dana Ivey and Fannie Flagg. The Broadway production opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on February 18, 1982, and was directed by renowned filmmaker Robert Altman, starring Cher, Kathy Bates, Karen Black and Sandy Dennis.