Andrew Rally
Andrew is an up-and-coming actor whose star has risen on the basis of two parts which have proven to be somewhat embarrassing for the actor: a surgeon in a recently canceled bad TV show called “L.A. Medical” and a commercial for Trailbuster Nuggets breakfast cereal. The play begins on the day he moves into his new home back in New York: a cavernous old brownstone where the man once known as America’s Greatest Living Tragedian briefly lived. Just as John Barrymore made his reputation playing Hamlet, so is Andrew about to test the limits of his own acting talent by playing the most famous role in drama. But is he up to the task?
The Ghost of John Barrymore
A séance designed to contact the spirit of Barrymore is deemed a failure when no contact is made. Unknown to everyone but Andrew, however, the séance was successful. Only he can see Barrymore’s ghost who informs Andrew that he is following a long tradition among stage actors. The older ones routinely come back to help promising young talent fulfill their potential.
Felicia Dantine
Felicia is the real estate agent who specifically urged Andrew to pick the old brownstone because of its connection to Barrymore. A true believer in the potential of psychic power, Felicia’s announcement that she has contacted the spirit of her dead mother leads to the attempted séance to contact Barrymore.
Dierdre McDavy
Andrew’s sweet, but serious and free-spirited, but virginal young girlfriend. Although Andrew is wracked by doubt and insecurities over moving form jingle-based commercials and bad TV to Shakespeare on the stage, Deirdre can barely contain her excitement. When the opening night performance does not go well, she is so devastated that she is moved to take Ophelian measures to end her disappointment. Only the unexpectedly carnal intervention of what seems to her to be just a strange dream pulls her back from the edge of tragedy on rooftop and picks the lock of her seductive willingness for Andrew.
Gary Peter Lefkowitz
Gary is a superficial Hollywood type quick to extol the number of hyphens in his job description who has come to New York to bring Andrew back to Hollywood and television. The change he witnesses in Andrew as a result of preparing to play Hamlet offers him a brief moment of introspective fantasy about chucking his affluent lifestyle and trying his own hand at becoming serious. When Andrew turns down his three million dollar offer to star in his show about an inner city teacher with secret superpowers, he returns to L.A. instead with a fellow partner-in-commerce: real estate maven Felicia Dantine.
Lillian Troy
Lillian is Andrew’s much older and experienced agent who is able to personally confirm the story that Barrymore actually did once live in the brownstone because she was having an affair with him at the time. That affair led to her scandalous divorce from her husband. For most of the play, only Andrew is capable of seeing Barrymore, but just before he take the stage as Hamlet on opening night, Lillian reveals that she is also capable of interacting with him and they enjoy a brief reminiscence of their time together before enjoying one last dance before Barrymore must depart back to the afterlife.
