Santa Monica Playhouse presents a special weekend of Eddie Frierson's internationally acclaimed MATTY: An Evening With Christy Mathewson, for all ages, on Saturday, March 28, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 29, at 1:30 p.m.
Written and performed by Frierson and directed by Kerrigan Mahan, the show tells the life story of Christy Mathewson, legendary Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Giants from 1900 to 1916.
Besides his ballpark records, still among the most impressive ever posted, Mathewson was an author of books for boys, toured in vaudeville, made a motion picture, was a war hero, a coach, a sportswriter and very likely the first major sports figure to be a product spokesperson.
Frierson, who researched and developed the play, is a college-educated all-American ballplayer. A baseball scholarship brought him to UCLA to pitch for the Bruins. While there he pursued a degree in theater and bypassed a professional baseball career to pursue acting.
He was the head baseball coach at Santa Monica High School while looking for the perfect vehicle to launch his acting career. He found that vehicle with the Christy Mathewson story, spending 12 years researching and developing it into "Matty," which had one of its first public performances at Santa Monica Playhouse in 1989.
Because of his performance as "Matty," Frierson was ushered into Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown as an "Honorary Inductee."
Tickets are $25, with discounts for seniors, students, teachers, military, kids under 12 and groups of eight or more. Tickets include a post-show sodas and Cracker Jacks reception with Frierson. Proceeds benefit the Playhouse Save the Main Stage Campaign.
Santa Monica Playhouse programs are supported in part by generous grants from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the Ahmanson Foundation and Playhouse PALS.
Santa Monica Playhouse is located at 1211 4th Street, Santa Monica.
For more information, visit https://www.santamonicaplayhouse.com/matty.html. For tickets, visit https://www.showclix.com/event/eddie-frierson-s-matty-an-evening-with-christy-matthewson or call 310-394-9779.
Edited by SMDP Staff