Sarah Jessica Parker to Star in Film Version of Spinning into Butter
Set in a New England college, Spinning into Butter tells the story of Sarah Daniels Parker, a Dean of Students who is thrust into a racial hate crime investigation against an African-American student. As the campus is thrown into an uproar, Daniels is forced to confront her emotions while trying to manage a politically correct administration.
Spinning into Butter, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in 1999, ran as part of Lincoln Center Theater's season at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre from June 29, 2000 to September 16, 2000 with Hope Davis as Daniels. In his Broadway.com Review of the play, Jonathan Mandell wrote: "Gilman does display with some wit several of the ironic twists and convoluted turns in the strange dance that race relations has become. She offers some worthwhile insights… The playwright has made several choices that cloud the clarity of her drama or outright undercut her message. These include a surprise ending that seems to question the existence of any real racism, and a title taken from a story in the racist tale Little Black Sambo. For all the good they're doing, the academics might as well be chasing each other around a tree, like the tigers in the tale that spin themselves into butter."