American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930-1969 (American Theatre : a Chronicle of Comedy and Drama)

481 Pages·1996·49.59 MB·English

by  Gerald Bordman

AMERICAN THEATRE:
A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama,
1930-1969
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AMERICAN
THEATRE:
A Chronicle of
Comedy and Drama,
1930-1969
GERALD BORDMAN
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1996
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bobota Bombay
Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam
Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore
Taipei Tokyo Toronto
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1996 by Gerald M. Bordman
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bordman, Gerald Martin.
American theatre : a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1930-1969
Gerald Bordman.
p. cm. Includes index.
ISBN 0-19-509079-9
1. Theater—United States—History—20th century.
2. American drama—20th century—Stories, plots, etc.
I. Title.
PN2266.B64 1996 792'.0973'0904—dc20 96-17572
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
PREFACE
This is the third volume in our series American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama. The
first volume examined the seasons from 1869-70 through 1913-14, when, for the most part, the
legitimate theatre remained the nation's primary entertainment milieu; the second, the halcyon theatri-
cal years from 1914–15 through 1929-30. Since this volume deals with the seasons from 1930-31
through 1968-69, the three-work set covers what are assuredly the hundred most exciting years of
American playwriting and playgoing.
In the early years surveyed here, "Broadway," that tiny, playhouse-packed enclave in mid-Manhat-
tan, represented virtually all there was of real, enduring interest to theatre lovers. The shrinking road
was confined almost wholly to tryouts and post-Broadway tours. But after World War II, what became
known as "Off Broadway," which had bloomed tentatively in the 1920s, resurged and in a short while
became a major factor. Considerations of space and time have precluded our examining it with the
thoroughness with which we have looked at regular Broadway mountings, but we have tried to include
many of the longer-run off-Broadway hits. Indeed, by the time we reach the end of this volume,
much of the freshest, most interesting writing was coming from there.
It should be noted, too, that the same considerations of space and time have permitted us to look
at only the main Federal Theatre offerings in Manhattan. Mountings by its Children's Theatre, its
peripatetic Suitcase Unit, and some straightforward Harlem revivals have been ignored, as have a
number of productions away from New York.
Once again, a few caveats. Programs were sometimes careless in spelling names, and, sometimes,
people changed the spelling of their names. We have attempted to adopt a uniform spelling through-
out, although a few instances may have slipped by us, and we have made a handful of exceptions.
Some critics wondered aloud why Charlotte Armstrong shortened her name to the harsher Charl. We
have kept her name as they were in the programs. So long as Bus-Fekete's works were presented in
translation his name was spelled one way, but after he apparently began to write directly in English
(was he a refugee?) an "h" was added. We have added it accordingly. When actors have dropped the
"Jr." from their names, we have quietly dropped it, too. Other spellings, punctuation, and capitaliza-
tion in quotations have been brought in line with accepted modern practice by our copy editor.
Special thanks must be extended to the excellent staff at the library of Millersville University,
notably Ray Hacker, Leo Shelley, and Donald Tribit, as well as to John Schenke, who helped there
with photocopying; to Geraldine Duclow and Elaine Ebo at the Theatre Collection of the Free Library
of Philadelphia; to Robert Taylor at Lincoln Center's Library of the Performing Arts; to Ray Wem-
mlinger of the Hampden-Booth Library; to the distinguished theatrical historians Ian Bevan and Kurt
Ganzl; to Jacques Kelly and to Richard Norton. Of course, my heartfelt thanks go to my friends and
colleagues at Oxford University Press: India Cooper, Joellyn Ausanka, Leona Capeless, and to my
incomparable, always understanding editor, Sheldon Meyer.
Kirk's Mills, Pa. Gerald Bordman
June 1996
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Act One, 1930–1944
The Waning of the Golden Age
1930–1931, 3
1931–1932, 29
1932–1933, 57
1933–1934, 81
1934–1935, 100
1935–1936, 119
1936–1937, 138
1937–1938, 155
1938–1939, 169
1939–1940, 181
1940–1941, 193
1941–1942, 204
1942–1943, 214
1943–1944, 224
Act Two, 1944–1959
A Silver Age?
1944–1945, 237
1945–1946, 249
1946–1947, 258
1947–1948, 266
1948–1949, 275
1949–1950, 284
1950–1951, 290
1951–1952, 300
1952–1953, 308
1953–1954, 315
1954–1955, 322
1955–1956, 330
1956–1957, 338
1957–1958, 345
1958–1959, 353
Act Three, 1959-1969
Decline
1959–1960, 363
1960–1961, 370
1961–1962, 376
1962–1963, 382
1963–1964, 389
1964–1965, 397
1965–1966, 402
1966–1967, 410
1967–1968, 417
1968–1969, 426
Index, 435
ACT ONE
1930-1944
THE WANING OF THE
GOLDEN AGE