Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
Arsenic and Old Lace | |
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Dark comedy | |
Setting | The living room of the Brewster home in Brooklyn. The Present. |
Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the 1944 film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra.
The play was produced by
Of the 12 plays written by Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace was by far the most successful. According to the opening night review in The New York Times, the play was "so funny that none of us will ever forget it."[4]
Plot
The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from Mayflower settlers but now composed of maniacs, most of them homicidal. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, murderous family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves, Elaine Harper, who lives next door and is the daughter of the local minister.
His family includes two spinster aunts, Abby and Martha Brewster, who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made
Throughout the play, Jonathan is plotting to kill his brother, in fact almost does in one scene. Mortimer is struggling to find solutions to rid his family of the crazy, eventually sending Teddy and his Aunts to a senior living home and letting Officer O'Hara deal with his brother.
The film adaptation follows the same basic plot, with a few minor changes.
The character Mortimer Brewster says of his family’s history that it is as if "...Strindberg wrote Hellzapoppin."
Cast
The opening night
- Jean Adair as Martha Brewster
- John Alexander as Teddy Brewster
- Wyrley Birch as The Rev. Dr. Harper
- Helen Brooks as Elaine Harper
- Bruce Gordon as Officer Klein
- Henry Herbert as Mr. Gibbs
- Josephine Hull as Abby Brewster
- Allyn Joslyn as Mortimer Brewster
- Boris Karloff as Jonathan Brewster
- William Parke as Mr. Witherspoon
- John Quigg as Officer Brophy
- Anthony Ross as Officer O'Hara
- Edgar Stehli as Dr. Einstein
- Victor Sutherland as Lieutenant Rooney
Inspiration
When Kesselring taught at
The "murderous old lady" plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising "lifetime care," and poisoned them for their pensions. M. William Phelps book The Devil's Rooming House (2010) tells the story of the police officers and reporters from the Hartford Courant who solved the case.[6] Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy drama, but it is widely believed that producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (who were also well known as play doctors) convinced Kesselring that it would be much more effective as a comedy. According to The Encyclopedia of American Humorists, Lindsay and Crouse gave the play its title by adapting the title of a Frank Sullivan humor collection called Broccoli and Old Lace.[7]
National tours
In parallel with the main Broadway run (January 10, 1941–June 17, 1944), a series of national roadshows took place, the first one in 1941–1942 which travelled to 57 cities in about 18 months,[8]: 134 opening in Chicago on April 1, 1941.[9]: 185 The cast comprised Laura Hope Crews as Abby Brewster, Effie Shannon as Martha Brewster, Angie Adams as Elaine Harper, Erich von Stroheim as Jonathan Brewster, Jack Whiting as Mortimer Brewster, and Forrest Orr as Teddy Brewster.[10] In December 1941, von Stroheim returned to New York to take over the role of Jonathan Brewster from Karloff on Broadway.[11]: 273
A second national tour started on August 5–18, 1943 in San Francisco, then continued in Los Angeles from August 20 until October 24. The cast included Minna Phillips as Abby Brewster, Ida Moore as Martha Brewster, Louise Arthur as Elaine Harper, Bela Lugosi as Jonathan Brewster, Michael Whalen as Mortimer Brewster, and Herbert Corthell as Teddy Brewster. [12]: 178–179
A third national tour took place on January 29, 1944 for a run of 80 performances throughout the Midwest and East Coast that lasted until June 3, 1944. The cast included Jean Adair as Abby Brewster, Ruth McDevitt as Martha Brewster, Ann Lincoln as Elaine Harper, Bela Lugosi as Jonathan Brewster, Jack Whiting as Mortimer Brewster, and Malcolm Beggs as Teddy Brewster.[12]: 179–180
Lugosi carried on playing the role of Jonathan Brewster, in
TV adaptations
On January 5, 1955, a 60-minute version of the play aired on the
Karloff played Jonathan once more (and for the last time) on the February 5, 1962 broadcast of NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame. Dorothy Stickney and Mildred Natwick played Abby and Martha. Joseph Kesselring had sent his original play, then titled Bodies in Our Cellar, to Stickney when she was starring opposite her husband Howard Lindsay on Broadway in Life with Father (opened in 1939), with a view to her playing Abby Brewster. It would be 23 years before she would finally play the part. Tony Randall played Mortimer in the Hallmark production and Tom Bosley played Teddy.
In 1969, Robert Scheerer directed a TV version with Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish as the elderly aunts, Bob Crane as Mortimer, Fred Gwynne as Jonathan, Sue Lyon as Elaine Harper and David Wayne as Teddy.[16]
Revivals
The play was produced by the Edinburgh Gateway Company in 1959.[17] In 1966, Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler, Julia Lockwood and Richard Briers appeared in the play in London.[18] The play is still widely performed and has been translated into many languages.
A Broadway revival of the play ran from June 26, 1986, to January 3, 1987, at the
A London revival of the play ran at the Strand Theatre (now the Novello Theatre) from February to June 2003, starring Thelma Barlow, Marcia Warren, Michael Richards and Stephen Tompkinson.[21]
References
- ^ Arsenic and Old Lace at the Internet Broadway Database
- ^ "Production of Arsenic and Old Lace | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
- ^ 'Chit Chat', The Stage, 14 February 1946, p.4.
- ^ "Arsenic and Old Lace", Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times, 11 January 1941.
- ^ Erich von Stroheim at the Internet Broadway Database
- ^ Leavenworth, Jessica (21 March 2010). "'Devil's Rooming House' Examines 'Arsenic And Old Lace' Killings (Interview)". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
- ISBN 9781315668826.
- ^ Noble, Peter (1950). Hollywood Scapegoat: The Biography of Erich von Stroheim (hardcover) (1st ed.). London: The Fortune Press.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-4955-2.
- Hartford, CT: Bushnell Memorial Hall. September 18, 1941. p. 1. Archived from the original on March 17, 2022.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ Curtiss, Thomas Quinn (1970). Erich von Stroheim (softcover) (in French) (1st ed.). Paris: Editions France-Empire.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7864-2765-9– via books.google.co.uk.
- ISBN 978-0-977379-81-1.
- ISBN 978-1-59393-285-5.
- ISBN 978-1-59393-805-5.
- IMDb
- ^ Edinburgh Gateway Company (1965). The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965 (hardcover) (1st. ed.). Edinburgh: St. Giles Press. p. 50.
- ^ "Production of Arsenic and Old Lace | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
- ^ "Arsenic and Old Lace Tour". Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). The Broadway League. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
- ^ Webb, Steve (May 8, 1987). "an all-star 'arsenic and old lace' Actor Frid takes on demon typecasting". Scottsdale Progress - Weekend. No. Page 8 Theater.
- ^ "West End's Arsenic and Old Lace Extends Run". playbill.com. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
Further reading
- Gunter, Matthew C. (2012). The Capra Touch: A Study of the Director's Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934–1945. McFarland. pp. 49–51. ISBN 978-0-7864-8828-5.
- ISBN 978-1-4930-6785-5.
External links
Media related to Arsenic and Old Lace (play) at Wikimedia Commons
- Plot summary for Arsenic and Old Lace (1944 film), IMDb
- 1952 Best Plays radio adaptation at Internet Archive