''Ah, Wilderness!'' is a comedy by American playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...
that premiered on Broadway at the
Guild Theatre on October 2, 1933. It differs from a typical O'Neill play in its happy ending for the central character, and depiction of a happy family in turn of the century America. It is O'Neill's only well-known comedy.
The play was successful in its first Broadway production and the touring production that followed. It has since become a staple of community repertory.
Theme
The play takes place on the
Fourth of July
Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
1906 and focuses on the Miller family, presumably of
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...
. The main plot deals with the middle son, 16-year-old Richard, and his
coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
in
turn-of-the-century
Turn of the century, in its broadest sense, refers to the transition from one century to another. The term is most often used to indicate a distinctive time period either before or after the beginning of a century or both before and after.
Ac ...
America. "Perhaps the most atypical of the author's works, the play presents a sentimental tale of youthful indiscretion in a turn-of-the-century
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
town."
Title
The title derives from Quatrain XII of
Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (') attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".
Altho ...
(5th edition, 1889), one of Richard's favorite poems:
:A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
:A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
:Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
:Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
Opening night credits
Theatre Guild
The Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1918 by Lawrence Langner, Philip Moeller, Helen Westley and Theresa Helburn. Langner's wife, Armina Marshall, then served as a co-director. It evolved out of the work of the W ...
Producer
Philip Moeller
Philip Moeller (26 August 1880 – 26 April 1958) was an American stage producer and director, playwright and screenwriter, born in New York where he helped found the short-lived Washington Square Players and then with Lawrence Langner and Hel ...
Director
Robert Edmond Jones
Robert Edmond Jones (December 12, 1887 – November 26, 1954) was an American scenic, lighting, and costume designer.
He is credited with incorporating the new stagecraft into the American drama. His designs sought to integrate scenic ele ...
Scenic Designer
CAST
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan (July 3, 1878November 5, 1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and theatrical producer.
Cohan began his career as a child, performing with his parents and sister in a vaudev ...
as Nat Miller
Adelaide Bean as Mildred Miller
John Butler as Salesman
Ruth Chorpenning as Norah
Elisha Cook, Jr. as the son, Richard Miller
Ruth Gilbert as Muriel McComber
Eda Heinemann as Lily Miller
Ruth Holden as Belle
Gene Lockhart
Edwin Eugene Lockhart (July 18, 1891 – March 31, 1957)["Gene Lockhart"](_blank)
''The ...
as Sid Davis
Marjorie Marquis as David's mother, Essie Miller
Donald McClelland
Donald McClelland (September 29, 1903 – November 15, 1955), who was also known as Donald C. McClelland in certain stage performances, was an American actor, stage performer and a former child actor.
Career
Stage
McClelland began his career ...
as Bartender
William Post, Jr. as Arthur Miller
Richard Sterling as David McComber
Walter Vonnegut, Jr. as Tommy Miller
John Wynne as Wint Selby
When the play first toured,
Will Rogers
William Penn Adair Rogers (November 4, 1879 – August 15, 1935) was an American vaudeville performer, actor, and humorous social commentator. He was born as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, in the Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ...
took the role of the warmhearted Nat, perhaps contributing to the critical and audience success of the play, a staple of community repertory since the original production.
Reception
The play was included in
Burns Mantle
Robert Burns Mantle (December 23, 1873February 9, 1948) was an American theater critic. He founded the ''Best Plays'' annual publication in 1920.Chansky, Dorothy (2011)"Burns Mantle and the American Theatregoing Public" in ''Theatre History Stu ...
's ''The Best Plays of 1933–1934'' with George M. Cohan in the cast and again as a revival in 1941–42.
In a review of a 1998 production of the play at The Huntington Theatre in Boston, the reviewer noted O'Neill, who "penned
tin a single month in 1932, the Harvard educated playwright takes a well deserved vacation from this cold and unrelenting world, and gives us a surprisingly warm portrayal of middle-class family life in "large small-town America."" He further remarked about the play "The character Richard Miller was clearly modeled on O'Neill's image of himself as an aspiring poet, but unlike O'Neill, Richard's rebellion is quelled and his craving for romantic endeavors extinguished by a loving family who cares and wishes him the best."
Adaptations
![Campbell-Playhouse-Ah-Wilderness](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Campbell-Playhouse-Ah-Wilderness.jpg)
The play was made into a
1935 film of the same title and again in 1948 as the musical ''
Summer Holiday''.
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
starred as Tommy in the former and Richard in the latter. The success of the first film led
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
to reunite much of the cast in another film based on a small town coming of age play, ''
A Family Affair'', which became the basis for the
Andy Hardy
Andrew "Andy" Hardy is a fictional character best known for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of 16 films in which he was played by Mickey Rooney. The films were released from 1937 to 1946, except for a final one made in 1958 in an unsuccessful att ...
series.
The play was also adapted for the radio on ''
The Campbell Playhouse'' produced by and starring Orson Welles on September 17, 1939.
It was also adapted for ''
Theatre Guild On The Air
''The United States Steel Hour'' is an anthology series which brought hour long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the U.S. Steel, United States Steel Corpor ...
'' on October 7, 1945, ''
The Ford Theatre'' on November 2, 1947, and ''
Studio One'' on July 15, 1948.
The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical ''
Take Me Along
''Take Me Along'' is a 1959 musical based on the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play '' Ah, Wilderness'', with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and book by Joseph Stein and Robert Russell.Mandelbaum, Ke"Ken Mandelbaum's Musicals On Disc: Remembering Bob Me ...
'' starring
Jackie Gleason
John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916June 24, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was know ...
as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film),
Walter Pidgeon
Walter Davis Pidgeon (September 23, 1897 – September 25, 1984) was a Canadian-American actor. He earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in ''Mrs. Miniver'' (1942) and ''Madame Curie'' (1943). Pidgeon also starred in ...
as Nat and
Robert Morse
Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor, who starred in ''How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', both the 1961 original Broadway production, for which he won a Tony Award, and its 1967 film adaptati ...
as Richard. The production ran for 448 performances. Gleason won the 1960
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical is awarded to the actor who was voted as the best actor in a musical play, whether a new production or a revival. The award has been given since 1948, but the nominees who did no ...
. A
revival in 1984 had a successful run for six months in
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
but closed on Broadway after only a short debut and a week of previews.
References
Further reading
*
External links
''Ah, Wilderness!'' production archive at eONeill.com
*
*
*
*
of a production of ''Ah, Wilderness!''
1954 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation of original playat
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{Eugene O'Neill
1933 plays
American plays adapted into films
Broadway plays
Comedy plays
Fiction set in 1906
Independence Day (United States) plays
Plays by Eugene O'Neill
Plays set in the 1900s