''The Werewolf'' is a three-act comedy play adapted by

Gladys Unger Gladys Buchanan Unger (September 16, 1884 or 1885 – May 25, 1940) was an American author who also lived in England, and who wrote plays for Broadway and the West End, as well as screenplays for Hollywood. She was the author of well over a dozen ...

from ''Der Werwolf'', a German-language play written by

Rudolf Lothar Rudolf Lothar ú:dolf ló:tar(born Rudolf Lothar Spitzer; 25 February 1865 – 2 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born Austrian writer, playwright, critic and essayist. He was born and died in Budapest. Literary works * 1891 ''Der verschleier ...

. Producer George B. McLellan staged it on Broadway in 1924. In the story, a Spanish noblewoman investigates a spirit that she believes is haunting her castle.

History

The Hungarian-born Austrian writer

Rudolph Lothar Rudolf Lothar ú:dolf ló:tar(born Rudolf Lothar Spitzer; 25 February 1865 – 2 October 1943) was a Hungarian-born Austrian writer, playwright, critic and essayist. He was born and died in Budapest. Literary works * 1891 ''Der verschleierte ...

wrote the comedy play ''Der Werwolf'' in German in 1921, under the pseudonym "Angelo Cana". While visiting Europe in early 1924, theater owner and producer Jacob J. Shubert secured the rights to adapt the play to English, and hired

to write the adaptation.

Previews Preview may refer to: Theatre, film, television * Preview (subscription service), an early subscription television service in the United States * Preview (theatre), a public performance of a theatrical show before the official opening * Preview s ...

for the adaptation opened first in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

, on May 27, 1924. They then moved to the Teck Theatre in

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, on May 29. The final round of previews was a five-week run at the Adelphi Theatre in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, starting on June 1. The Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi, who had moved to the United States a few years before, was cast for the role of the butler during the previews. While the production was in Chicago, he was replaced by

Vincent Serrano Vincent Serrano (February 17, 1866 – January 11, 1935) was an American actor in plays and silent films. Biography Serrano's best-known role was as Lieutenant Denton in the Augustus Thomas play ''Arizona'', which had its New York opening in Se ...

, who continued in the role on Broadway. The Broadway opening was at the Shubert Organization's

49th Street Theatre The 49th Street Theatre (later renamed Cinema 49) was a Broadway theater at 235 West 49th Street in the Theater District of Manhattan in New York City. The 750-seat neo-Renaissance style theater was designed by the architect Herbert J. Krapp f ...

on August 25, 1924. The production ran there for three months with 112 performances. Unger's adaptation was not published.

Plot

The Duchess of Capablanca thinks her castle is haunted by the spirit of the famous

libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

Don Juan. Psychic investigator Eliphas Leone believes this spirit has possessed Paolo Moreira, a young, straight-laced professor at a nearby school, and uses Moreira's astral body to seduce women among the castle's household servants. Rumors about this motivate several young women to approach Moreira in the hope of being seduced. However, when the Duchess attempts to prove the possession by a rendezvous with Moreira, she finds that he is no libertine; instead she discovers that the culprit seducing the servants is her butler, Vincente.

Cast and characters

The characters and opening night cast from the Broadway production are given below:

Title

The "werewolf" of the title is not a

lycanthrope In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

who transforms between man and wolf. The term is used to refer to a dangerous man engaged in seduction of women. It is a parallel to the use of the term "vampire" to refer to a dangerous woman who seduces men, which was a common trope in plays and movies of the era.

Reception

The Broadway production received mixed reviews. The reviewer for ''

The American Hebrew ''The American Hebrew'' was a weekly Jewish magazine published in New York City. History It began publication on November 21, 1879, in New York City. It was founded by Frederick de Sola Mendes and its publisher was Philip Cowen. The weekly's ...

'' praised the cast, but said the humor was "threadbare" and the solution to the central mystery of the plot was obvious. Writing for '' The Bookman'', Stephen Vincent Benét said the adaptation was one of many European plays that failed to work in translation. ''

Theatre Arts Monthly ''Theatre Arts Magazine'', sometimes titled ''Theatre Arts'' or ''Theatre Arts Monthly'', was a magazine published from November 1916 to January 1964. It was established by author and critic Sheldon Warren Cheney. History Cheney established the ...

'' said Unger made "amusing and satirical" use of

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

as a plot device, but the result was mostly sexual innuendos without any other significance. In '' Variety'',

Robert Sisk Robert Sisk (March 20, 1903 – February 25, 1964) was an American film producer. Sources differ as to his birthplace, with some indicating Maryland and others specifying the unincorporated village of Pokeshaw in the Canadian province of New Bru ...

condemned the innuendos more vigorously, calling the play "an exhibition of slimy, putrid filth" that wasted the talents of an excellent cast. Burns Mantle also complimented the cast but said the play overall was "labored, coarse and frequently dull".

George Jean Nathan George Jean Nathan (February 14, 1882 – April 8, 1958) was an American drama critic and magazine editor. He worked closely with H. L. Mencken, bringing the literary magazine ''The Smart Set'' to prominence as an editor, and co-founding and ...

thought that the adaptation was well handled and that negative reviewers were mostly offended by the play's sexual humor.

Heywood Broun Heywood Campbell Broun Jr. (; December 7, 1888 – December 18, 1939) was an American journalist. He worked as a sportswriter, newspaper columnist, and editor in New York City. He founded the American Newspaper Guild, later known as The Newspaper ...

thought audiences showed remarkably little offense at the play's "frivolous immorality", which he took as a positive development compared to earlier attitudes about sexual humor in plays.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Werewolf Play 1924 plays Broadway plays Comedy plays Plays based on other plays Plays set in Spain Fiction about spirit possession