''Room Service'' is a farce written by

Allen Boretz Allen Boretz (1900–1985), was an American songwriter, playwright and screenwriter. The great success of his and John Murray's Broadway hit ''Room Service'' (1937) led to offers from Hollywood, and he wrote and co-wrote screenplays from the la ...

and John Murray. It was originally produced by

George Abbott George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. Early years Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...

and debuted at the

Cort Theatre The James Earl Jones Theatre, originally the Cort Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 138 West 48th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. It was built in ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on May 19, 1937. Its initial production ran for 500 performances, closing on July 16, 1938."Room Service" (1937)
at the Internet Broadway Database The play, starring Jack Lemmon in the role of Leo Davis was revived on Broadway for a short run of 16 performances in 1953. RKO Pictures purchased the film rights for a then-record $225,000 and used it as the basis for the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

film of the same title. In 1944 RKO released a further film adaptation, a musical entitled '' Step Lively'' starring Frank Sinatra. The 1937 original Broadway production starred

Sam Levene Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and dr ...

as Gordon Miller,

Eddie Albert Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and activist. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in ''Roman Holiday'', ...

as Leo Davis and Phillip Loeb as Harry Binion."Room Service" (1953)
at the Internet Broadway Database

Original 1937–38 Broadway cast

*Reprised the role in the film adaptation.

In popular culture

*The basic plot of ''Room Service'' was used for the "Monkees, Manhattan Style" episode of ''

The Monkees The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...

'' (season 1, episode 30, first broadcast April 10, 1967, also known as "Monkees in Manhattan").Staff (ndg
"Monkees, Manhattan Style: Connections"
''

IMDb.com IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

References

External links

''Room Service'' at the Internet Broadway Database
1937 plays Broadway plays American plays adapted into films Plays set in New York City Works set in hotels {{1930s-play-stub