''Ah, Wilderness!'' is a
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
by American playwright
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...
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 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 outlet of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, which empties into Long Island Sound. The cit ...
. The main plot deals with the middle son of a local newspaper publisher, 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 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 consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...
town."
Title
The title derives from Quatrain XII of
Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the
''Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám'' (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
Crew
*
Theatre Guild Producer
*
Philip Moeller Director
*
Robert Edmond Jones Scenic Designer
Cast
*
George M. Cohan 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 as Sid Davis
* Marjorie Marquis as David's mother, Essie Miller
*
Donald McClelland 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 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'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

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 Ninnian Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last survivi ...
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, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
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 series.
The play was also adapted for radio on ''
The Campbell Playhouse'' in a one-hour version produced by and starring
Orson Welles on September 17, 1939.
Additional one-hour radio adaptations were performed on the ''
Theatre Guild on The Air'' on October 7, 1945,
''
Studio One'' on July 15, 1947,
and the ''
Ford Theater'' on November 2, 1947.
On June 15, 1955, a televised adaptation was shown on ''
Front Row Center'' on CBS.
The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical ''
Take Me Along'' starring
Jackie Gleason as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film),
Walter Pidgeon as Nat and
Robert Morse as Richard. The production ran for 448 performances. Gleason won the 1960
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. A
revival in 1984 had a successful run for six months in
Connecticut
Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...
and
Washington, D.C., 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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
{{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