''Morning's at Seven'' is a play by Paul Osborn. Its plot focuses on four aging sisters living in a small

Midwestern The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

town in 1928, and it deals with ramifications within the family when two of them begin to question their lives and decide to make some changes before it’s too late. The original Broadway production, directed by

Joshua Logan Joshua Lockwood Logan III (October 5, 1908 – July 12, 1988) was an American theatre and film director, playwright and screenwriter, and actor. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for co-writing the musical '' South Pacific'' and was involved in writing ...

, opened on November 30, 1939, at the

Longacre Theatre The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theater at 220 West 48th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Opened in 1913, it was designed by Henry B. Herts and is named for Longacre Square, the former ...

, where it ran for 44 performances. Director Logan chose to set it in 1938, which at the end of the Depression and the beginning of World War II seemed to make it less palatable to the audiences of that time. The cast included Dorothy Gish, Jean Adair, Enid Markey, and Kate McComb. Forty years later, a Broadway revival opened on April 10, 1980, after sixteen previews at the Lyceum Theatre. It was directed by Vivian Matalon and the cast included Nancy Marchand,

Maureen O'Sullivan Maureen Paula O'Sullivan (May 17, 1911 – June 23, 1998) was an Irish actress who played Jane in the ''Tarzan'' series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She starred in dozens of feature films across a span of more than half a ...

, Elizabeth Wilson,

Teresa Wright Muriel Teresa Wright (October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005) was an American actress. She won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Carol Beldon in ''Mrs. Miniver''. She was nominated for the same award in 1941 for her ...

, Lois de Banzie, and David Rounds. This production, set back to its original 1920s period, was a great success, running for 564 performances and receiving numerous

Tony Awards The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cere ...

and Drama Desk Awards. After 27 previews, the second Broadway revival, directed by Daniel Sullivan, opened on April 21, 2002, once again at the Lyceum, where it ran for 112 performances. The cast included

Elizabeth Franz Elizabeth Franz (born Betty Frankovitch; 1941) is an American stage and television actress. Early years Franz was born Betty Frankovitch in Akron, Ohio. Her Serbo-Croatian father, Joe Frankovitch, worked at an Akron, tire factory. Her half ...

Frances Sternhagen Frances Hussey Sternhagen (January 13, 1930 – November 27, 2023) was an American actress. She was known as a character actress who appeared on- and off-Broadway, in movies, and on television for over six decades.Joy, Car"Frances Sternhagen i ...

Estelle Parsons Estelle Parsons (born November 20, 1927) is an American actress. After studying law, Parsons became a singer before deciding to pursue a career in acting. She worked for the television program '' Today'' and made her stage debut in 1961. Durin ...

Piper Laurie Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs; January 22, 1932 – October 14, 2023) was an American actress. She is known for her roles in the films '' The Hustler'' (1961), '' Carrie'' (1976), and '' Children of a Lesser God'' (1986), and the miniseries ...

Julie Hagerty Julie Beth Hagerty (born June 15, 1955) is an American actress. She starred as Elaine Dickinson in the films ''Airplane!'' (1980) and '' Airplane II: The Sequel'' (1982). Her other film roles include ''A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy'' (1982), '' ...

Buck Henry Buck Henry (born Henry Zuckerman; December 9, 1930 – January 8, 2020) was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's ''The Graduate'' (1967) for which he re ...

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''B ...

, William "Biff" McGuire, and Stephen Tobolowsky. It was a popular and critical success and received numerous

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

and

Drama Desk Award The Drama Desk Awards are among the most esteemed honors in New York theater, recognizing outstanding achievements across Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway productions within the same categories. The awards are considered a signific ...

nominations. Over the decades since it was written, the play has proven to be a popular choice for

regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

, and summer stock theatre productions; but it has never been made into a theatrical motion picture.

Television productions

The play has been performed on live television on several occasions. It was adapted b
Robert Wallstens
and performed on television as part of '' The Alcoa Hour'' 1956/57 season. Air date was 4 November 1956. The cast included

Lillian Gish Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "F ...

in the role of Esther Crampton and her sister Dorothy Gish in the role of Arry Gibbs.

June Lockhart June Lockhart (born June 25, 1925) is an American retired actress, beginning a film career in the 1930s and 1940s in such films as A Christmas Carol (1938 film), ''A Christmas Carol'' and ''Meet Me in St. Louis''. She appeared primarily in 1950 ...

Dorothy Stickney Dorothy Stickney (June 21, 1896 – June 2, 1998) was an American film, stage, and television actress, best known for appearing in the long-running Broadway hit '' Life with Father''. Early years Stickney was born in Dickinson, North Dakota, b ...

, Evelyn Varden, and David Wayne were also in the cast. In 1982 Vivian Matalon directed a television broadcast of the 1980 Broadway revival with

, Elizabeth Wilson,

, and Kate Reid replacing Nancy Marchand. The revival was first telecast on Showtime and later on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435700/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Awards and nominations

1980 Broadway revival

2002 Broadway revival

References

External links

1939 production credits1980 production credits2002 production creditsInternet Movie Database listing

Ben Brantley Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher, and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 t ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''
1945 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morning's At Seven 1939 plays American plays Broadway plays Tony Award–winning plays Fiction set in 1938 Midwestern United States in fiction Plays set in the United States