
The Playwrights Company (1938–1961) was an American theatrical production company.
History
Maxwell Anderson
James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist.
Anderson faced many challenges in his career, frequently losing jobs for expressing his opinions or supporting ...
,
S. N. Behrman
Samuel Nathaniel Behrman (; June 9, 1893 – September 9, 1973) was an American playwright, screenwriter, biographer, and longtime writer for ''The New Yorker''. His son is the composer David Behrman.
Biography
Early years
Behrman's parents, Z ...
,
Sidney Howard
Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for '' Gone with the Wind'' ...
,
Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays '' The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, '' Street Sce ...
,
Robert E. Sherwood and
John F. Wharton established The Playwrights Company in 1938 (incorporated as The Playwrights Producing Company on July 1, 1938) to produce all works of the founding playwrights. Anderson had been frustrated with Broadway producers as well as drama critics, stating the goal of the company would be "to make a center for ourselves within the theatre and possibly rally the theatre as a whole to new levels by setting a high standard of writing and production". The founders had been unhappy with the policies of the
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 ...
which had previously been their main producer. Initial backers included Governor
Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986) was an American politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was a founder of Harriman & Co. which merged with the older Brown Brothers to form the Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. investment ...
, publisher
Dorothy Schiff
Dorothy Schiff (March 11, 1903 – August 30, 1989) was an American businesswoman who was the owner and then publisher of the ''New York Post'' for nearly 40 years. She was a granddaughter of financier Jacob Schiff. Schiff was interested in soc ...
, actor
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor known for his commanding stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He r ...
and CBS President
William Paley
William Paley (July 174325 May 1805) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian apologetics, Christian apologist, philosopher, and Utilitarianism, utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument ...
. Business Manager Victor Samrock, who served, in effect, as the company’s co-producer, was an initial shareholder as was their press representative William Fields. Playwright
Robert Anderson (no relation to Maxwell), producer
Roger L. Stevens and
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (; ; March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for hi ...
joined later. The company was dissolved in 1960 as only two founders were still alive, Behrman (who had already left) and Rice.
The Playwrights' first effort was Sherwood’s ''
Abe Lincoln in Illinois'', about the life of the 16th President. Starring Raymond Massey, it opened on Broadway on October 15, 1938 and was an immediate success, eventually winning Sherwood his second
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
and confirming the promise that The Playwrights Company would become a major force in the American theatre in the coming decades.
Other early successes included ''
Knickerbocker Holiday
''Knickerbocker Holiday'' is a 1938 musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Maxwell Anderson (book and lyrics); based loosely on Washington Irving's '' Knickerbocker's History of New York'' about life in 17th-century New Netherland (old New ...
'', a musical by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill 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 ...
and starring
Walter Huston
Walter Thomas Huston ( ; April 6, 1883 or 1884 – April 7, 1950) was a Canadian actor and singer. Huston won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in '' The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'', directed by his son John Huston. He ...
, who sang the classic ballad "
September Song
"September Song" is an American standard popular song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Maxwell Anderson. It was introduced by Walter Huston in the 1938 Broadway musical production '' Knickerbocker Holiday.'' The song has been recorded by n ...
"; Behrman’s ''
No Time for Comedy
''No Time for Comedy'' is a 1940 American comedy-drama film based on the play of the same name by S. N. Behrman, starring James Stewart, Rosalind Russell, Genevieve Tobin and Charlie Ruggles.
Plot
Gaylord Esterbrook, a reporter from Redfield, Mi ...
'', starring
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell (February 16, 1893 – June 9, 1974) was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.
Dubbed "The First Lady of the Theatre" by cri ...
and
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier ( ; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director. He and his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud made up a trio of male actors who dominated the British stage of the m ...
; Anderson’s drama about honor and conscience, ''
Key Largo
Key Largo () is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by U.S. Highway ...
'', starring
Paul Muni
Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor from Chicago. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater and during the 1930s, he was considered one of ...
and
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen (12 June 1919 – 14 January 2004) was a German-American actress and theatre practitioner. She originated the role of Martha in the 1962 Broadway premiere of '' Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' by Edward Albee, who called her "a ...
; ''
There Shall Be No Night
''There Shall Be No Night'' is a three-act play written by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood.
Production
The play was presented by the Theatre Guild on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre (now renamed the Neil Simon Theater), from April 29 thro ...
'', Sherwood’s third Pulitzer-prize winner about the Russian invasion of Finland, which starred
Alfred Lunt
Alfred David Lunt (August 12, 1892 – August 3, 1977) was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway theatre, Broadway and West End thea ...
and
Lynn Fontanne
Lynn Fontanne (; 6 December 1887 – 30 July 1983) was an English actress. After early success in supporting roles in the West End theatre, West End, she met the American actor Alfred Lunt, whom she married in 1922 and with whom she co-starred i ...
and a young
Montgomery Clift
Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 – July 23, 1966) was an American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men", according to ''The New York Times''.
He is best remembered f ...
; Anderson’s ''
The Eve of St. Mark''; and ''The Patriots'' by
Sidney Kingsley
Sidney Kingsley (October 22, 1906 – March 20, 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' Men in White'' in 1934.
Life and career
Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied a ...
, the first play written by someone outside the company.
In 1945, The Playwrights' Company brought
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the ...
, at the height of his movie career, to Broadway in Sherwood’s ''
The Rugged Path
''The Rugged Path'' is a 1945 play by Robert E. Sherwood.
The initial production marked a return to the stage by Spencer Tracy under the direction of Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer ...
''. Sherwood prevailed upon
President Roosevelt, for whom he was serving as speechwriter and Director of the
War Information Office, to grant a short leave to Army Captain
Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films.
Early life
Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his Jewish family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He at ...
so he could direct. The play suffered in out-of-town tryouts, however, and disappointed critics at its November opening on Broadway. Despite early success because of Tracy’s name, it closed after 81 performances.
In December, 1945, Elmer Rice’s comedy ''Dream Girl'' opened. It starred Rice’s wife
Betty Field
Betty Field (February 8, 1916 – September 13, 1973) was an American film and stage actress.
Early years
Field was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to George and Katharine (née Lynch) Field. She began acting before she reached age 15, and went ...
(later replaced by
June Havoc
June Havoc (born Ellen Evangeline Hovick;Ancestry Library Edition November 8, 1912 – March 28, 2010) was a Canadian-born American actress, dancer, stage director and memoirist.
Havoc was a child vaudeville performer under the tutelage of her ...
) and became another Playwrights' success. A 1946 summer stock version with
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...
, the film star and television's future Lucy, played to huge crowds.
Additional notable Playwrights' productions in the 1940s included ''
Joan of Lorraine
''Joan of Lorraine'' is a 1946 play-within-a-play by Maxwell Anderson.
Plot
It is about a company of actors who stage a dramatization of the story of Joan of Arc, and the effect that the story has on them. As in the musical ''Man of La Mancha'', ...
'', which introduced Broadway audiences to
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cin ...
as Joan of Arc; ''
Street Scene'', a musical by Elmer Rice, Kurt Weill and poet
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. An early innovator of jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harl ...
based on Rice's 1930s play about America's poor; the historical drama ''
Anne of the Thousand Days
''Anne of the Thousand Days'' is a 1969 British historical drama film based on the life of Anne Boleyn, directed by Charles Jarrott and produced by Hal B. Wallis. The screenplay by Bridget Boland and John Hale is an adaptation of the 1948 pl ...
'' starring
Rex Harrison
Sir Reginald Carey Harrison (5 March 1908 – 2 June 1990) was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play '' French W ...
as Henry VIII (directed by
H. C. Potter); the
Rouben Mamoulian
Rouben Zachary Mamoulian (October 8, 1897 – December 4, 1987) was an Armenian-American film and theater director.
Mamoulian's oeuvre includes sixteen films (four of which are Musical film, musicals) and seventeen Broadway theatre, Broadw ...
-directed ''
Lost in the Stars
''Lost in the Stars'' is a musical theatre, musical with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' (1948) by Alan Paton. The musical premiered on Broadway theatre, Broadway in 19 ...
''; Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill’s adaptation of the distinguished South African novel “Cry The Beloved Country” and the first major musical to deal with racism; Sherwood and
Irving Berlin’s ''
Miss Liberty
''Miss Liberty'' is a 1949 Broadway musical with a book by Robert E. Sherwood and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It is based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'') in 1886. The score includes the son ...
'' (
Moss Hart
Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.
Early years
Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...
directed), which was a modest financial success, primarily because Berlin purchased the film rights himself in order to keep unblemished the record that his shows never lost money; and Maxwell Anderson’s drama ''
Truckline Cafe
''Truckline Cafe'' was the title of a 1946 Broadway play written by Maxwell Anderson, directed by Harold Clurman, produced by Elia Kazan, and starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. The short-lived play ran only 10 performances and is best ...
'', co-produced with
Elia Kazan
Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...
and its director
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. , which was a failure except for the career-establishing, standout performance by a new young actor,
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia'' .
By 1950, The Playwrights Company was beginning to see the effects of company changes that had occurred throughout the ‘40s. While Kurt Weill had joined as a member several years earlier, Sidney Howard had died, S.N. Behrman had resigned and Sherwood, while the ostensible leader since Howard’s death, had no original play produced since 1945. Anderson and Rice would be unable to meet with any success in the early ‘50s despite several attempts. In 1951, attempting to breathe new financial life into the company, The Playwrights’ accepted as a new member,
Roger L. Stevens, a successful real estate financier from the Midwest who was interested in the theatre. Stevens forged affiliations with
Robert Whitehead, an eminent producer and
Robert Dowling, a real estate mogul. While the new arrangements would reduce the company’s expenses it would also cut into their profits; but they forged ahead with more productions of non-member dramatists.
“
The Fourposter
''The Fourposter'' is a play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans 35 years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael ...
,”
Jan de Hartog’s two-character comedy about love and marriage starring
Hume Cronyn
Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter and playwright. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and garnered numerous accolades, includ ...
and
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...
, was one such a production; with 632 performances and a subsequent 42 -week national tour, it was to become a big hit after its opening on Broadway in 1951. The show perhaps “saved The Playwrights Company from extinction,” wrote Sherwood in a response to a thank-you letter Hume Cronyn had sent the company after the show’s first anniversary. “But what I most like about your letter,” Sherwood went on, “is your recognition that the company is worth saving. The fact that Maxwell Anderson, Elmer Rice and I -- and we were the three actual founders -- have stuck together for 15 years is not so much a tribute to the three of us as to Victor, Bill and John Wharton.” Also presented by The Playwrights’ in 1951 was “Darkness at Noon,” starring
Kim Hunter
Kim Hunter (born Janet Cole; November 12, 1922 – September 11, 2002) was an American theatre, film, and television actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' ''A Streetcar ...
and
Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British and American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Supp ...
, which won playwright
Sidney Kingsley
Sidney Kingsley (October 22, 1906 – March 20, 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' Men in White'' in 1934.
Life and career
Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied a ...
a
New York Drama Critics Circle Award
The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 23 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization is best known for its annual awards for excellence in theater.Jon ...
.
The hands-down most promising of the outside dramatists was Robert Anderson whose first major play “
Tea and Sympathy” won him membership in the company as soon as the company read it. “Tea and Sympathy” opened in 1953 and became The Playwrights Company’s longest running show (more than 2 1/2 years).
Other ‘50s pivotal Playwrights’ productions were
Sam Taylor’s “Sabrina Fair” starring
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. (May 15, 1905 – February 6, 1994) was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1939) an ...
and
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1933, she caught the attention of film direct ...
(and directed by
H.C. Potter);
Jean Giraudoux’s “
Ondine,” starring
Mel Ferrer
Melchor Gastón FerrerAncestry Library Edition (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer, active in film, theatre, and television. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ...
and
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...
directed by
Alfred Lunt
Alfred David Lunt (August 12, 1892 – August 3, 1977) was an American actor and director, best known for his long stage partnership with his wife, Lynn Fontanne, from the 1920s to 1960, co-starring in Broadway theatre, Broadway and West End thea ...
; Anderson’s “
The Bad Seed” which starred
Nancy Kelly
Nancy Kelly (March 25, 1921 – January 2, 1995) was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's ''The March of Time'', and appeared in several films in the lat ...
and
Patty McCormack
Patricia McCormack (born Patricia Ellen Russo; August 21, 1945) is an American actress with a career in theater, films, and television.
McCormack began her career as a child actress. She is perhaps best known for her performance as Rhoda Penma ...
;
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...
’ Tony and Drama Critics Circle Award-winning “
Cat on A Hot Tin Roof
''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
,” starring
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes (October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005) was an American stage and screen Actor, actress, artist, and children's author whose career spanned almost 5 decades. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in th ...
,
Ben Gazzara
Biagio Anthony "Ben" Gazzara (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012) was an American actor and director of film, stage, and television. He received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award, in addition to nomina ...
and
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American Folk music, folk singer and actor with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his o ...
, directed by Kazan; “Time Remembered” starring
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor.
Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...
,
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes MacArthur (; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win EGOT, the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and ...
and
Susan Strasberg
Susan Elizabeth Strasberg (May 22, 1938 – January 21, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Audrey Hepburn, Hepburn-type Ingénue, ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the ti ...
; “
The Pleasure of His Company” by Sam Taylor and
Cornelia Otis Skinner
Cornelia Otis Skinner (May 30, 1899 – July 9, 1979) was an American writer and actress.
Biography
Skinner was born on 30 May 1899 in Chicago, Illinois as the only child of actor Otis Skinner and actress Maud Durbin. After attending the all-gi ...
starring
Cyril Ritchard
Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard (1 December 1898 – 18 December 1977), known professionally as Cyril Ritchard, was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook i ...
, Miss Skinner and
George Peppard
George Peppard (October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994) was an American actor. He secured a major role as struggling writer Paul Varjak when he starred alongside Audrey Hepburn in '' Breakfast at Tiffany's'' (1961), and later portrayed a character ...
; and
Peter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016) was an English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is best known for the plays '' Equus'' and '' Amadeus'', the latter of which was adapted for the screen by Miloš Forman, with an ...
’s “
Five Finger Exercise
' is a 1962 American drama film directed by Daniel Mann and produced by Frederick Brisson from a screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett based on the play by Peter Shaffer. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures.
The film st ...
,” starring
Jessica Tandy
Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...
and
Juliet Mills
Juliet Maryon Mills (born 21 November 1941) is a British-American actress.
Mills began her career as a child actress and was nominated at age 18 for a Tony Award for her stage performance in ''Five Finger Exercise'' in 1960. She progressed to ...
.
The Company’s last play was
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...
’s contemporary political drama “
The Best Man,” starring
Melvyn Douglas
Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in 1929 as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy '' Ninotchka'' ( ...
,
Lee Tracy
William Lee Tracy (April 14, 1898 – October 18, 1968) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He is known foremost for his portrayals between the late 1920s and 1940s of fast-talking, wisecracking news reporters, press agents, law ...
and
Frank Lovejoy
Frank Andrew Lovejoy Jr. (March 28, 1912 – October 2, 1962) was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He is perhaps best remembered for appearing in the film noir ''The Hitch-Hiker'' and for starring in the radio drama ''Night Beat ...
, which opened in March, 1960. Tracking a modern presidential election campaign not unlike the real-life one of that year, the play ran 520 performances. During its early run, candidate
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...
attended a performance and paid the cast a visit backstage.
Award
After Howard's death, the four surviving members of the group created the
Sidney Howard Memorial Award in his memory. The $1,500 award was created as a way to encourage new playwrights; to be eligible, one had to have at least one play produced on Broadway in a given season after having little previous success.
[ ]
Notable productions
* ''
Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1938)
* ''
Knickerbocker Holiday
''Knickerbocker Holiday'' is a 1938 musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Maxwell Anderson (book and lyrics); based loosely on Washington Irving's '' Knickerbocker's History of New York'' about life in 17th-century New Netherland (old New ...
'' (1938)
* ''American Landscape'' (1938)
* ''No Time for Comedy'' (1939)
* ''
Key Largo
Key Largo () is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by U.S. Highway ...
'' (1939)
* ''Two On An Island'' (1940)
* ''
There Shall Be No Night
''There Shall Be No Night'' is a three-act play written by American playwright Robert E. Sherwood.
Production
The play was presented by the Theatre Guild on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre (now renamed the Neil Simon Theater), from April 29 thro ...
'' (1940)
* ''
Journey to Jerusalem Journey to Jerusalem may refer to:
* Journey to Jerusalem (play), a 1940 play by Maxwell Anderson
* Journey to Jerusalem (film), a 2003 Bulgarian drama film
* Journey to Jerusalem (album), a 1995 album by Ensemble Renaissance
{{dab ...
'' (1940)
* ''Flight to the West'' (1940)
* ''The Talley Method'' (1941)
* ''
Candle in the Wind
"Candle in the Wind" is a threnody-style ballad written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, and performed by John. It was originally written in 1973, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, who had died 11 years earlier.
In 199 ...
'' (1941)
* ''
The Eve of St. Mark'' (1942)
* ''The Pirate'' (1942)
* ''
The Patriots'' (1943)
* ''A New Life'' (1943)
* ''Storm Operation'' (1944)
* ''The Rugged Path'' (1945)
* ''
Dream Girl'' (1945)
* ''
Truckline Cafe
''Truckline Cafe'' was the title of a 1946 Broadway play written by Maxwell Anderson, directed by Harold Clurman, produced by Elia Kazan, and starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. The short-lived play ran only 10 performances and is best ...
'' (1946)
* ''
Joan of Lorraine
''Joan of Lorraine'' is a 1946 play-within-a-play by Maxwell Anderson.
Plot
It is about a company of actors who stage a dramatization of the story of Joan of Arc, and the effect that the story has on them. As in the musical ''Man of La Mancha'', ...
'' (1946)
* ''Street Scene'' (1947)
* ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1948)
* ''The Smile of the World'' (1949)
* ''
Lost in the Stars
''Lost in the Stars'' is a musical theatre, musical with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and music by Kurt Weill, based on the novel ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' (1948) by Alan Paton. The musical premiered on Broadway theatre, Broadway in 19 ...
'' (1949)
* ''Darkness at Noon'' (1951)
* ''
Not for Children
''Not for Children'' is a 1934 play by Elmer Rice. It was premiered in 1935 at the Fortune Theatre in the West End of London. The work was performed for the first time on Broadway on February 13, 1951 at the Coronet Theatre; closing four days ...
'' (1951)
* ''
The Fourposter
''The Fourposter'' is a play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans 35 years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael ...
'' (1951)
* ''Barefoot in Athens'' (1951)
* ''The Grand Tour'' (1951)
* ''Mr. Pickwick'' (1952)
* ''The Emperor's Clothes'' (1953)
* ''
Tea and Sympathy'' (1953)
* ''
Sabrina Fair
''Sabrina Fair'' (subtitled ''A Woman of the World'') is a romantic comedy written by Samuel A. Taylor and produced by the Playwrights' Company. It ran on Broadway for a total of 318 performances, opening at the National Theatre on November 11 ...
''(1953)
* ''In the Summer House'' (1953)
* ''The Winner'' (1954)
* ''Ondine'' (1954)
* ''All Summer Long'' (1954)
* ''The Traveling Lady'' (1954)
* ''
The Bad Seed'' (1954)
* ''
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' is a 1955 American three-act play by Tennessee Williams. The play, an adaptation of his 1952 short story "Three Players of a Summer Game", was written between 1953 and 1955. One of Williams's more famous works and his ...
'' (1955)
* ''Once Upon A Tailor'' (1955)
* ''The Trojan War Will Not Take Place'' (1955)
* ''Tiger at the Gates'' (1955)
* ''The Ponder Heart'' (1956)
* ''The Lovers'' (1956)
* ''Small War on Murray Hill'' (1957)
* ''Time Remembered'' (1957)
* ''Nude With Violin'' (1957)
* ''The Rope Dancers'' (1957)
* ''The Country Wife'' (1957)
* ''Summer of the 17th Doll'' (1958)
* ''Present Laughter'' (1958)
* ''Howie'' (1958)
* ''
Handful of Fire
''Handful of Fire'' is a 1958 play in two acts by American playwright N. Richard Nash. The play opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre
The Al Hirschfeld Theatre, originally the Martin Beck Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 302 W ...
'' (1958)
* ''The Pleasure of His Company'' (1958)
* ''Edwin Booth'' (1958)
* ''Cue for Passion'' (1958)
* ''The Gazebo'' (1958)
* ''
Look After Lulu!
''Look After Lulu!'' is a farce by Noël Coward, based on '' Occupe-toi d'Amélie!'' by Georges Feydeau. It is set in Paris in 1908. The central character is an attractive cocotte, Lulu, whose lover is called away on military service; the plot ...
'' (1959)
* ''Juno'' (1959)
* ''Cherie'' (1959)
* ''
Flowering Cherry
''The Flowering Cherry'' is a 1958 play written by Robert Bolt.
The play was performed on Broadway in 1959.
Plot
In an English household, the father dreams of giving up his job selling insurance to run an apple orchard, the mother dreams of him ...
'' (1959)
* ''Five Finger Exercise'' (1959)
* ''Silent Night, Lonely Night'' (1959)
* ''
The Best Man'' (1960)
References
External links
*
Playwrights' Company records, 1938-1960 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...
Playwrights' Company records, 1938-1961at the
Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, th ...
Victor Samrock papers, 1929-1986 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Playwrights' Company
Broadway theatre
Defunct theatre companies in New York City