''There's Always Juliet'' is a 1931

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endi ...

by the British writer

John Van Druten John William Van Druten (1 June 190119 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director. He began his career in London, and later moved to America, becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations ...

about an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

who falls in love with an Englishwoman. It ran for 118 performances at the

Apollo Theatre The Apollo Theatre is a listed building, Grade II listed West End theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, in central London.

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

West End with a cast of

Herbert Marshall Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen, and radio actor who starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the Un ...

Edna Best Edna Clara Best (3 March 1900 – 18 September 1974) was a British actress. Early life Born in Hove, Sussex, England, she was educated in Brighton and later studied dramatic acting under Miss Kate Rorke who was the first professor of Drama at ...

May Whitty Dame Mary Louise Webster, (née Whitty; 19 June 1865 – 29 May 1948), known professionally as May Whitty and later, for her charity work, Dame May Whitty, was an English stage and film actress. She was one of the first two women entertainers t ...

and

Cyril Raymond Cyril William North Raymond Order of the British Empire, MBE (13 February 1899 – 20 March 1973) was a British character actor. He maintained a stage and screen career from his teens until his retirement, caused by ill health, in the 1960s. Hi ...

. It then transferred to

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

's Empire Theatre with the same cast members. After a fairly lengthy run, however, producer

Gilbert Miller } Gilbert Heron Miller (July 3, 1884 – January 3, 1969) was an American theatrical producer. Born in New York City, he was the son of English-born theatrical producer Henry Miller and Bijou Heron, a former child actress. Raised and educated i ...

was paid by a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

studios to free Marshall for film work. He was eventually replaced by Roger Pryor, but the revived version was less successful. It was adapted for Australian radio in 1940 starring

Peter Finch Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Born in London, he emigrated to Australia at the age of ten and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudevi ...

. In 1941, the play was updated into a loosely adapted film '' One Night in Lisbon'' starring

Fred MacMurray Frederick Martin MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor. He appeared in more than one hundred films and a successful television series in a career that spanned nearly a half-century. His career as a major film le ...

Madeleine Carroll Marie-Madeleine Bernadette O'Carroll (26 February 1906 – 2 October 1987) was an English actress, popular both in Britain and in America in the 1930s and 1940s. At the peak of her success in 1938, she was the world's highest-paid actress. Ca ...

and

Patricia Morison Eileen Patricia Augusta Fraser Morison (March 19, 1915 – May 20, 2018) was an American stage, television and film actress of the Golden Age of Hollywood and mezzo-soprano singer. She made her feature film debut in 1939 after several years on t ...

.Goble p. 472 May Whitty reprised her role from the original play.

References

Bibliography

* Bordman, Gerald. ''American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930-1969''. Oxford University Press, 1996. * Goble, Alan. ''The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film''. Walter de Gruyter, 1999. * Wearing, J.P. ''The London Stage 1930-1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 1931 plays Plays by John Van Druten British plays adapted into films Plays set in London West End plays 1940s Australian radio dramas {{1930s-play-stub