Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m sharing the latest in my “potpourri” series on midcentury Broadway plays, specifically comedies, that I’m reading for (mostly) the first time. In this entry, I’ve got three 1930s classics — all initially mounted by the prolific George Abbott — that then also inspired a lot of other important twentieth-century works.
TWENTIETH CENTURY (1932)
Logline: A director schemes to reunite with his actress ex on an overnight train ride.
Author: Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur, Based on a play by Charles Bruce Millholland | Original Director: George Abbott
Original Broadway Cast: Moffat Johnston, Eugenie Leontovich, Roy Roberts, Matt Briggs, William Frawley, Etienne Girardot, Henry Sherwood, Florence Edney, and more
Thoughts: Having quite the familiarity with — and affinity for — both this play’s 1934 screen translation and its later 1978 musical adaptation (On The Twentieth Century), I was so glad to finally sit down and read the original text of what played on Broadway in 1932-1933. And it didn’t disappoint. Despite the laugh-enhancing synergy between the larger-than-life characters and the grandness of the musical’s score, not to mention the frenetic direction that makes the motion picture a top-tier formative example of screwball comedy, the play reveals that the main reasons those later iterations worked are foundational. That is, anything Twentieth Century is set up to excel, for it’s got the right ideas: trapping big, hilarious characters in a confined space, where comic tension can mount as the plot chugs along like the train itself, propelled by several ridiculous forces and the near inevitability of their climax. It’s thus brilliantly conceived. Additionally, what also impressed me about Hecht and MacArthur’s original text is not merely its character work — how Oscar Jaffe and Lily Garland, especially, are so crystal clear — but also, more fundamentally, its style. Their dialogue is smart and amusing without feeling polished or written. It’s just a well-made play, not only structurally in broad terms, but down to the nuts and bolts as well — the words. And I’m happy to know that this transcends all versions of this story that I’ve been able to consume. In fact, even without the movie and musical, I think this would probably still be a quintessential 1930s Broadway farce — as strong within its own medium as the later film, starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, is in its medium. I’d love to see it staged one day. I know Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche did a revival over 20 years ago. And there was a production in 1950 with José Ferrer and Gloria Swanson on her post-Sunset Boulevard comeback. But it’s a period piece and these characters will always be funny, and with Hecht and MacArthur’s writing in guidance, every actor and director is already starting with such an advantage. Indeed, this is one of the best plays I’ve read in this series so far.
Jackson’s Verdict: A classic farce that spawned a seminal screwball comedy.
THREE MEN ON A HORSE (1935)
Logline: A greeting card poet’s knack for picking horses gets him mixed up with gamblers.
Author: George Abbott and John Cecil Holm | Original Director: George Abbott
Original Broadway Cast: William Lynn, Sam Levene, Shirley Booth, Teddy Hart, Millard Mitchell, Joyce Arling, Frank Camp, Fleming Ward, Garson Kanin, and more
Thoughts: Another successful farce for George Abbott, Three Men On A Horse has also had an extraordinary life beyond its original iteration. Not only has it been revived on Broadway several times, it’s also inspired at least two motion pictures and been adapted into two different stage musicals — Banjo Eyes (1941) and Let It Ride (1961). And like Twentieth Century, there’s a good reason for its longevity — it’s got a fun, always-workable premise with a handful of humorously well-designed characters who support it. Specifically, the figure at the center — Erwin, a mild-mannered greeting card poet who finds himself roped into the horse-racing racket because of his uncanny ability to pick the winners — is not only well-defined with comic details. He’s also both active and passive in this story, which thereby gives us a multi-dimensional view of him. Additionally, the ringleader of the gamblers, Patsy, is a terrific foil, emphasizing both of their characterizations via the natural contrast. (TV’s Odd Couple, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, played these two roles in the most recent Broadway revival.) Meanwhile, these strong comic characters are also aided by a memorable, unique plot that doesn’t crib from other plays or subgenres, making it — for 1935, especially — a creative and exciting offering. Oh, sure, I think there are funnier plays out there — authors with a jokier sensibility, and stories with even wilder swings in their plots that get by on being even more comedically audacious — but this one is just well-crafted. Solid. I could see why it was such a hit in 1935. And now I want to go listen to the two scores. (Sitcom lovers, here’s another piece of trivia: Ricky Ricardo’s “We’re Having a Baby, My Baby And Me” comes from Banjo Eyes, where it was introduced by Eddie Cantor.)
Jackson’s Verdict: Well-made, with a comic plot and a few strong characters.
WHAT A LIFE (1938)
Logline: A troublemaking teenager struggles to live up to his family’s expectations.
Author: Clifford Goldsmith | Original Director: George Abbott
Original Broadway Cast: Ezra Stone, Betty Field, James Corner, Vaughan Glaser, Lea Penman, William Mendrek, Arthur Pierson, Jack Byrne, Eddie Bracken, Daniel Ocko, Butterfly McQueen, and more
Thoughts: I first read this as research for my book on 1950s sitcoms. That’s because this popular play inspired one of the most important situation comedy franchises of all time — The Aldrich Family, a formative example of the teen-centric show. Taking its cue from Harold Teen and Seventeen, and in conjunction with the concurrent Andy Hardy films, The Aldrich Family was responsible for launching a spate of teen-oriented comedies — on Broadway, on film, and in radio — beginning in the early 1940s, where teenagers as a demographic really came into focus, and teen sitcoms first became their own individual subgenre. A subgenre to which every decade of situation comedy thereafter has since contributed — from Dobie Gillis to Disney Channel. Now, I’ll level with you. On both radio and especially television, The Aldrich Family is pretty banal overall. But that’s largely because the series, per its title, pivoted more to the domestic space — to the family — as opposed to the school, which is where Clifford Goldsmith’s What A Life is entirely set. Here, in the principal’s office, where each act plays out in its own real-time, we get a much sharper, funnier look at teens of the 1930s — and particularly one Henry Aldrich, who’s much more of a comic agitator than he would generally seem on his own series. That is, his obvious sensitivity — which helps make him a fully realized figure (most teen characters of the 1930s and 1940s are not afforded such complexity) — is contrasted by a rougher, more trouble-making edge. And that’s not only funnier, it’s also better for story, allowing conflict to feel motivated by the characters themselves, and therefore more personalized, less generic. What’s more, the unity of time, place, and action really works in favor of the material here, as Goldsmith keeps the plot moving, with running jokes galore, and an elevated sense of craftsmanship that renders this, just like the two other plays featured above, incredibly sound in terms of structure. I mean, this is simply another well-made play — tight, comical, and thoughtful, and I see why it inspired a long-running situation comedy series.
Jackson’s Verdict: Even better than the important situation comedy it birthed.
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more sitcom fun!