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 selected three titles from the 1940s!
DEAR RUTH (1944)
Logline: A G.I. shows up looking for his pen pal girlfriend, not knowing he’s been corresponding the whole time with her teen sister.
Author: Norman Krasna | Original Director: Moss Hart
Original Broadway Cast: John Dall, Virginia Gilmore, Phyllis Povah, Howard Smith, Kay Coulter, Peter Dunn, Lenore Lonergan, Richard McCracken, Pauline Myers, Bartlett Robinson
Thoughts: Norman Krasna’s most successful play, Dear Ruth is my favorite of his works that I’ve read so far, largely because it’s solid — it’s not overly ridiculous or loaded with plot holes, and although the story itself is predictable and fairly slight in terms of thematic interest, it’s paced all right and never strikes an actually false note. This makes it a cut above his other efforts — like, say, John Loves Mary (1947) or Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? (1958). In fact, a lot of what elevates Dear Ruth is its sense of humor — the show is consistently funny (unlike, say, 1953’s Kind Sir), with snappy dialogue and easy, strong characterizations that believably further the light, farcical narrative. Perhaps there’s a bit of forced chaos with the G.I.’s sister and her beau that’s mostly included to help things seem faster and more frenzied than they are, but frankly, it isn’t truly a concern, and with most of the characters — certainly the core ones: father, mother, older sis, younger sis, older sis’ beau, and the eager G.I. — in fine form, I have no complaints. If you’re gonna do a Krasna romantic comedy, I think this is the one to pick — an amusing, uncomplicated wartime frolic set on the home front. Solid. Just solid. (Incidentally, the 1947 film version is decent as well, save a probably miscast Bill Holden.)
Jackson’s Rating: 7/10
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (1946)
Logline: A meek librarian goes to a bar one night and changes her entire life.
Author: Anita Loos | Original Director: Joshua Logan
Original Broadway Cast: Helen Hayes, Louis Jean Heydt, Robert Burton, Lorraine Miller, Margaret Irving, and more
Thoughts: This vehicle for Helen Hayes is no great shakes in terms of story or character, offering no one but the leading lady much to play that’s complicated or interesting, and a fairly predictable plot that can’t avoid its share of clichés. However, that leading lady really does have a juicy part — transforming over the course of one evening from a typical priggish house-mouse to the life of the party by snagging a man, making new friends, earning her father’s respect, and most of all, finding her inner confidence. Plus, she gets to sing an original song written by Rodgers and Hammerstein and get progressively drunk in the meantime, which adds easy yuks and is always a desirable challenge for performers. Indeed, for the right actress — like the esteemed Hayes — this would be a tour de force, and there’s value alone in that star-driven focus. Also, its script by the witty Anita Loos is quite jokey, for even though some of the other roles are either vague and/or archetypal, most of them have something of an attitude that can bring laughs, and like all bar comedies from every medium — a category for which we include important sitcom titles such as Duffy’s Tavern and Cheers — the sheer design of putting different people in a singular location where they’re guaranteed to interact inherently enables an emphasis on character. And this sensibility is only enhanced by a story like this, which plays in real-time with the traditional Aristotelian Unities. Oh, sure, Happy Birthday also delights in some technical gimmickry to communicate its leading lady’s incremental inebriation, but that kind of silliness is condoned by the tone, and even though the character work beyond the star’s part isn’t great, the structure and premise fosters favorable conditions, and none of these problems matter much. Accordingly, I think this is a better piece of theatre than it has any right to be — and it’d still be a pip to see in performance, especially with a dynamite personality at the helm.
Jackson’s Rating: 6.5/10
GOODBYE, MY FANCY (1948)
Logline: A congresswoman returns to her alma mater to rekindle an old flame and show a documentary.
Author: Fay Kanin | Original Director: Sam Wanamaker
Original Broadway Cast: Madeleine Carroll, Conrad Nagel, Shirley Booth, Sam Wanamaker, Bethel Leslie, George Mitchell, Lulu Mae Hubbard, Eda Heinemann, and more
Thoughts: Although it’s billed as a comedy, I would personally classify Goodbye, My Fancy as one of those dreaded “dramedies,” a piece with tonal uncertainty due to mood swings that don’t always feel smooth or earned. This is largely the result of some ham-fisted and overly predictable love triangle drama, which is superimposed upon an ambitiously earnest plot about a high-powered congresswoman returning to her alma mater with the intentions of rekindling an old flame and showing an anti-war documentary she made as a globe-trotting journalist — a film that becomes the target of censorship by the school’s conservative administration, which is led, of course, by that old flame. That logline reads better in my encapsulation than it ever plays out in the text itself, for there’s a terrible lack of specificity with the film’s subject matter, thereby rendering all the pedagogical speechifying inartful and labored, stumping too aggressively for social criticism and dramatic weight that’s beyond its natural reach. Additionally, despite an interesting foundation for the central character — who’s somewhat fleshed out from her history — there’s an aloofness to her material that doesn’t appear intentional, as she’s too often forced to be a witless cog in the plot’s uninspired machinations, both via its hacky rom-dram triangle and in its aforementioned crusade for a political thesis, which splits the piece’s thematic focus away from her in both directions. The moments that work best are when she reflects on her past and the difference between who she is now and who she was then, evidenced through interactions with other people who are, or were once, close to her — including her personal secretary (Shirley Booth’s role in the original production) and her old roommate, who’s followed a very different path in life. But the play isn’t really about all that — it’s not really about its main character. It’s about this trite censorship battle and some formulaic rom-dram shenanigans. And the script’s not good enough to make that worthwhile. I can’t say it’s a total turkey — there are snippets where it’s cute (a poor man’s funny) — but it is ultimately a disappointment. And, I’m afraid, not significantly better than the oft-dismissed 1951 film adaptation with Joan Crawford.
Jackson’s Rating: 5/10
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more sitcom fun!