Harvey is a 1944 play by American playwright Mary Chase

Mary Coyle Chase

Mary Coyle Chase was an American journalist, playwright and screenwriter, known primarily for writing the Broadway play Harvey, later adapted for film starring James Stewart...

. Produced by Brock Pemberton and directed by Antoinette Perry

Antoinette Perry

Antoinette Perry was an actress, director and co-founder of the American Theatre Wing. The Tony Awards are her namesake....

, the play premiered on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway where it was staged for 1,775 performances before closing on January 15, 1949. The original production was directed by Antoinette Perry and starred Frank Fay

Frank Fay (American actor)

Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...

 and Josephine Hull

Josephine Hull

Josephine Hull was an Academy Award winning American actress who also was a director of plays. She had a successful 50-year career on stage while taking some of her better known roles to film...

. The play also had a production in 1949 at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's Prince of Wales Theatre

Prince of Wales Theatre

The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre on Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in the City of Westminster. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner...

. Chase received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

Pulitzer Prize for Drama

The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...

 for the work in 1945.

Plot

Elwood P. Dowd is an affable man who claims to have an unseen (and presumably imaginary) friend Harvey — whom Elwood describes as a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall pooka

Púca

The Púca is a creature of Celtic folklore, notably in Ireland, the West of Scotland, and Wales. It is one of the myriad fairy folk, and, like many fairy folk, is both respected and feared by those who believe in it....

 resembling an anthropomorphic rabbit. Elwood introduces Harvey to everyone he meets. His social-climbing sister, Veta, increasingly finds his eccentric behavior embarrassing. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

 to spare her daughter Myrtle Mae and their family from future embarrassment.

When they arrive at the sanitarium, a comedy of errors

Comedy of errors

A comedy of errors is a narrative work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone, in which the action usually features a series of comic instances of mistaken identity, and which typically culminates in a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.-Satire and farce:A slight variation of...

 ensues. The doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When Elwood shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion

Delusion

A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...

 has had a strange influence on the staff, including Dr. Chumley and his medical partner Dr. Sanderson. Only just before Elwood is to be given an injection that will make him into a "perfectly normal human being, and you know what bastards they are!" (in the words of a taxi cab driver who has become involved in the proceedings) does Veta realize that she'd rather have Elwood the same as he's always been — carefree and kind — even if it means living with Harvey.

Opening Night Cast

• Myrtle Mae Simmons: Jane Van Duser
• Veta Louise Simmons: Josephine Hull
  Josephine Hull
  Josephine Hull was an Academy Award winning American actress who also was a director of plays. She had a successful 50-year career on stage while taking some of her better known roles to film...
  
  
• Elwood P. Dowd: Frank Fay
  Frank Fay (American actor)
  Frank Fay was an American film and stage actor, emcee, comedian, best known as an actor for having played "Elwood P. Dowd" in the play Harvey by the American playwright Mary Coyle Chase on Broadway...
  
  
• Miss Johnson: Eloise Sheldon
• Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet: Rahcel Cahkji
• Ruth Kelly, R.N.: Janet Tyler
• Duane Wilson: Jesse White
  Jesse White (actor)
  Jesse White was an American television, film, and stage character actor. He is best remembered for portraying the Maytag repairman in television commercials, a role he played from 1967 to 1988.-Life and career:...
  
  
• Lyman Sanderson, M.D.: Tom Seidel
• William R. Chumley, M.D.: Fred Irving Lewis
• Betty Chumley: Dora Clement
• Judge Omar Gaffney: John Kirk
• E.J. Lofgren: Robert Gist
  Robert Gist
  Robert Gist was an American actor and film director. He was married to actress Agnes Moorehead from 1954 to 1958, although they separated in 1955. They met during the filming of The Stratton Story .- Biography :...
  
  
• Harvey: Himself

Scenes

Act I

• Scene 1 - The Dowd Library (Myrtle, Veta, Miss Johnson, Elwood, Mrs. Chauvenet)
• Scene 2 - Chumley's Rest (Veta, Kelly, Sanderson, Elwood, Chumley, Wilson, Betty)

Act II

• Scene 1 - The Dowd Library (Myrtle, Judge, Veta, Chumley, Wilson, Elwood)
• Scene 2 - Chumley's Rest (Kelly, Sanderson, Elwood, Wilson, Chumley)

Act III - Chumley's Rest (Chumley, Wilson, Myrtle, Judge, Sanderson, Kelly, Veta, Elwood, Lofgren)

The only character to appear in all scenes is Elwood P. Dowd.

Adaptations

The play was later adapted for film by Chase, Oscar Brodney

Oscar Brodney

Oscar Brodney was an American lawyer-turned-screenwriter. He was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of an immigrant fisherman...

, and Myles Connolly

Myles Connolly

Myles Connolly was an author and Hollywood screenwriter.-Mr Blue:Connolly wrote and published several Roman Catholic parable novels, including Mr. Blue, a novel which was reprinted from its publication in 1928 through the 1980s....

in 1950. Directed by Henry Koster

Henry Koster

Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...

, its stars were Josephine Hull

Josephine Hull

Josephine Hull was an Academy Award winning American actress who also was a director of plays. She had a successful 50-year career on stage while taking some of her better known roles to film...

 and James Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

.

Three US television adaptations have been made. The first came in 1958 starring Art Carney

Art Carney

Arthur William Matthew “Art” Carney was an American actor in film, stage, television and radio. He is best known for playing Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the situation comedy The Honeymooners....

, Marion Lorne

Marion Lorne

Marion Lorne MacDougall was an American actress. After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life, played small roles in films and television...

, Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...

, Larry Blyden

Larry Blyden

Larry Blyden was an American actor and game show host, best known for his appearances on Broadway and as the host of the game show What's My Line?-Personal life:...

, Fred Gwynne

Fred Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...

, Charlotte Rae

Charlotte Rae

Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...

, and Jack Weston. James Stewart reprised his famous screen role in 1972 along with Fred Gwynne

Fred Gwynne

Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...

, Richard Mulligan

Richard Mulligan

Richard Mulligan was an American television and film actor best known for his role as Burt Campbell in the 1970s sitcom Soap and later as Dr. Harry Weston on The Golden Girls and its spin-off Empty Nest.-Early life:He was born in New York City, the younger brother of director Robert Mulligan...

 and Madeline Kahn

Madeline Kahn

Madeline Kahn was an American actress. Kahn was known primarily for her comedic roles in films such as Paper Moon, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, What's Up, Doc?, and Clue.-Early life:...

. The latest was in 1998 with Harry Anderson

Harry Anderson

Harry Laverne Anderson is an American actor and magician.-Early life:Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Anderson was a street magician before becoming an actor.-Career:...

, Swoosie Kurtz

Swoosie Kurtz

Swoosie Kurtz is an American actress. She began her career in theater during the 1970s and shortly thereafter began a career in television, garnering ten nominations and winning one Emmy Award. Her most famous television project was her role on the 1990s NBC drama Sisters...

, Jessica Hecht

Jessica Hecht

Jessica Hecht is an American actress, known for numerous Broadway appearances and TV roles.-Background:Hecht was born in Princeton, New Jersey, the daughter of Lenore, a psychotherapist, and Richard Hecht, a physicist. Jessica moved with her parents and her sister to Bloomfield, CT, at the age of...

, Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen, OC was a Canadian and naturalized American actor and comedian. Nielsen appeared in more than one hundred films and 1,500 television programs over the span of his career, portraying more than 220 characters...

, and William Schallert

William Schallert

William Joseph Schallert is an American actor who has appeared in many films and in such television series as The Smurfs, The Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Waltons, Bonanza, Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Love, American Style, Get...

.

In addition, versions of the play were produced in 1959, 1967, 1970 and 1985 for West German television, as Mein Freund Harvey (My Friend Harvey).

On August 2, 2009, it was revealed that Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

 has committed to a new adaptation of the play. It was to be a co-production between 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

 and DreamWorks

DreamWorks

DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...

, with a screenplay written by novelist Jonathan Tropper

Jonathan Tropper

Jonathan Tropper is an American writer and a Professor of English at Manhattanville College.Tropper's book, How To Talk To A Widower, was the 2007 selection for the Richard and Judy Show in the United Kingdom. Everything Changes was a Booksense selection. Three of Tropper's books are currently...

. However, on December 4, 2009, Spielberg revealed that he had quit the project, partly due to his inability to find an actor willing to play Elwood.