The Man Who Came to Dinner
Encyclopedia
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy
in three acts by George S. Kaufman
and Moss Hart
. It debuted on October 16, 1939 at the Music Box Theatre
in New York City
. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley
and Coral Browne
. Browne stated in a televised biographical interview broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 1990 (entitled 'Caviar to the General') that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all future productions and adaptations.
The play is set in the small town of Mesalia, Ohio
in the weeks leading to Christmas
in the 1930s. The exposition reveals that the famously outlandish radio
wit Sheridan Whiteside of New York City was invited to dine at the house of rich factory
owner Ernest W. Stanley and his family. However, before Whiteside enters the house, he slips on a patch of ice
outside the front door and injures his hip. He is attended by Dr. Bradley, the absent-minded town physician
, and Miss Preen, his frantic nurse.
, the model for the lead character Sheridan Whiteside. At the time the play was written Woollcott was famous both as the theater critic who helped re-launch the career of the Marx Brothers
and as the star of the national radio show
The Town Crier. Woollcott was well liked by both Kaufman and Hart, but that did not stop him from displaying the obnoxious characteristics displayed by Whiteside in the play. Kaufman and Hart had promised a vehicle for Woollcott but had been unable to find a plot that suited them until one day Woollcott showed up, unannounced, at Hart's Bucks County
estate, and proceeded to take over the house. He slept in the master bedroom
, terrorized Hart's staff, and generally acted like Sheridan Whiteside. On his way out he wrote in Hart's guest book
, "This is to certify that I had one of the most unpleasant times I ever spent." Hart related the story to Kaufman soon afterwards. As they were both laughing about it, Hart remarked that he was lucky that Woollcott hadn't broken his leg and become stuck there. Kaufman looked at Hart and the idea was born.
A plot point mentions actress and Broadway producer Katharine Cornell
. The character Bert Jefferson writes a play, and his girlfriend, Maggie Cutler, convinced that the play would be a hit on Broadway, gives the script to another character in the hope that Katharine Cornell would produce it.
Woollcott was delighted with The Man Who Came to Dinner and was offered the role for its Broadway
debut. With his busy schedule of radio broadcasts and lectures, he declined, and Monty Woolley
played the part. Woollcott did play Whiteside in the West Coast
version of the play and was even joined by Harpo Marx
, who portrayed his own referenced character, Banjo.
The printed edition of the play starts with the inscription "To Alexander Woollcott, for reasons that are nobody's business."
.
Banjo was modeled after Harpo Marx
, and there is a dialogue reference to Marx's brothers Groucho
and Chico
. When Sheridan Whiteside talks to Banjo on the phone, he asks him, "How are Wackko and Sloppo?"
Professor Metz was based on Dr. Gustav Eckstein of Cincinnati (with cockroaches substituted for canaries), and Lorraine Sheldon was modeled after Gertrude Lawrence..
The song "What Am I To Do" was written by Cole Porter
specifically for the play.
The character of Harriet Sedley, the alias of Harriet Stanley, is an homage to Lizzie Borden. The popular jump-rope rhyme
immortalizing Borden is parodied in the play. .
and Julius J. Epstein
and directed by William Keighley
. The film featured Monty Woolley
, Bette Davis
, Ann Sheridan
, Billie Burke
, Jimmy Durante
, Mary Wickes
and Richard Travis. It had its world premiere at the Capitol Theater in Paragould, Arkansas
.
for The Hotpoint Holiday Hour. The production starred Charles Boyer
, Jack Benny
, Gene Kelly
, Gregory Peck
, Dorothy McGuire
, and Rosalind Russell
.
It was also adapted for the Lux Radio Theater
on March 27, 1950, starring Clifton Webb
as Sheridan Whiteside and Lucille Ball
as Maggie Cutler. The show was hosted by William Keighley
, who directed the 1942 film adaptation.
For Christmas Day, 2000, BBC Radio 4
broadcast a Marcy Kahan
adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner approved by the Hart and Kaufman estates which starred Simon Callow
as Whiteside, Elizabeth McGovern
as Maggie, with Conleth Hill
as Bert Jefferson, Cheryl Campbell
as Lorraine Sheldon, John Sessions
as Banjo and Professor Metz, Colin Stinton
as Mr. Stanley, and Malcolm Sinclair
as Beverley Carlton. Moira Petty, writing in The Stage
, said, ""Director Ned Chaillet
elicited from his cast ... a smart, gag-telling pace, which gave it a sensational period flavour."
, with a book and lyrics by James Lipton
and music by Laurence Rosenthal
.
production, adapted by Sam Denoff and Bill Persky and directed by Buzz Kulik, was broadcast by NBC
on November 29, 1972. The production starred Orson Welles
, who was "a marvelous friend" of Woollcott's and had been offered the role of Sheridan Whiteside in both the original stage production and the 1942 film; he later said he was "very smart [to have declined]; because if you've seen the film you'll know it was awful and there was no way for anybody to be good in it." Welles's costars were Lee Remick
(Maggie Cutler), Joan Collins
(Lorraine Sheldon), Don Knotts
(Dr. Bradley), and Marty Feldman
(Banjo). The New York Times
criticized Denoff's updating of the original play (Welles's Whiteside was a television personality
competing with Johnny Carson
) and listed the production in its 1972 "Worst of Television" list.
. The cast included Ellis Rabb
, Roderick Cook
, Leonard Frey
, Carrie Nye
, and Jamey Sheridan
. Drama Desk Award
nominations went to Cook for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play and Nye for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.
A 2000 revival, which ran for 85 performances, was produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company
and directed by Jerry Zaks
. The cast included Nathan Lane
(Sheridan Whiteside), Jean Smart
(Lorraine Sheldon), Harriet Sansom Harris
(Maggie Cutler), and Lewis J. Stadlen
(Banjo). In an interview prior to the opening, Lane said, "There's a danger in playing Whiteside. In the movie, Monty Woolley's portrayal at times came across as mean for mean's sake. It's when it gets nasty or bitchy that it goes off in the wrong direction." He suggested that his performance was influenced by Woollcott's repressed sexuality, stating, "He had a lot of...things he didn't want to deal with."
The 2000 production received mixed reviews. Variety
, The Advocate
and Talkin' Broadway reviewed it positively, and Entertainment Weekly
gave the production a B+, calling it "as fresh a send-up as an SNL
sketch and [with] an even more inspired plot" and singling out Smart's "swanning demonstration of ultimate showbiz phoniness" for praise. In The New York Times
, however, Ben Brantley
disliked the production, writing that "What should be a buoyant balloon of an evening [is] more often an exercise in deflation." Brantley praised Stadlen but found most of the acting, including Lane's, to be "a series of flourishes that sell individual jokes and epigrams without being anchored to character." Smart was nominated for the Tony Award
for Best Actress in a Play and Stadlen was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, though neither won. The production was broadcast by PBS
on October 7, 2000, three days after the New York production closed, and was released on DVD.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
in three acts by George S. Kaufman
George S. Kaufman
George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals, notably for the Marx Brothers...
and Moss Hart
Moss Hart
Moss Hart was an American playwright and theatre director, best known for his interpretations of musical theater on Broadway.-Early years:...
. It debuted on October 16, 1939 at the Music Box Theatre
Music Box Theatre
The Music Box Theater is a Broadway theatre located at 239 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan.The once most aptly named theater on Broadway, the intimate Music Box was designed by architect C. Howard Crane and constructed by composer Irving Berlin and producer Sam H. Harris specifically to...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
and Coral Browne
Coral Browne
Coral Browne was an Australian-American stage and screen actress.-Career:Coral Edith Brown was the only daughter of a restaurant-owner. She and her two brothers were raised in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, where she studied at the National Gallery Art School...
. Browne stated in a televised biographical interview broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 1990 (entitled 'Caviar to the General') that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all future productions and adaptations.
The play is set in the small town of Mesalia, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
in the weeks leading to Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
in the 1930s. The exposition reveals that the famously outlandish radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
wit Sheridan Whiteside of New York City was invited to dine at the house of rich factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
owner Ernest W. Stanley and his family. However, before Whiteside enters the house, he slips on a patch of ice
Ice
Ice is water frozen into the solid state. Usually ice is the phase known as ice Ih, which is the most abundant of the varying solid phases on the Earth's surface. It can appear transparent or opaque bluish-white color, depending on the presence of impurities or air inclusions...
outside the front door and injures his hip. He is attended by Dr. Bradley, the absent-minded town physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, and Miss Preen, his frantic nurse.
Influence of Alexander Woollcott
Kaufman and Hart wrote the play as a vehicle for their friend Alexander WoollcottAlexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott was an American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine and a member of the Algonquin Round Table....
, the model for the lead character Sheridan Whiteside. At the time the play was written Woollcott was famous both as the theater critic who helped re-launch the career of the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
and as the star of the national radio show
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
The Town Crier. Woollcott was well liked by both Kaufman and Hart, but that did not stop him from displaying the obnoxious characteristics displayed by Whiteside in the play. Kaufman and Hart had promised a vehicle for Woollcott but had been unable to find a plot that suited them until one day Woollcott showed up, unannounced, at Hart's Bucks County
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...
estate, and proceeded to take over the house. He slept in the master bedroom
Bedroom
A bedroom is a private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day.About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom. To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have bed. Bedrooms can range from really simple...
, terrorized Hart's staff, and generally acted like Sheridan Whiteside. On his way out he wrote in Hart's guest book
Guestbook
A guestbook is a paper or electronic means for a visitor to acknowledge their visitation to a site, physical or web-based, and leave their name, postal or electronic address , and a comment or note, if desired...
, "This is to certify that I had one of the most unpleasant times I ever spent." Hart related the story to Kaufman soon afterwards. As they were both laughing about it, Hart remarked that he was lucky that Woollcott hadn't broken his leg and become stuck there. Kaufman looked at Hart and the idea was born.
A plot point mentions actress and Broadway producer Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.Cornell is known as the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century...
. The character Bert Jefferson writes a play, and his girlfriend, Maggie Cutler, convinced that the play would be a hit on Broadway, gives the script to another character in the hope that Katharine Cornell would produce it.
Woollcott was delighted with The Man Who Came to Dinner and was offered the role for its Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut. With his busy schedule of radio broadcasts and lectures, he declined, and Monty Woolley
Monty Woolley
Monty Woolley was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his best-known role in the stage play and 1942 film The Man Who Came to Dinner...
played the part. Woollcott did play Whiteside in the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
version of the play and was even joined by Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, who portrayed his own referenced character, Banjo.
The printed edition of the play starts with the inscription "To Alexander Woollcott, for reasons that are nobody's business."
Other influences
Beverly Carlton was modeled after Noel CowardNoël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
.
Banjo was modeled after Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, and there is a dialogue reference to Marx's brothers Groucho
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
and Chico
Chico Marx
Leonard "Chico" Marx was an American comedian and film star as part of the Marx Brothers. His persona in the act was that of a dim-witted albeit crafty con artist, seemingly of rural Italian origin, who wore shabby clothes, and sported a curly-haired wig and Tyrolean hat.As the first-born of the...
. When Sheridan Whiteside talks to Banjo on the phone, he asks him, "How are Wackko and Sloppo?"
Professor Metz was based on Dr. Gustav Eckstein of Cincinnati (with cockroaches substituted for canaries), and Lorraine Sheldon was modeled after Gertrude Lawrence..
The song "What Am I To Do" was written by Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
specifically for the play.
The character of Harriet Sedley, the alias of Harriet Stanley, is an homage to Lizzie Borden. The popular jump-rope rhyme
Jump-rope rhyme
A skipping rhyme , is a rhyme chanted by children while skipping. Such rhymes have been recorded in all cultures where skipping is played. Examples of English-language rhymes have been found going back to at least the 17th century...
immortalizing Borden is parodied in the play. .
Original cast
The original cast is listed below, as billed.- Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley ....... Virginia Hammond
- Miss Preen ................... Mary WickesMary WickesMary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...
- Richard Stanley .............. Gordon MerrickGordon MerrickWilliam Gordon Merrick was a Broadway actor, best-selling author of gay-themed novels and one of the first authors to write about homosexual themes for a mass audience.-Early life:...
- June Stanley ................. Barbara Wooddell
- John ......................... George Probert
- Sarah ........................ Mrs. Priestley Morrison
- Mrs. Dexter .................. Barbara Adams
- Mrs. McCutcheon .............. Edmonia Nolley
- Mr. Stanley .................. George Lessey
- Maggie Cutler ................ Edith AtwaterEdith AtwaterEdith Atwater was an American stage, film and television actress.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Atwater made her Broadway debut in 1933. In 1939 she starred in The Man Who Came to Dinner....
- Dr. Bradley .................. Dudley Clements
- Sheridan Whiteside ........... Monty WoolleyMonty WoolleyMonty Woolley was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his best-known role in the stage play and 1942 film The Man Who Came to Dinner...
- Harriet Stanley .............. Ruth Vivian
- Bert Jefferson ............... Theodore Newton
- Professor Metz ............... LeRoi Operti
- The Luncheon Guests .......... Phil Sheridan, Charles Washington, William Postance
- Mr. Baker .................... Carl Johnson
- Expressman ................... Harold Woolf
- Lorraine Sheldon ............. Carol Goodner
- Sandy ........................ Michael Harvey
- Beverley Carlton ............. John HoysradtJohn HoytJohn Hoyt was an American film, stage, and television actor.-Early life:Hoyt was born John McArthur Hoysradt. Before becoming an actor with Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre, the Yale University graduate worked as a history instructor, acting teacher and even a nightclub comedian...
- Westcott ..................... Edward Fisher
- Radio Technicians ............ Rodney Stewart, Carl Johnson
- Banjo ........................ David BurnsDavid Burns (actor)David Burns was an American Broadway theatre and motion picture actor and singer.Burns was born on Mott Street in the Manhattan Chinatown of New York City. He made his Broadway debut in Face the Music in 1932, Cole Porter's Nymph Errant was his London debut, and he appeared in many comedies and...
- Deputies ..................... Curtis Karpe, Phil Sheridan
- A Plainclothes Man ........... William Postance
Film adaptation
The production was adapted for a 1942 feature film, scripted by Philip G. EpsteinPhilip G. Epstein
Philip G. Epstein was an American screenwriter most known for his adaptation in partnership with his twin brother, Julius, and others, of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's which became the Academy Award-winning screenplay of the film Casablanca .Epstein was born in New York City and...
and Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein
Julius J. Epstein was an American screenwriter, who had a long career, best remembered for the adaptation - in partnership with his twin brother, Philip, and others - of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's that became the screenplay for the film Casablanca , for which its team of writers...
and directed by William Keighley
William Keighley
William Jackson Keighley was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director....
. The film featured Monty Woolley
Monty Woolley
Monty Woolley was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor. At the age of 50, he achieved a measure of stardom for his best-known role in the stage play and 1942 film The Man Who Came to Dinner...
, Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, Ann Sheridan
Ann Sheridan
-Life and career:Born Clara Lou Sheridan in Denton, Texas on February 21, 1915, she was a student at the University of North Texas when her sister sent a photograph of her to Paramount Pictures. She subsequently entered and won a beauty contest, with part of her prize being a bit part in a...
, Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
, Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
, Mary Wickes
Mary Wickes
Mary Wickes was an American film and television actress.-Career:Wickes was born as Mary Isabelle Wickenhauser in St. Louis, Missouri, of German Irish Protestant extraction. She graduated at the age of eighteen with a degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis, where she...
and Richard Travis. It had its world premiere at the Capitol Theater in Paragould, Arkansas
Paragould, Arkansas
-Health & Education:Paragould is home to Arkansas State University Paragould, Arkansas Northeastern College, Black River Technical College, and Crowley's Ridge College. Paragould has two public school districts, the Greene County Technical School District and the Paragould School District, as well...
.
Radio adaptation
In 1949, The Man Who Came to Dinner was produced for CBS RadioCBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
for The Hotpoint Holiday Hour. The production starred Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer
Charles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
, Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
, Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
, Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
, Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
, and Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell
Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...
.
It was also adapted for the Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
on March 27, 1950, starring Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura, The Razor's Edge, and Sitting Pretty...
as Sheridan Whiteside and Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
as Maggie Cutler. The show was hosted by William Keighley
William Keighley
William Jackson Keighley was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director....
, who directed the 1942 film adaptation.
For Christmas Day, 2000, BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
broadcast a Marcy Kahan
Marcy Kahan
Marcy Kahan is a British playwright and radio dramatist. She is a prolific author of urbane comedies for the BBC. She was born in Montreal, educated at Oxford University and trained in theatre in Paris with the Lecoq School teachers, Philippe Gaulier and Monika Pagneux.Theatre Work*20 Cigarettes ...
adaptation of The Man Who Came to Dinner approved by the Hart and Kaufman estates which starred Simon Callow
Simon Callow
Simon Phillip Hugh Callow, CBE is an English actor, writer and theatre director. He is also currently a judge on Popstar to Operastar.-Early years:...
as Whiteside, Elizabeth McGovern
Elizabeth McGovern
-Early life:McGovern was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Katharine Wolcott , a high school teacher, and William Montgomery McGovern, Jr., a university professor. Her paternal grandfather was adventurer William Montgomery McGovern and her maternal great-grandfather was U.S. diplomat...
as Maggie, with Conleth Hill
Conleth Hill
Conleth Hill is a Northern Irish film, stage and television actor.Born in Ballycastle, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, Hill made his Broadway debut in Marie Jones' Stones in His Pockets....
as Bert Jefferson, Cheryl Campbell
Cheryl Campbell
Cheryl Campbell is an English actor of stage, film and television.-Early years:Cheryl Campbell was educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School, St Albans; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art...
as Lorraine Sheldon, John Sessions
John Sessions
John Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...
as Banjo and Professor Metz, Colin Stinton
Colin Stinton
Colin Stinton is a Canadian-born actor who immigrated to the United States in 1952, and now lives in London. He often portrays fictional American politicians, lawyers and government agents. He recently played Neal Daniels in The Bourne Ultimatum...
as Mr. Stanley, and Malcolm Sinclair
Malcolm Sinclair
Malcolm Sinclair is a British stage and television actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as 'Assistant Chief Constable Freddy Fisher' in the television series Pie in the Sky , although he has an extensive number of film, television and theatre roles to his credit...
as Beverley Carlton. Moira Petty, writing in The Stage
The Stage
The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...
, said, ""Director Ned Chaillet
Ned Chaillet
Edward William "Ned" Chaillet, III is a radio drama producer and director, writer and journalist.Ned Chaillet, American by birth, was born in Boston, Mass. but is a "native of Washington" according to the New York Times. He has lived in Britain since 1973.His newspaper career began at the...
elicited from his cast ... a smart, gag-telling pace, which gave it a sensational period flavour."
Musical adaptation
The play and subsequent film served as the basis for the 1967 musical Sherry!Sherry!
Sherry! is a musical with a book and lyrics by James Lipton and music by Laurence Rosenthal. The musical is based on the George S. Kaufman-Moss Hart play The Man Who Came to Dinner....
, with a book and lyrics by James Lipton
James Lipton
James Lipton is an American writer, poet, composer, actor and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in New York City. He is the executive producer, writer and host of the Bravo cable television series Inside the Actors Studio, which debuted in 1994...
and music by Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, and films.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied piano and composition...
.
Television adaptation
A Hallmark Hall of FameHallmark Hall of Fame
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The second longest-running television program in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2011...
production, adapted by Sam Denoff and Bill Persky and directed by Buzz Kulik, was broadcast by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on November 29, 1972. The production starred Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
, who was "a marvelous friend" of Woollcott's and had been offered the role of Sheridan Whiteside in both the original stage production and the 1942 film; he later said he was "very smart [to have declined]; because if you've seen the film you'll know it was awful and there was no way for anybody to be good in it." Welles's costars were Lee Remick
Lee Remick
Lee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...
(Maggie Cutler), Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
(Lorraine Sheldon), Don Knotts
Don Knotts
Jesse Donald "Don" Knotts was an American comedic actor best known for his portrayal of Barney Fife on the 1960s television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, a role which earned him five Emmy Awards...
(Dr. Bradley), and Marty Feldman
Marty Feldman
Martin Alan "Marty" Feldman was an English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty, which won two BAFTA awards and was the first Saturn Award winner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Young...
(Banjo). The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
criticized Denoff's updating of the original play (Welles's Whiteside was a television personality
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
competing with Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson
John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...
) and listed the production in its 1972 "Worst of Television" list.
Broadway revivals
A 1980 revival directed by Stephen Porter ran for 19 previews and 85 performances at the Circle in the Square TheatreCircle in the Square Theatre
The Circle in the Square Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan on 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.The original Circle in the Square was founded by Paul Libin, Theodore Mann and Jose Quintero in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village...
. The cast included Ellis Rabb
Ellis Rabb
Ellis Rabb was an American actor and director who in 1959 formed the Association of Producing Artists, a theatre company that brought new works and noteworthy revivals to Broadway and to regional theatres...
, Roderick Cook
Roderick Cook
Roderick Cook was an English playwright, writer, theatre director and actor of stage, television and film...
, Leonard Frey
Leonard Frey
- Biography :Frey was born in Brooklyn, New York. After college, where he studied art with designs on being a painter, he studied acting at New York City's prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse under famed acting coach Sanford Meisner, and pursued a career in theater instead...
, Carrie Nye
Carrie Nye
-Early life:Nye was born Caroline Nye McGeoy in Greenwood, Mississippi; her father was a vice president of a local bank. She attended Stephens College and then went on to the Yale School of Drama.-Career:...
, and Jamey Sheridan
Jamey Sheridan
James Patrick "Jamey" Sheridan is an American actor. He was born in Pasadena, California.He has had a prolific acting career in theater, television, and feature film productions. Born to a family of actors, he made it to Broadway and earned a Tony nomination in 1987 for his performance in the...
. Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
nominations went to Cook for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play and Nye for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play.
A 2000 revival, which ran for 85 performances, was produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
and directed by Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks
Jerry Zaks is a German-born American stage and television director, and actor. He won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play and Drama Desk Award for directing The House of Blue Leaves, Lend Me A Tenor, and Six Degrees of Separation and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and Drama...
. The cast included Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane
Nathan Lane is an American actor of stage and screen. He is best known for his roles as Mendy in The Lisbon Traviata, Albert in The Birdcage, Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers, Ernie Smuntz in MouseHunt, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...
(Sheridan Whiteside), Jean Smart
Jean Smart
Jean E. Smart is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her comedic roles, one of the best known being her role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women. She later gained critical acclaim for dramatic work, with her portrayal of Martha Logan on 24...
(Lorraine Sheldon), Harriet Sansom Harris
Harriet Sansom Harris
Harriet Sansom Harris , often credited as "Harriet Harris" is an American actress best known for her portrayals of Bebe Glazer on Frasier and Felicia Tilman on Desperate Housewives. She won a Tony Award in 2002 as a Featured Actress in a Musical for playing the evil white slaver Mrs. Meers in...
(Maggie Cutler), and Lewis J. Stadlen
Lewis J. Stadlen
Lewis J. Stadlen is an American stage and screen character actor.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, New York to voice actor Allen Swift, Stadlen studied acting with Sanford Meisner and Stella Adler...
(Banjo). In an interview prior to the opening, Lane said, "There's a danger in playing Whiteside. In the movie, Monty Woolley's portrayal at times came across as mean for mean's sake. It's when it gets nasty or bitchy that it goes off in the wrong direction." He suggested that his performance was influenced by Woollcott's repressed sexuality, stating, "He had a lot of...things he didn't want to deal with."
The 2000 production received mixed reviews. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
and Talkin' Broadway reviewed it positively, and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the production a B+, calling it "as fresh a send-up as an SNL
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
sketch and [with] an even more inspired plot" and singling out Smart's "swanning demonstration of ultimate showbiz phoniness" for praise. In The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, however, Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
disliked the production, writing that "What should be a buoyant balloon of an evening [is] more often an exercise in deflation." Brantley praised Stadlen but found most of the acting, including Lane's, to be "a series of flourishes that sell individual jokes and epigrams without being anchored to character." Smart was nominated for the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for Best Actress in a Play and Stadlen was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, though neither won. The production was broadcast by PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
on October 7, 2000, three days after the New York production closed, and was released on DVD.