Le monde des musicals

Théâtre (1939)

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Musique:
Paroles:
Livret: Howard Lindsay • Russel Crouse •
Production à la création:

Life with Father is a 1939 play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, adapted from a humorous autobiographical book of stories compiled in 1935 by Clarence Day. The Broadway production ran for 3,224 performances over 401 weeks to become the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, a record that it still holds. The play was adapted into a 1947 feature film and a television series.

Clarence Day wrote humorously about his family and life. The stories of his father, Clarence "Clare" Day, Senior, were first printed in The New Yorker. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. The more he rails against his staff, his cook, his wife, his horse, salesmen, holidays, his children and the inability of the world to live up to his impossible standards, the more comical and lovable he becomes to his own family who love him despite it all. First published in 1936, shortly after his death, Day's book is a picture of New York upper-middle-class family life in the 1890s. The stories are filled with affectionate irony. Day's understated, matter-of-fact style underlines the comedy in everyday situations.

The longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, a record that it still holds

1 Life with Father peut-être considéré comme un Top musical

The 1939 Broadway production ran for over seven years to become the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway, a record that it still holds. It also held the title of the longest running Broadway play of any type of all time from 1947 to 1972. It opened at the Empire Theatre on November 8, 1939 and ran at that theatre until September 8, 1945. It then moved to the Bijou Theatre where it ran until June 15, 1947, and finished its run at the Alvin Theatre on July 12, 1947, for a combined total of 3,224 performances. The play was produced by Oscar Serlin, staged by Bretaigne Windust, with setting and costumes by Stewart Chaney. It starred Howard Lindsay, his wife Dorothy Stickney, and Teresa Wright.

Subsequent productions
Concurrent with the Broadway production, the producers sent out 11 touring companies that performed in 214 cities.[6] The amateur rights to Life with Father were released in 1948, and the following year saw 187 productions of the play, including a production at Theatre in the Round Players that included consultation with Warner films on staging.

In 1953, The Ford 50th Anniversary Show, broadcast live on both the CBS and NBC television networks, opened with Oscar Hammerstein II introducing a scene from the play featuring original cast members, Howard Lindsay and Dorothy Stickney. The Ford show attracted an audience of 60 million viewers. Forty years after the broadcast, television critic Tom Shales recalled the broadcast as both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s".

The only major New York revival occurred in 1967 in a limited run at City Center, starring Leon Ames and Dorothy Stickney. Critic Vincent Canby called the revival "a quaint, pretty picture postcard."[10] Although professional revivals are now rare, Life with Father continues to be produced by amateur companies such as the American Century Theatre in Virginia (2009) and the Victorian Players in Ohio (2014).

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Life with Father

Aucun dossier informatif complémentaire concernant Life with Father