Life With Father - Broadway Play

Broadway Play

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 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, closing after 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. James Christie, a young red headed actor, was also a long-running member of the cast. James (or Jimmy) Christie, at 15 years old, began playing Whitney (the third son) in 1939 on Broadway at the Empire Theatre and remained during most of its 7-year run, playing both Whitney and John (the next to eldest son) as he aged through the play's run.

Opening night cast
  • Katherine Bard as Annie
  • Dorothy Stickney as Vinnie
  • John Drew Devereaux as Clarence
  • Richard Simon as John
  • Raymond Roe as Whitney
  • Larry Robinson as Harlan
  • Howard Lindsay as Father
  • Dorothy Bernard as Margaret
  • Ruth Hammond as Cora
  • Teresa Wright as Mary
  • Richard Sterling as the Reverend Dr. Lloyd
  • Portia Morrow as Delia
  • Nellie Burt as Nora
  • A.H. Van Buren as Dr. Humphreys
  • John C. King as Dr. Somers
  • Timothy Kearse as Maggie

Read more about this topic:  Life With Father

Famous quotes containing the words broadway and/or play:

    We all know that the theater and every play that comes to Broadway have within themselves, like the human being, the seed of self-destruction and the certainty of death. The thing is to see how long the theater, the play, and the human being can last in spite of themselves.
    James Thurber (1894–1961)

    Work, as we usually think of it, is energy expended for a further end in view; play is energy expended for its own sake, as with children’s play, or as manifestation of the end or goal of work, as in “playing” chess or the piano. Play in this sense, then, is the fulfillment of work, the exhibition of what the work has been done for.
    Northrop Frye (1912–1991)