By George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
Produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Directed by Don Vesterse
Thursday - Saturday,
September 22 - 24, 2005, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinee, September 25, 2005,
at 2 p.m
All Season Membership Holders
admission included
Non Season Membership Ticket
prices
Adults $15.00
Seniors (60 and over) $12.00
Students (18 and under) $12.00
The Royal Family was first
produced on Broadway at the Selwyn Court Theatre, New York City
on December 28, 1927.
The Royal Family was penned by
George S. Kaufman — whose raconteur wit kept Broadway audiences and the
celebrated Algonquin Round Table lively for years — and Edna Ferber, whose
novels became the sources of Show Boat, Giant, and other Hollywood opuses. It
was hailed by critics as the best play on Broadway. The Royal
Family was inspired by the reigning theatrical family of the
day, the Barrymore's: Lionel, Ethel and John. It examines the zany lives and
exploits of three generations of Cavendish's as they try to ply their craft
(and deal with the 'real' world). Imagine You Can't Take it With
You (another play by Kaufman), peopled by Peter O'Toole's
character from My Favorite Year, Norma Desmond and Maggie Smith, and you will
get a fair idea of the mood and goings on. Not that this is a complete comedy.
It has some surprising dramatic moments, as these people make the realizations
that for them, there exists nothing but the moments that they spend on the
stage. This is a family that has been born and bred to be actors, and can only
take brief vacations into the 'real' world. The Royal Family is an
“intelligently, imaginatively, skillfully produced play.” Indeed, alongside
the rich wit of this play runs a tender, even earnest thread of respect for
the calling of an actor—or for any calling where there is bound to be overlap
between the professional and the personal life. This royal family, “profoundly
believes in its prerogatives, its responsibilities, and the authors do not
belittle that faith.” Still, the uproarious send-up of the Barrymores and the
Drews so infuriated Ethel Barrymore that she let it be known that the play
“did not amuse her.” But Brooks Atkinson of the Times felt that the authors
had “toyed entertainingly and absorbingly with the madness of show folk and
the fatal glamour of the footlights.” And we must remember that this play,
since its first appearance in l927, has enjoyed numerous revivals. A London
production in l934, titled Theatre Royal, was directed by Noel Coward and
featured a young actor who would go on to greater fame--Laurence Olivier. A
triumphant revival, in celebration of the Bicentennial, was presented at the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts by the Kennedy Center in Washington,
D.C., starring Eva LeGallienne as Fanny, George Grizzard as Anthony, and
Rosemary Harris as Julie, brilliantly directed by Ellis Rabb (who won a Tony
for Best Director in l976). The Bicentennial production ran up an impressive
total of 233 performances. The Royal Family has been
called a joyous and spontaneous comedy, a producer’s and director’s delight,
and a delicious script. It has also been a rousing success for nearly 80
years. There is no denying that The Royal Family is
funny, a play which invites us again and again to laugh at literary
pretensions. So sit back and enjoy and laugh to your heart's content.
The action passes in the duplex apartment of the Cavendishes,
in the East Fifties, New York City.
Click on arrows to move through Photo Gallery.
You are invited to meet the cast following the performance in
the Green Room.
