By Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
Directed by Jessica Franz
July 11-13, 18-20 & 25-27, 2008
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:00pm
Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Reservations Now Available!

The Cast of The Man Who Came To Dinner

Bill Pelletier as Sheridan Whiteside
Courtney Stephens as Maggie Cutler
Matt Griggs as Bert Jefferson
Elizabeth Goetzman as Miss Preen
Nathan Stock as Professor Metz, Banjo, Radio Tech #2
Christina Schafer Martin as Lorraine Sheldon
Kevan Myers as Beverly Carlton, Plainclothes Man
Irene Blend as Mrs. Ernest Stanley
Bob Allen as Mr. Ernest Stanley
Matt Koenen as Richard Stanley
Marina Monks as June Stanley
Carol Leighton as Harriet Stanley
Steve Parker as John
Petra Allen as Sarah
Sean Leistico as Dr. Bradley, Mr. Baker
Nick LaBruzzo as Sandy, Michaelson, Westcott, Deputy
Jen LaBruzzo as Mrs. Dexter, Henderson, Expressman, Radio Tech #1, Deputy
Mandy Skeels as Mrs. McCutcheon

The Poster For The Original 1939 New York Production

Original Poster

George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart: A Broadway Comedy Dream Team...

George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart

Major Works:

1930: Once In A Lifetime
1934: Merrily We Roll Along
1936: You Can't Take It With You (Pulitzer Prize)
1937: I'd Rather Be Right
1939: The Man Who Came To Dinner
1940: George Washington Slept Here

About George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman (November 16, 1889 – June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. Born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, every Broadway season from 1921 through 1958, had a play written or directed by him on stage. Since Kaufman's death in 1961, every decade since has featured at least a few revivals of his work.

Kaufman was known as "The Great Collaborator" because he wrote very few plays alone. With others, he was prolific: Marc Connelly, Edna Ferber, Ring Lardner, John P. Marquand and Howard Teichmann were among his partners. His most successful collaboration was with Moss Hart.

Kaufman was also a key member of the celebrated Algonquin Round Table, a circle of witty writers and show business people. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Kaufman was as well known for his personality as he was for his writing. However, Kaufman was more than a writer of gags. He created scripts that revealed a mastery of dramatic structure; his characters were likable and theatrically credible.

A noted philandering ladies' man, Kaufman found himself in the center of a scandal in 1936 when, in the midst of a child custody suit, the former husband of actress Mary Astor threatened to publish one of Astor's diaries purportedly containing extremely explicit details of an affair between Kaufman and the actress.

Kaufman was preceded in death by his first wife, Beatrice (October 6, 1945). He married actress Leueen MacGrath on May 26, 1949, and collaborated on a number of plays with her before they divorced in 1957. Kaufman died in New York City at the age of seventy-one in 1961.

About Moss Hart

Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright and director of plays and musical theater. He grew in Manhattan, "a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants." He understood that the theater was his escape and a way out of his tenement. It made possible "the art of being somebody else... not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name... and a mother who was a distant drudge."

After working several years as a director of amateur theatrical groups and as an entertainment director at summer resorts, he scored his first Broadway hit with Once In A Lifetime (1930). The play was written in collaboration with Broadway veteran George S. Kaufman. During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of successes. Though Kaufman had hits with others, Hart is generally conceded to be his most important collaborator.

After 1940, Kaufman and Hart called it quits. Hart had decided it was time to move on. Throughout the 1930s, Hart also worked, with and without Kaufman, on several musicals and revues. By far his biggest hit was the musical My Fair Lady (1956). Hart picked up a Tony Award for Best Director. The last show Hart directed was the musical Camelot (1960). During a troubled out-of-town tryout, Hart had a heart attack. The show opened before he fully recovered, and the expensive production was a hit.

Hart married opera singer / socialite Kitty Carlisle in 1946, and they had two children. Nonetheless, the longtime bachelor was suspected to be gay by many of his friends and reportedly spent much time in therapy as a result.

Moss Hart died at age 57 on December 20, 1961.

Woolcott & Whiteside: The Making Of A Monster

(Adapted from the research of George S. Kaufman historian/biographer, Laurence Maslon).

Alexander Woolcott Broadway critic, radio personality, and tastemaker, Alexander Woollcott wielded a rapier-like wit that few could match. By the mid 1930s, Woollcott had caught the acting bug and demanded that his friends, Kaufman and Hart, concoct a vehicle for him to star in.

They hemmed and hawed for several months. Then Hart remembered when Woollcott visited Hart's Bucks County, PA estate. He commandeered Hart's own bedroom, and demanded a chocolate malted and a chocolate cake. Upon leaving the next morning Woollcott wrote in the guest book: "I wish to say that upon my first visit to Moss Hart's house, I had one of the most unpleasant evenings I can ever recall having spent." The proverbial light went on. "This can be a very funny play," Hart told Kaufman.

They worked through the spring of 1939, incorporating as many bits as possible of Woollcott's personality into the character of Sheridan Whiteside. Hart wrote: "In talking about Woollcott, we decided to use only public aspects of his character...his lectures, his broadcasts, his charm, his acidulousness, his interest in murders, and all of this had to be worked into the plot of the play."

When the show opened on Broadway in the fall of 1939 it became an overnight smash hit. Once its success had been assured, Woollcott became stage struck once again. He wanted to play the part that had been inspired by him. The authors agreed he could star in the West Coast company.

Throughout its run there, he would often step down to the footlights after the curtain calls and say to the audience in his imperious voice: "It's not true that this role of the obnoxious Sheridan Whiteside was patterned after me. Whiteside is merely a composite of the better qualities of the play's two authors."

Who Are These People? - Their On Stage Inspirations

The character of Beverly Carlton in the play, was inspired by Sir Noël Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973). He was an English actor, playwright and composer of music. Much of Coward's best work came in the early 1930s. popular productions, such as Private Lives (1930), in which Coward himself starred alongside his most famous stage partner, Gertrude Lawrence; and the black comedy Design for Living (1932). He was also a prolific writer of popular songs, and a lucrative recording contract allowed him to release a number of recordings. Coward's most popular hits include the romantic: "I'll See You Again" and "Dear Little Café;" and the comic: "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," "The Stately Homes of England" and "(Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage) Mrs. Worthington." He was knighted in 1970, and died in Jamaica in March 1973 of heart failure. He was buried on Firefly Hill, Jamaica, overlooking the island.
The character of Harriet Stanley Sedley in the play, was inspired by Lizzie Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927). She was a New England spinster who was the central figure in the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The slayings, The subsequent trial, and the following trial bythe media became a celebrated cause. The fame of the incident has endured in American pop culture and criminology. ("Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her father forty whacks..."). Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried, and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers, continues to this day.
The character of Lorraine Sheldon in the play, was inspired by diva Gertrude Lawrence, (July 4, 1898 - September 6, 1952), an actress and musical comedy performer popular from the 1920s to the 1950s. She appeared on stage in London, on Broadway and in several films. She is remembered for her on stage work with Noel Coward. She was one of the top comediennes of her day, capable of playing both slapstick clowns and elegant ladies. In 1949 she persuaded Rodgers and Hammerstein to write The King and I for her. it became her greatest success. Lawrence died a year-and-a-half after the show opened on Broadway. While hospitalized, she asked that the unknown Yul Brynner, (who played the king), have his name displayed on the Theatre marquee, which showed only her name at that time. It helped make him a star.
The character of Banjo in the play, was inspired by Arthur "Harpo" Marx (November 23, 1888 – September 28, 1964). He was one of the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo, and Gummo), a group of Vaudeville entertainers who later achieved fame as comedians in the Motion Picture industry. He was well known by his trademarks which had enormous appeal to adults and children alike... he played the harp flawlessly; a self imposed mute, he never talked during performances, although he often blew a horn or whistled to communicate with people; and he frequently used props. Plus, he wore an outlandish blonde wig, top hat, and trench coat. A member of the inner circle of Woolcott, Kauffman and Hart's Algonquin Round Table, he was beloved for his droll, elfin sense of humor in real life.

Legit Production History: Adaptations/Revivals...

Productions 1) The Man Who Came to Dinner
Oct 16, 1939 - Jul 12, 1941: Original Production
Music Box Theatre, NY, USA
With Monty Woolley as Whiteside

2) The Man Who Came to Dinner (Film)
1942: A Warner Brothers Presentation
With Monty Woolley as Whiteside

3) Sherry! (Musical)
Mar 28, 1967 - May 27, 1967: adaptation
Alvin Theatre, NY, USA
With George Sanders, later Replaced By Clive Revill as Whiteside

4) The Man Who Came to Dinner (TV)
1972: NBC Network; TV adaptation
A Hallmark Hall Of Fame Presentation
With Orson Welles as Whiteside

5) The Man Who Came to Dinner
Jun 26, 1980 - Sep 7, 1980: Revival
Circle in the Square Theatre, NY, USA
With Ellis Rabb as Whiteside

6) The Man Who Came to Dinner
Jul 27, 2000 - Oct 8, 2000: Revival
American Airlines Theatre, NY, USA
With Nathan Lane as Whiteside

The Barn Players Present

By Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman Directed by Jessica Franz July 11-13, 18-20 & 25-27, 2008 Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2:00pm Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.