An uproarious farce on plays involving murder, Arsenic and Old Lace has become a favorite amongst regional theatres throughout America. Company Credits College/University, Community Theatre, High School, Ensemble Cast, Professional Theatre, Regional Theatre, Star Vehicle Male. Karloff played Jonathan once more (and for the last time) on the February 5, 1962 broadcast of NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame. Lead Characters Abby Brewster as well. View All Characters in Arsenic and Old Lace. Tony Randall played Mortimer in the Hallmark production and Tom Bosley played Teddy. Mortimer Brewster is living a happy life: he has a steady job at a prominent New York newspaper, he’s just become engaged, and he gets to visit his sweet spinster aunts to announce the engagement. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. John Alexander, who created the role of Teddy Brewster on Broadway and reprised it in the film version, returned once more to play the role in the broadcast. Abby is the sister of Martha and an aunt to Teddy, Jonathan, and Mortimer. Release Dates The Present. Helen Hayes and Billie Burke played his not-so-innocent aunts, Abby and Martha. Peter Lorre and Edward Everett Horton repeated their roles as Dr. Einstein and Mr. Witherspoon, which they had played in Frank Capra's film version. (uncredited), Young Woman in Line Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. Characters: Arsenic and Old Lace Abby Brewster: A darling lady in her sixties who poisons elderly men. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Theodore Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims; he thinks that they died of yellow fever); and a murderous brother who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity, and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played on Broadway by Karloff). History can illustrate the importance of dramatic characters, and how important it is to develop these characters. Jack Carson. The hero, Mortimer Brewster, is a drama critic who must deal with his crazy, murderous family and local police in Brooklyn, New York, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves, Elaine Harper, who lives next door and is the daughter of the local minister. (uncredited). Orson Bean played the role of Mortimer Brewster. The play Arsenic and Old Lace takes place on a September day in "present time," which, when it was written, was 1939. (uncredited), Marriage License Clerk Official Sites | It would be 23 years before she would finally play the part. (uncredited), Undetermined Supporting Role Filming & Production It was revived again in 1998 with an Oklahoma-based production starring, A recent revival was mounted in February 2011 at the. Mortimer always knew that his family had a bit of a mad gene -- his brother believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt and his great-grandfather used to scalp Indians for pleasure -- but his world is turned upside down when he realizes that his dear aunts have been poisoning lonely old men for years! This Study Guide consists of approximately 36 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Arsenic and Old Lace. Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. | Arsenic and Old Lace characters breakdowns including full descriptions with standard casting requirements and expert analysis. (uncredited), Undetermined Suecondary Role (uncredited), Drummer at baseball game Dorothy Stickney and Mildred Natwick played Abby and Martha. In 1969, Robert Scheerer directed a TV version with Helen Hayes and Lillian Gish as the elderly aunts, Bob Crane as Mortimer, Fred Gwynne as Jonathan and David Wayne as Teddy. The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around the Brewster family, descended from the Mayflower settlers but now composed of maniacs, most of them homicidal. | It has become best known through the subsequent film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. It starred Boris Karloff, recreating his stage role as homicidal maniac Jonathan Brewster. ... Jonathan Brewster. [1], Of the twelve plays written by Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace was the most successful, and, according to the opening night review in The New York Times, the play was "so funny that none of us will ever forget it."[2]. On September 25, 1943, the play moved to the Hudson Theatre. The "murderous old lady" plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house on Prospect St in Windsor, Connecticut, where a woman, Amy Archer-Gilligan, took in boarders, promising "lifetime care," and poisoned them for their pensions. Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arsenic_and_Old_Lace_(play)&oldid=979049933, Internet Broadway Database person ID not in Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from December 2008, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2017, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from December 2017, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [4] Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy drama, but it is widely believed that producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (who were also well known as play doctors) convinced Kesselring that it would be much more effective as a comedy. The Goerz House is now the home of the college president. Raymond Massey. | [5], Later revivals in the 1940s and 1950s had Bela Lugosi playing the role of Jonathan Brewster with box office returns reflecting better sales than when Boris Karloff traveled through the same cities.[6][7][8]. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre on January 10, 1941. (who strangely now resembles Boris Karloff) returns on the night that the aunts were planning to bury the newest victim, Mortimer must rally to help his aunts and protect his fiancé -- all while trying to keep his own sanity. The play is still widely performed and has been translated into many languages, including a Russian film. [citation needed] A Broadway revival of the play ran from June 26, 1986, to January 3, 1987, at the 46th Street Theatre in New York, starring Polly Holliday, Jean Stapleton, Tony Roberts and Abe Vigoda.
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