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Golden Boy is a drama by Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced on Broadway by The Group Theatre in 1937. Odets' biggest hit was made into a 1939 film of the same name, starring William Holden in his breakthrough role, and also served as the basis for a 1964 musical with Sammy Davis Jr.
Joe Bonaparte, a young Italian American man and talented violinist, dreams of becoming a professional musician. Joe, however, fights a boxing match for manager Tom Moody, which he wins. Joe's father, Mr. Bonaparte, has scraped up enough money to afford a top-of-the-line violin for Joe's 21st birthday. However, upon learning of Joe's fight from Joe's brother Frank, Mr. Bonaparte decides not to give Joe the violin. Two months later, Joe has become a successful boxer for Moody and Roxy Gottlieb, a prizefight promoter. However, Joe won't throw punches, attempting to protect his hands. Later, Joe prepares to go on a boxing tour, where Mr. Bonaparte presents Joe with the violin. Joe plays it, but tells his father to return it.
Six months later, Joe's career continues to advance. Infamous gangster Eddie Fuseli approaches Moody and Roxy, demanding to be signed on as a partner, which Joe agrees to. Moody, believing Joe to be distracted by his fame, convinces his girlfriend Lorna to talk to Joe. She does so, and the pair profess their love to each other. Despite this, Lorna cannot bring herself to break off her relationship with Moody. Feeling that he has lost Lorna as well as his father's respect, Joe no longer holds back in the ring. In his next match, Joe defeats his opponent, but breaks a hand, thereby ruining any future career he may have had as a violinist.
Six months later, Joe has become a top-ranked prizefighter. He has become disillusioned with his fame and his managers, and has become more vicious in the ring. After learning Lorna is engaged to Moody, Joe confronts her and they argue, where Lorna accuses Joe of being a killer like Fuseli. Disoriented, Joe is unable to stay focused against his opponent, but pulls through with a victory. Before the celebration begins, Joe learns his final blow has killed his opponent. Meanwhile, Joe's managers arrive at the Bonaparte home to wait for Joe and Lorna. Frank receives a call informing him that Joe and Lorna have died in a car accident. Mr. Bonaparte prepares to retrieve the body, saying he will bring Joe "home ... where he belongs."
Following his 1935 successes Waiting for Lefty and Awake and Sing! , Odets went to Hollywood to write The General Died at Dawn with the intention of using his salary to support the Group Theatre, the independent theatre company that had produced his earlier plays, [1] [2] despite his previous protests against large corporations, including movie studios. His own internal struggle to choose between art and materialism became the basis for the theme of his play, his first to focus more on psychology and personal relationships than social criticism. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviewer noted that Odets wrote about social consciousness in Waiting for Lefty and "lessons of faith" in Awake and Sing, but in Golden Boy he set out to "merely tell a story." [3]
Odets called the play "symbolic", with one latter-era critic noting that "the show pits spiritual ideals against lust for fame and money in what can only be termed an implausible setup." [4] According to John Lahr, "The heroes of 'Golden Boy' and 'The Big Knife' are both torn between commercial success and artistic fulfillment, driven crazy by their decision to live against their natures; both murder themselves out of nostalgia for their lost integrity." [1]
The original Broadway production, directed by Harold Clurman, opened on November 4, 1937 at the Belasco Theatre, [5] where it ran for 250 performances. The cast included Luther Adler as Joe, Robert Lewis as Roxy, Morris Carnovsky as Joe's father, Roman Bohnen as Tom, and Frances Farmer as Lorna, John Garfield as Siggie, Lee J. Cobb as Mr. Carp, Elia Kazan as Eddie Fuselli and Howard da Silva as Lewis. [6] [7]
The play was revived on Broadway at the ANTA Playhouse, opening on March 12, 1952, and closing on April 6, 1952, after 55 performances. John Garfield played Joe. [8]
A second Broadway revival, produced by the Lincoln Center Theater, opened on December 6, 2012 at the Belasco Theatre. Direction is by Bartlett Sher with Seth Numrich as Joe Bonaparte, Yvonne Strahovski as Lorna Moon, Tony Shalhoub as Mr. Bonaparte and Danny Burstein as Tokio. [9] [10] The play closed on January 20, 2013 after 53 performances and 30 previews. [11] Golden Boy received eight 2013 Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance By An Actor In A Featured Role In A Play for both Shalhoub and Burstein, [12] and three Drama Desk Award nominations, including Outstanding Revival of a Play.
Anthony Marc Shalhoub is an American actor. His breakout role was as Antonio Scarpacci on the sitcom Wings from 1991 to 1997. He later starred as Adrian Monk in the USA Network series Monk from 2002 to 2009, earning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. For his supporting role as Abe Weissman on Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize–winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash. From January 1935, Odets's socially relevant dramas were extremely influential, particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression. His works inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including Arthur Miller, Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon, and David Mamet. After the production of his play Clash by Night in the 1941–42 season, Odets focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in Hollywood until mid-1948. He returned to New York for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was eventually eclipsed by Miller, Tennessee Williams, and, in the early- to mid-1950s, William Inge.
William Gibson was an American playwright and novelist. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for The Miracle Worker in 1959, which he later adapted for the film version in 1962.
Waiting for Lefty is a 1935 play by the American playwright Clifford Odets; it was his first play to be produced. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by a meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor strike. The framing uses the audience as part of the meeting.
Luther Adler was an American actor who worked in theatre, film, television, and directed plays on Broadway.
Joseph Mantello is an American actor and director known for his work on stage and screen. He first gained prominence for his Broadway acting debut in the original production of Tony Kushner's two-part epic play Angels in America (1993–1994), for which he received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play nomination. He has since acted in acclaimed Broadway revivals of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart (2011) and Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (2017).
Anthony Crivello is an American actor, known for his performances on both stage and screen He appeared in the original cast of several Broadway shows, including playing Grantaire and Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Eddie Fuseli in Golden Boy, Dante Keyes in Marie Christine, and the Killer in The News. He also originated the title role in The Phantom of the Opera: The Las Vegas Spectacular and stayed with the cast through its closing six years later. He played the Mysterious Man in the star-studded production of Into the Woods at the Hollywood Bowl and starred as Che in the closing cast of the original Broadway production of Evita. In 1993, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Bartlett B. Sher is an American theatre director. The New York Times has described him as "one of the most original and exciting directors, not only in the American theater but also in the international world of opera". Sher has been nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for the 2008 Broadway revival of South Pacific.
David Norman Yazbek is an American writer, musician, composer, and lyricist. He wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musicals The Full Monty (2000), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010), The Band's Visit (2017), and Tootsie (2019). His most recent projects include the musicals Dead Outlaw and Buena Vista Social Club.
Awake and Sing! is a drama play written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 and designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco. The Belasco Theatre has 1,016 seats across three levels and has been operated by The Shubert Organization since 1948. Both the facade and interior of the theater are New York City landmarks.
Janice Elaine Maxwell was an American stage and television actress. She was a five-time Tony Award nominee and two-time Drama Desk Award winner. In a career spanning over thirty years, Maxwell was one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed stage actresses of her time.
Golden Boy is a 1964 musical with a book by Clifford Odets and William Gibson, lyrics by Lee Adams, and music by Charles Strouse.
Golden Boy is a 1939 American drama romance sports film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou and William Holden. It is based on the 1937 play of the same title by Clifford Odets.
Danny Burstein is an American actor and singer. Known for his work on the Broadway stage, he's received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards and nominations for three Grammy Awards.
Seth Numrich is an American stage, television, and film actor.
The Big Knife is an American play by Clifford Odets. The original production was directed by Lee Strasberg, who had worked with Odets at the Group Theatre, and starring fellow Group Theatre alumnus John Garfield. The play debuted at Broadway's National Theatre on 24 February 1949 before closing on May 28 after 109 performances. The Big Knife marked the return of Odets to Broadway after a six-year hiatus in which he toiled in Hollywood as a screenwriter and motion picture director. The play concerns the disillusionment of a movie star with the Hollywood's studio system and disgust with himself, as he has lost his idealism in the pursuit of success.
The Blue Light Theater Company was an off-Broadway theater company located in New York City primarily active in the late 1990s through 2001 and notable for the many celebrated actors associated with the company, including Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, Marisa Tomei, and Marsha Mason, as well as many who have since gone on to have notable careers including Josh Radnor, T.R. Knight, Chris Messina, and Matthew Saldivar. Actor/ Artistic-Director Greg Naughton, and Darice O'Mara, Assistant to Paul Newman, founded Blue Light in 1995 with the stated mission of producing challenging, primarily larger-cast plays that would bring up-and-coming actors together with veteran artists in a spirit of apprenticeship. They began as an itinerant theater troupe, renting theaters from such venues as Primary Stages, HERE Arts Center, the Classic Stage Company, and Atlantic Theatre Company, before settling in for two seasons at the 55th Street Theatre and their final two seasons in the McGinn-Cazale Theatre. Mandy Greenfield joined as Blue Light’s producing manager in 1998. She and Peter Manning are credited with the artistic direction and selection of Blue Light’s final season, when Mr. Naughton took a sabbatical.
Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. Having studied at Cornell University and Juilliard School he became known for directing both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He has received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play, and nominations for four Drama Desk Awards.
