Little Women is a play in four acts by Marian de Forest which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. The only full-length stage adaptation of the work authorized by the Alcott family, the work was first staged on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre in 1912. It was subsequently revived on Broadway in 1917, 1931, 1944, and 1946. The play was frequently performed in regional theatre in the United States during the early to mid 20th century. [1]
Jessie Bonstelle, one of the first women to work as a director in the United States, was interested in adapting Louisa May Alcott's Little Women for the Broadway stage. She unsuccessfully appealed to the Alcott family for the rights to adapt the work for a period of eight years. She finally obtained permission from the family after the death of one of Alcott's nephews who was one of the joint heirs to Alcott's published literary works. This permission was contingent on the Alcott family's approval of the script. Concerned that her own skills as a writer were insufficient to adapt the novel attequately, Bonstelle enlisted playwright Marian de Forest to adapt the work for her. [1]
Little Women premiered at the Teck Theatre in Buffalo, New York on January 22, 1912, in a production directed by Bonstelle and produced by William A. Brady. [2] The original cast included Marie Pavey as Jo, Alice Brady as Meg, Gladys Hulette as Beth, Edith Spears as Amy, Gertrude Berkeley as Mrs. March, Eugene A. Eberle as Aunt March, Howard Estabrook as Laurie, John Cromwell as John Brooke, Carl Sauerman as Professor Frederich Bhaer, Carson Davenport as Mr. Lawrence, Lynn Hammond as Mr. March, and Lillian Dix as Hannah Mullett. [2] The production toured the United States and went through a number of revisions before it ultimately reached Broadway nine months later. [3] Its Broadway premiere occurred at the Playhouse Theatre on October 14, 1912, with the only cast change from the Buffalo premiere being the role of Amy which was performed by the actress Beverly West. [4] It ran at the Playhouse Theatre for a total of 184 performances. [3] The play was revived on Broadway in 1917, 1931, 1944, and 1946. [3]
The 1919 London production of the play made a star of Katharine Cornell, who played the role of Jo. [5]
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Little Women is a coming-of-age novel written by American novelist Louisa May Alcott, originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her three sisters, it is classified as an autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel.
Alice Brady was an American actress of stage and film. She began her career in the theatre in 1911, and her first important success came on Broadway in 1912 when she created the role of Meg March in the original production of Marian de Forest's Little Women. As a screen actress she first appeared in silent films and was one of the few actresses to survive the transition into talkies. She worked until six months before her death from cancer in 1939. Her films include My Man Godfrey (1936), in which she plays the flighty mother of Carole Lombard's character, and In Old Chicago (1937) for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Christopher Fry was an English poet and playwright. He is best known for his verse dramas, especially The Lady's Not for Burning, which made him a major force in theatre in the 1940s and 1950s.
Katharine Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer. She was born in Berlin to American parents and raised in Buffalo, New York.
Jean Anouilh's play Antigone is a tragedy inspired by the play of the same name by Sophocles.
The Man Who Came to Dinner is a comedy play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It debuted on October 16, 1939, at the Music Box Theatre in New York City, where it ran until 1941, closing after 739 performances. It then enjoyed a number of New York and London revivals. The first London production was staged at The Savoy Theatre starring Robert Morley and Coral Browne. In 1990, Browne stated in a televised biographical interview, broadcast on UK Channel 4, that she bought the rights to the play, borrowing money from her dentist to do so. When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all later productions and adaptations of the play.
Little Men, or Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys, is a children's novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), which was first published in 1871 by Roberts Brothers. The book reprises characters from her 1868–69 two-volume novel Little Women, and acts as a sequel, or as the second book in an unofficial Little Women trilogy. The trilogy ends with Alcott's 1886 novel Jo's Boys, and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men". Alcott's story recounts the life of Jo Bhaer, her husband, and the various children at Plumfield Estate School. Alcott's classic novel has been adapted to a 1934 film, a 1940 film, a 1998 film, a television series, and a Japanese animated television series.
Little Women is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor, and starring Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, and Jean Parker. The screenplay, written by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman, is based on the 1868-1869 two-volume novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott.
Daniel Gerroll is an English theatre, television and film actor.
Susan H. Schulman is an American theater director.
Little Women is a musical with a book by Allan Knee, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, and music by Jason Howland.
Stuart Armstrong Walker was an American director and producer in theatre and motion pictures.
The Enchanted Cottage is a romance by the English playwright Arthur Wing Pinero, written in 1921. The play opened on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre on March 31, 1923, directed by Jessie Bonstelle and William A. Brady, and starring Herbert Bunston and Katharine Cornell and ran for 65 performances until May 1923.
Marian de Forest was an American journalist, playwright, major force in the progressive women's movement, and founder of Zonta, a service organization of women professionals. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2001.
Jessie Bonstelle was an American theater director, actress, and drama company manager. Encouraged by her mother, she sang and performed in the theater from a young age; she went on to become a famous leading lady and made several performances on Broadway. Later she became a director, managing many stock companies, directing Broadway productions and training many young performers who went on to be famous actors. In 1925, she founded her own theater in Detroit. Reorganized in 1928 as the Detroit Civic Theatre, it was one of America's first civic theaters, and her methods influenced community theater projects elsewhere. She has been described as "one of the pioneering women stage directors in the early twentieth century".
Little Women is a lost 1918 American silent drama film directed by Harley Knoles and written by Anne Maxwell based upon the 1868-69 two-volume novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. The film stars Isabel Lamon, Dorothy Bernard, Lillian Hall, Florence Flinn, and Conrad Nagel. The film was released on November 10, 1918, by Paramount Pictures.
Marie Pavey, also known as E. Marie Pavey, was an American stage actress and vaudeville performer who had an active career in the United States during the first three decades of the twentieth century. Trained as an actress in Chicago, she began her career in that city in 1900. In her early career she toured widely in vaudeville as a stage partner to Bert Coote.
Gertrude Berkeley was an American actress of stage and screen. She began her career performing in repertory theatre in the 1880s, and performed widely in touring road companies and stock theatre during the latter half of the 19th century into the early twentieth century. She appeared with some regularity on Broadway from 1906 through 1917; performing in plays by Louis K. Anspacher, J. M. Barrie, Rachel Crothers, and Henrik Ibsen. As a stage actress she is best remembered for creating the role of Mrs. March in the original Broadway and national touring productions of Marian de Forest's Little Women; a play adapted from the novel by Louisa May Alcott. She made several silent films with the Fox Film Corporation from 1915 to 1921; often portraying motherly figures or comic older women. She was the mother of film director and musical choreographer Busby Berkeley.
Carl Sauerman was a Swedish-born actor of the stage and screen. He began his career as a leading stage actor in Berlin before moving to New York City in 1908 to become a member of the German-language theatre company at the Irving Place Theatre. He is best remembered for creating the role of Professor Friedrich Bhaer in the original production of Marian de Forest's Little Women; an immensely popular stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same that played on Broadway and toured the United States in 1912–1913. In addition to starring in plays on Broadway, he was a silent film actor.
