Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad

Last updated
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition
Written by Arthur Kopit
Date premiered1963
Place premieredUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Genre Farce

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition was the first play written by Arthur Kopit.

Contents

Background

Kopit was on a postgraduate scholarship from Harvard University when he entered the play in a playwriting contest. The play won the contest and an undergraduate production at Harvard, and gained the notice of the Phoenix Theatre in New York. [1] Kopit explained: "I had been writing short stories, and I was having a lot of trouble with the narrative point of view. When I wrote a play, I found that I lost myself as Arthur Kopit and I just wrote down what the characters said. I wasn’t anywhere in the play, and I liked that. In my fiction I was everywhere, and I didn’t like that." [2]

Productions

The play opened Off-Broadway at the Phoenix Repertory Theatre on February 26, 1962. The cast featured Jo Van Fleet (Madame Rosepettle), Austin Pendleton (Jonathan) and Barbara Harris (Rosalie). [3] The play transferred to Broadway at the Morosco Theatre on August 27, 1963, and closed on October 5, 1963. The principal roles were originated on Broadway by Hermione Gingold (Madame Rosepettle), Sam Waterston (Jonathan, her awkward son), Alix Elias (Rosalie, seductive babysitter), and Sándor Szabó (Commodore Roseabove). The director was Jerome Robbins. [4] Kopit won the 1962 Drama Desk Award for the production. [5]

The play was turned into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse and Barbara Harris and directed by Richard Quine. In the film version, Harris reprised her role of Rosalie from the 1962 Off-Broadway version of the play. [3]

Plot

Described by the author as a "farce in three scenes", the story involves an overbearing mother who travels to a luxury resort in the Caribbean, bringing along her son and her deceased husband, preserved and in his casket.

Related Research Articles

Christopher Ferdinand Durang is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s.

Jerome Robbins American choreographer, director and dancer

Jerome Robbins was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and theater producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television.

Hermione Gingold English actress

Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric character.

Barbara Harris (actress) American actress born 1935

Barbara Densmoor Harris was an American actress. She appeared in such movies as A Thousand Clowns, Plaza Suite, Nashville, Family Plot, Freaky Friday, Peggy Sue Got Married, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Harris won a Tony Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. She also received four Golden Globe Award nominations.

<i>The Tech</i> (newspaper) Student newspaper of MIT

The Tech, first published on November 16, 1881, is the campus newspaper at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Editions are published on Thursdays throughout the academic year and about once a month over the summer. The Tech established an early presence on the World Wide Web, and continues to publish online in tandem with the print edition.

Seven Arts Productions

Seven Arts Productions was a production company which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark, Eliot Hyman, and Norman Katz.

Trevor Kent was an Australian theatre and television actor who achieved a level of public recognition in the 1980s.

Arthur Kopit American playwright

Arthur Lee Kopit was an American playwright. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for Indians and Wings. He was also nominated for three Tony Awards: Best Play for Indians (1970) and Wings (1979), as well as Best Book of a Musical for Nine (1982). He won the Vernon Rice Award in 1962 for Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad and was nominated for another Drama Desk Award in 1979 for Wings.

David Bailie was a South African actor, known for his performances on stage, television and film. In the 1960s and 1970s he worked for both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was an associate artist. On TV he played "Dask" in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death, and also appeared in Blake's 7. On film, he played the mute pirate Cotton in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Bailie was also a professional photographer, specialising in portrait photography. He had a studio in West Kensington, London.

Morosco Theatre Broadway theatre in Manhattan, New York

The Morosco Theatre was a Broadway theatre near Times Square in New York City from 1917 to 1982. It housed many notable productions and its demolition, along with four adjacent theaters, was controversial.

Hiram Sherman American actor

Hiram Sherman was an American actor.

Janis Hansen (manager) American talent agent; former actress

Janis Ann Hansen is an American talent agent and retired actress.

Thomas R. Skelton was an American lighting designer. In a career spanning more than four decades, he was best known for his lighting designs for ballet and Broadway theatre productions.

Michael Brunswick Ritchie was an American film director, producer and writer of films with comical or satirical leanings, such as The Candidate and Smile. He scored commercial successes directing sports films like Downhill Racer and The Bad News Bears, and Chevy Chase's Fletch comedies and Eddie Murphy's The Golden Child.

Robert Prince was an American composer of music for dance, theater, television, film and records and a graduate of the Juilliard School. In addition to his work as composer and arranger he also performed on vibraphone and timpani.

Robert Chuter is an Australian theatre director, film director, producer, writer, and actor.

Warren Low was an American film editor who worked on Now, Voyager, Out of the Fog, and others. He was an originator for what became the American Cinema Editors and received awards from them.

Phoenix Theatre (New York City)

The Phoenix Theatre was a pioneering off-Broadway theatre in New York City, extant from 1953 to 1982. The Phoenix was founded by impresario Norris Houghton and T. Edward Hambleton. The project was a pioneering effort in the establishment of off-Broadway theatre. Houghton and Hambleton wanted a theatre away from Times Square, that would host a permanent company, abjure the star system, produce four or five plays a season for limited engagements, and with ticket prices much lower than on Broadway.

<i>Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mammas Hung You in the Closet and Im Feelin So Sad</i> (film) 1967 film by Richard Quine

Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad is a 1967 American black comedy film directed by Richard Quine, based on the 1962 play Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition by Arthur L. Kopit. The screenplay was written by Ian Bernard. The film stars Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse and Barbara Harris; Harris was the only main cast member who had also appeared in the original, Off-Broadway production of the play.

References

  1. ↑ " 'Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet' History" encyclopedia.com, retrieved January 1, 2018
  2. ↑ Gewertz, Ken. " 'When I wrote a play, I found that I lost myself' " harvard.edu, November 8, 2007
  3. 1 2 Oh Dad, Poor Dad lortel.org, retrieved January 1, 2018
  4. ↑ Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Internet Broadway Database; accessed April 26, 2022.
  5. ↑ Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet, Playbill; retrieved January 1, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.