Our Wives is a play in three acts by Helen Kraft and Frank Mandel. [1] A farce, Kraft and Mandel based their play on Ludwig Fulda's German-language comedy Jugendfreunde (1897). [2]
Frank Bowers is content to remain a bachelor, and is dismayed when his three closest friends (Harry, Sylvan, and Melville) all get engaged, and then married; leaving their bachelor days behind them. A librettist, Bowers hears a piece of music by the composer Wilson that he admires, and decides to find Wilson in order that they might collaborate on a project together. Bowers is surprised that Wilson is a woman and not a man when they finally meet. They are both attracted to one another, but agree to put their attraction aside in order to work professionally together. All does not go according to plan, and a comedy of errors ensues as the professional and personal become entangled and they find their feeling for one another cannot be so easily put aside.
Our Wives premiered in July 1912 at Parson's Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut. [3] [4] It toured to the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. the following October. [5] The production then went to New York where it opened on Broadway at Wallack's Theatre on November 4, 1912. [1] It closed the following month after a total of 40 performances at that theatre. [6] The cast included Henry Kolker as Frank Bowers, Pamela Gaythorne as Wilson, Mark Smith as Harry Lyon, Isabel MacGregor as Margaret Lyon, Vera Finlay as Emily Martin, William Rosell as Sylvan Martin, George Graham as Melville Tatum, Gwendolyn Piers as Elizabeth Tatum, and John Findlay as Otto. [1]
Our Wives was adapted by composer Victor Herbert and librettist Henry Blossom into the 1914 Broadway musical The Only Girl . [7]
The Washington Evening Star compared the work to William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing stating that Henry Kolker as Frank Bowers was a "Benedick modernized", and that the character of Wilson possessed the "woman's wit" of Beatrice. [8]
Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of nearly 50 musical comedies and operettas. Harbach collaborated as lyricist or librettist with many of the leading Broadway composers of the early 20th century, including Jerome Kern, Louis Hirsch, Herbert Stothart, Vincent Youmans, George Gershwin, and Sigmund Romberg. Harbach believed that music, lyrics, and story should be closely connected, and, as Oscar Hammerstein II's mentor, he encouraged Hammerstein to write musicals in this manner. Harbach is considered one of the first great Broadway lyricists, and he helped raise the status of the lyricist in an age more concerned with music, spectacle, and stars. Some of his more famous lyrics are "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Indian Love Call" and "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine".
James William Wallack, commonly referred to as J. W. Wallack, was an Anglo-American actor and manager, born in London, and brother of Henry John Wallack.
John Johnstone Wallack, was an American actor-manager and son of James William Wallack and Susan Johnstone. He used the stage name John Lester until October 5, 1858, when he first acted under the name Lester Wallack, which he retained the rest of his career.
Ludwig Anton Salomon Fulda was a German playwright and poet, with a strong social commitment. He lived with Moritz Moszkowski's first wife Henriette, née Chaminade, younger sister of pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade.
The Lambs, Inc. is a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters, and others involved in the theatre. It is America's oldest theatrical organization. "The Lambs" is a registered trademark of The Lambs, Inc.; and the club has been commonly referred to as The Lambs Club and The Lambs Theater since 1874.
A Trip to Chinatown is a musical comedy in three acts with a book by Charles H. Hoyt, music by Percy Gaunt and lyrics by Hoyt. In addition to the Gaunt and Hoyt score, many songs were interpolated into the score at one time or another during the run, as was fashionable for musicals of the era. The story concerns a widow who accidentally maneuvers two young suburban couples into a big city restaurant and brings romance to them and herself. It is loosely based on an 1835 English one-act farce, A Day Well Spent, by John Oxenford.
Henry Martyn Blossom Jr. was an American writer, playwright, novelist, opera librettist, and lyricist. He first gained wide attention for his second novel, Checkers: A Hard Luck Story (1896), which was successfully adapted by Blossom into a 1903 Broadway play, Checkers. It was Blossom's first stage work and his first critical success in the theatre. The play in turn was adapted by others creatives into two silent films, one in 1913 and the other in 1919, and the play was the basis for the 1920 Broadway musical Honey Girl. Checkers was soon followed by Blossom's first critical success as a lyricist, the comic opera The Yankee Consul (1903), on which he collaborated with fellow Saint Louis resident and composer Alfred G. Robyn. This work was also adapted into a silent film in 1921. He later collaborated with Robyn again; writing the book and lyrics for their 1912 musical All for the Ladies.
Three New York City playhouses named Wallack's Theatre played an important part in the history of American theater as the successive homes of the stock company managed by actors James W. Wallack and his son, Lester Wallack. During its 35-year lifetime, from 1852 to 1887, that company developed and held a reputation as the best theater company in the country.
The Gay Parisienne is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts with a libretto by George Dance. It premiered at the Opera House in Northampton, England, in October 1894, with music by Ernest Rousden. It was revived in London on 4 April 1896, with music by Ivan Caryll, where it ran for 369 performances at the Duke of York's Theatre, starring W. H. Denny as Major Fossdyke, Frank Wheeler as Auguste and Ada Reeve as Julie.
Connie Ediss was an English actress and singer best known as a buxom, good-humoured comedian in many of the popular Edwardian musical comedies around the turn of the 20th century.
Mabel Hite was a vaudeville comedian and musical comedy actress.
Frank Aloysius Robert Tinney was an American blackface comedian and actor.
John Lionel Golden was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for "Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films.
Ivy Troutman was an American supporting actress active during the first half of the twentieth century. She acted in at least twenty-one Broadway productions between 1902 and 1945, appearing in such long-running plays as A Pair of Sixes, Baby Mine and The Late George Apley. In the 1920s Troutman, with her husband, portrait painter Waldo Peirce, joined the colony of American expatriates in Paris that included Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.
Edgar McPhail Smith was an American writer and lyricist for musicals in the early decades of the 20th century. He contributed to some 150 Broadway musicals. Weber and Fields starred in many of his works.
Frank Mandel was an American playwright and producer. He co-wrote several productions. Some of his works were adapted by others. Several of his collaborations were adapted into films. UCLA's libraries have a collection of his papers.
The Only Girl is a "musical farce in three acts" with music by Victor Herbert and a book and lyrics by Henry Blossom. The musical is based on the 1912 play Our Wives by Frank Mandel and Helen Kraft. It opened on Broadway at the 39th Street Theatre on November 2, 1914. During its Broadway run it transferred to the Lyric Theatre where it closed on June 5, 1915, after 240 performances. The Broadway production starred Wilda Bennett as the composer Ruth Wilson; Thurston Hall as her librettist Alan Kimbrough; Adele Rowland as the soubrette Patricia La Montrose, a.k.a "Patsy"; Ernest Torrence as the painter Andrew McMurray, a.k.a "Bunkie"; Vivian Wessell as Bunkie's wife; and Jed Prouty as the lawyer Fresh; Josephine Whittell as Margaret Ayer, Fresh's wife.
Silvio Hein was an American composer, songwriter, conductor, and theatrical producer. He was a songwriter for Tin Pan Alley and composed the scores to fourteen Broadway musicals. His most successful stage work was the 1917 musical Flo-Flo which he created with the French librettist and playwright Fred de Gresac. His songs were also interpolated into musicals created by others, including The Little Duchess and Ziegfeld Follies. In addition to his work writing music, he also worked as both a conductor and producer on Broadway. In 1914 he was a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Mark Smith was an American actor of stage, radio, and film. A fourth generation American actor, he was a member of the Smith family of performers. He should not be confused with his grandfather and his father who also performed under the name Mark Smith.
Our Wives may refer to: