While Parents Sleep is a comedy play by the British writer Anthony Kimmins, which was first staged in 1932. It ran for 492 performances during its initial West End run, first at the Royalty Theatre and then transferring to the Garrick. The original cast included Nigel Playfair, Hugh Williams, Jack Hawkins and Diana Beaumont. [1] It was revived again in 1933 for a further 315 performances. [2] Its 1934 Broadway run was much shorter, lasting for only 16 performances at the Playhouse Theatre. [3]
Two brothers invited their girlfriends over to their house, causing immense disruption to the lives of their parents.
In 1935 the play served as the basis of the film While Parents Sleep directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Jean Gillie and Enid Stamp Taylor. [4]
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.
Annie is a Broadway musical based upon the popular Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie, with music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, and book by Thomas Meehan. The original Broadway production opened in 1977 and ran for nearly six years, setting a record for the Alvin Theatre. It spawned numerous productions in many countries, as well as national tours, and won seven Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical. The musical's songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life" are among its most popular musical numbers.
Anything Goes is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap antics aboard an ocean liner bound from New York to London. Billy Crocker is a stowaway in love with heiress Hope Harcourt, who is engaged to Lord Evelyn Oakleigh. Nightclub singer Reno Sweeney and Public Enemy Number 13, “Moonface” Martin, aid Billy in his quest to win Hope. The musical introduced such songs as "Anything Goes," "You're the Top," and "I Get a Kick Out of You."
Una O'Connor was an Irish-American actress who worked extensively in theatre before becoming a character actress in film and in television. She often portrayed comical wives, housekeepers and servants. In 2020, she was listed at number 19 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Philip Loeb, was an American stage, film, and television actor, director and author. He was blacklisted under McCarthyism and committed suicide in response.
John Herman Merivale, also known as Jack Merivale, was a British theatre actor, and occasional supporting player in British films.
The Sleeping Prince: An Occasional Fairy Tale is a 1953 play by Terence Rattigan, conceived to coincide with the coronation of Elizabeth II in the same year. Set in London in 1911, it tells the story of Mary Morgan, a young actress, who meets and ultimately captivates Prince Charles of Carpathia, considered to be inspired by Carol II of Romania.
Anthony Martin Kimmins, OBE was an English director, playwright, screenwriter, producer and actor.
Mona Lee Washbourne was an English actress of stage, film, and television. Her most critically acclaimed role was in the film Stevie (1978), late in her career, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award.
Butley is a play by Simon Gray set in the office of an English lecturer at a university in London, England. The title character, a T. S. Eliot scholar, is an alcoholic who loses his wife and his close friend and colleague – and possibly male lover – on the same day. The action of the dark comedy takes place over several hours on the same day during which he bullies students, friends and colleagues while falling apart at the seams. The play won the 1971 Evening Standard Award for Best Play.
Berkeley Square is a play in three acts by John L. Balderston which tells the story of a young American who is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors. The plot is loosely based on Henry James' posthumous 1917 novel The Sense of the Past.
The Price is a two-act play written in 1967 by Arthur Miller. It is about family dynamics, the price of furniture and the price of one's decisions. The play premiered on Broadway in 1968, and has been revived four times on Broadway. It was nominated for two 1968 Tony Awards.
A Party with Betty Comden and Adolph Green is a musical revue with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, André Previn, Saul Chaplin, and Roger Edens.
Derrick Raoul Edouard Alfred De Marney was an English stage and film actor and producer, of French and Irish ancestry.
Three Men on a Horse is a three act farce co-authored by John Cecil Holm and George Abbott. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself. Originally titled Hobby Horse by John Cecil Holm, Three Men On A Horse was a property controlled and produced by Alex Yokel, who reached out to Warners Bros. for financial assistance; Warners agreed to provide financing on the condition Yokel find someone to doctor the script and direct the Broadway production. George Abbott, the legendary director, who had since 1932 directed and produced each of his Broadway productions, immediately saw the potential and rewrote the script and agreed to direct if he received co-author credit and split the author's royalties with Holm. Abbott wrote a third act, resulting in a new three act play titled Three Men on a Horse.
Samuel Livesey was a Welsh stage and film actor.
Viola Keats (1911–1998) was a British stage, film and television actress. The Independent called her "an actress of vigour and conviction." After training at RADA, her first appearance on the London Stage was at the Apollo Theatre in 1933, in The Distaff Side, and the following year she made her Broadway debut in the same play. Her first screen appearance was in 1933 in Too Many Wives, and she went on to have starring roles in films such as A Woman Alone. From the 1950s, her screen work was largely in television, but she continued to work throughout in the theatre, including an Australian tour of A Streetcar Named Desire as Blanche, and in the 1958 Agatha Christie play Verdict at the Strand Theatre. She spent her retirement living in Brighton.
Minnie Rayner was a British stage and film actress. A character actress, she played working class figures, often mothers, in films of the 1930s. Her roles include the matriarch of the working-class Fulham family who takes in an exiled Russian prince as a lodger in the comedy I Lived with You (1933). The same year she played Gracie Fields's mother in This Week of Grace.
While Parents Sleep is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Jean Gillie, Enid Stamp Taylor and Romilly Lunge. The film is a screen adaptation of a 1932 play of the same name by Anthony Kimmins, which had been a popular success on the West End stage in the West End of London.
Walter Hudd was a British actor and director.
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