Will Rogers' USA is a one-man play about humorist Will Rogers that James Whitmore [1] appeared in for more than 30 years. It was first staged by Frankie Hewitt at the Loretto-Hilton Theater in Webster Groves, Missouri in January 1970 [2] and then at Ford's Theatre in September 1970. [3] [4] It was broadcast on television and recorded on record in 1972 [5] and had a limited run on Broadway in May 1974. The Broadway production was produced by George Spota. [6] The play was produced and conceived by George Spota, adapted and directed by Paul Shyre, with research by associate producer Bryan Sterling. [7] Whitmore changed his monologue each time he performed it, using actual quotations from Will Rogers to comment on current events at the time of the performance. [2]
Gene McFall was reportedly the first person other than Whitmore to perform in the play in 1982. He was stage manager and understudy to Whitmore while on tour in 1983 and 1984. [8] Another source says that actor Paul Tripp starred in a national tour of the play in 1974. [9]
Whitmore reprised the role numerous times through February 2000, when he performed it for the eighth and final run at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. [10] His costume was later sent to the Smithsonian Institution. [2]
The play was recently revived by Kaleidoscope Theatre Company.
Company is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. The original 1970 production was nominated for a record-setting 14 Tony Awards, winning six. Company was among the first book musicals to deal with contemporary dating, marriage, and divorce, and is a notable example of a concept musical lacking a linear plot. In a series of vignettes, Company follows bachelor Bobby interacting with his married friends, who throw a party for his 35th birthday.
George Francis Abbott was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. He received numerous honors including six Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1982. the National Medal of Arts in 1990. and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same name.
James Allen Whitmore Jr. was an American actor. He received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award, plus two Academy Award nominations.
Shelley Winters was an American film actress whose career spanned seven decades. She won Academy Awards for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965), and received nominations for A Place in the Sun (1951) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). She also appeared in A Double Life (1947), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Lolita (1962), Alfie (1966), Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976), and Pete's Dragon (1977). She also acted on television, including a tenure on the sitcom Roseanne, and wrote three autobiographies.
Walter Stacy Keach Jr. is an American actor, active in theatre, film and television since the 1960s. Keach first distinguished himself in Off-Broadway productions and remains a prominent figure in American theatre across his career, particularly as a noted Shakespearean. He is the recipient of several theatrical accolades: four Drama Desk Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards and two Obie Awards for Distinguished Performance by an Actor. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Arthur Kopit's 1969 production of Indians.
Joseph Wiseman was a Canadian-American theatre, film, and television actor who starred as the villain Julius No in the first James Bond film, Dr. No, in 1962. Wiseman was also known for his role as Manny Weisbord on the TV series Crime Story and his career on Broadway. He was once called "the spookiest actor in the American theatre".
Harry Stewart Fleetwood Andrews, CBE was an English actor known for his film portrayals of tough military officers. His performance as Regimental Sergeant Major Wilson in The Hill (1965) alongside Sean Connery earned Andrews the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for the 1966 BAFTA Award for Best British Actor. The first of his more than 80 film appearances was in The Red Beret in 1953.
Dean Jagger was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King's Twelve O'Clock High (1949).
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor, noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. His best-known screen roles include Dr. Zaius in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes and Maurice on Bewitched.
The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. It has subsequently been adapted for the screen multiple times. The work tells the story of a number of alcoholic dead-enders who live together in a flop house above a saloon and what happens to them when the most outwardly "successful" of them embraces sobriety.
David Patrick Kelly is an American actor, musician and lyricist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is best known for his role as the main antagonist Luther in the cult film The Warriors (1979). Kelly is also known for his collaborations with Spike Lee, in the films Malcolm X (1992), Crooklyn (1994), and Chi-Raq (2015), and with David Lynch, appearing in Wild at Heart (1990) as well as Twin Peaks (1990–91) and its 2017 revival.
Paul Bernard Benedict was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and films, beginning in 1965. He was known for his roles as The Number Painter on the PBS children's show Sesame Street and as the English neighbor Harry Bentley on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons.
Francis Edward Paxton Whitehead was an English actor and theatre director. He was nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Pellinore in the 1980 revival of Camelot. Whitehead had many Broadway roles. He was also known for his film roles and for his many guest appearances on several U.S. television shows: he portrayed Bernard Thatch on The West Wing, and in the 1990s often appeared in recurring and guest roles on major sitcoms, such as Frasier, Caroline in the City, Ellen, 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Drew Carey Show, Mad About You, and Friends.
Donald Moffat was a British-American actor with a decades-long career in film and stage in the United States. He began his acting career on- and off-Broadway, which included appearances in The Wild Duck and Right You Are If You Think You Are, earning Tony Award nominations for both, as well as Painting Churches, for which he received an Obie Award. Moffat also appeared in several feature films, including The Thing (1982), The Right Stuff (1983) and, in a rare leading role on film, as a tenuously-recovering alcoholic in On the Nickel (1980). Moffat also made guest appearances in numerous television series, including such shows as Little House on the Prairie, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and The West Wing. He also was a principal in the 1993 TV miniseries Tales of the City.
Paul Wallace Carr was an American actor, director, writer, and producer who performed on stage, film, and television for half a century.
Paul Rogers was an English actor of film, stage and television. He was the first winner of the BAFTA TV Award Best Actor in 1955 and won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for The Homecoming in 1967.
Tracy S. Letts is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for August: Osage County (2007), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. As an actor, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013).
Of Mice and Men is a play adapted from John Steinbeck's 1937 novel of the same name. The play, which predates the Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Awards, earned the 1938 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play.
One Man, Two Guvnors is a play by Richard Bean, an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters, a 1743 commedia dell'arte-style comedy play by the Italian playwright, Carlo Goldoni. The play replaces the Italian period setting of the original with Brighton in 1963. The play opened at the National Theatre in 2011, toured in the UK, and then opened in the West End in November 2011, with a subsequent Broadway opening in April 2012. The second tour was launched six months later, playing the UK, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand. The second UK production in London closed in March 2014, before a third tour of the UK began in May 2014.