Child of Manhattan (play)
{{Short description|1932 play by Preston Sturges}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox play
|name = Child of Manhattan
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|writer = Preston Sturges
|chorus =
|characters = Madeleine McGonegal
Otto Paul Vanderkill
Panama C. Kelly
others
|mute =
|setting = Loveland Dance Hall, Madeleine's home, and a Penthouse
|premiere = March 1, 1932
|place = Fulton Theatre (Broadway)
New York City, United States
|orig_lang = English
|series =
|subject =
|genre = Romantic comedy
|web =
}}
Child of Manhattan is a 1932 play by Preston Sturges, his fifth to be produced on Broadway and his last for almost twenty years as his career took him to Hollywood.{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/8190 |title=Preston Sturges |website=IBDB.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database }} It was adapted into a film of the same name, released in 1933 by Columbia Pictures, the second play of Sturges' to make it to the silver screen, after 1929's Strictly Dishonorable.
Broadway production
Sturges wrote Child of Manhattan in 16 days. The out-of-town tryout took place at the Broadstreet Theatre in Newark, New Jersey, where the play received very good audience response.{{cite sturges}}, pp.262-64
The Broadway production opened at the Fulton Theatre on March 1, 1932, and logged 87 performances, closing in May of that year.{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/11502 |title=Child of Manhattan |website=IBDB.com |publisher=Internet Broadway Database }} It was produced by Peggy Fears and A. C. Blumenthal and directed by Howard Lindsay.
Critical response was poor, and included such assessments as "Sheer trash," "deeply offensive," and commented on its "bathos and sweetish bosh." Time magazine said that the play was "as silly as it is trite."
=Broadway cast=
The opening night cast included:
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- John Altieri as John Tarantino
- Franz Bendtsen as Lucinda, Limited
- Alexander Campbell as Doctor Charley
- Douglass Dumbrille as Panama C. Kelly
- Dorothy Hall as Madeleine McGonegal
- Jackson Halliday as Buddy McGonegal
- Maude Odell as Mrs. McGonegal
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- Reginald Owen as Otto Paul Vanderkill
- Jessie Ralph as Aunt Minnie
- Joseph H. Roeder as Eggleston
- Harriet Russell as Luthy McGonegal
- Ralph Sanford as Spyrene
- Helen Strickland as Miss Sophie Vanderkill
- Elizabeth Young as Adelaide Vanderkill
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References
Notes
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IBDB show}}
- {{IMDb title|qid=Q5097883|title=Child of Manhattan (film)}}
- {{TCMDb title|70795|Child of Manhattan|(film)}}
{{Preston Sturges|state=collapsed}}
Category:Plays by Preston Sturges
Category:American plays adapted into films
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