Minick
{{Short description|1924 play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox play
| name = Minick
| image = Minick at Booth Theatre program page.jpg
| alt = Page from a printed playbill
| caption = Playbill for the Booth Theatre production
| writer = Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
| based_on = {{based on|"Old Man Minick"|Edna Ferber}}
| characters =
| setting = Chicago
| premiere = {{Start date|1924|09|24}}
| place = Booth Theatre
| orig_lang = English
| subject =
| genre = Comedy
}}
Minick is a three-act Broadway play written by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman,{{Cite book |last=Ferber |first=Edna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mY8RMwEACAAJ |title=Old Man Minick. A Short Story. By Edna Ferber. Minick. A Play Based on the Short Story. By E. Ferber and George S. Kaufman, Etc |year=1924 |location=London |via=Google Books}} based on Ferber's 1922 short story "Old Man Minick", that opened on September 24, 1924. Producer Winthrop Ames staged it at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, with O. P. Heggie in the title role. The play is about an elderly widower who comes to live with his son and daughter-in-law in their Chicago apartment.
History
George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber developed Ferber's short story "Old Man Minick" into the play Minick, which was initially produced by Winthrop Ames and opened on September 24, 1924.{{cite book |title=Broadway Plays and Musicals: Descriptions and Essential Facts of More Than 14,000 Shows through 2007 |url=https://archive.org/details/broadwayplaysmus0000hisc |url-access=registration |first=Thomas S. |last=Hischak |publisher=McFarland |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-7864-5309-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/broadwayplaysmus0000hisc/page/301 301]}}
Ames cast a Black actress, Emma Wise, to play the Minicks' maid, which was unusual at a time when most productions were racially segregated.{{sfn|Meredith|1974|p=[https://archive.org/details/georgeskaufmanhi00mere/page/228 228]}} Previews were held in three cities in Connecticut: New Haven, Hartford,{{cite news |title=Old Man Minick an Unusual Play |date=September 7, 1924 |newspaper=The Hartford Courant |page=3.1 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/116246389/hartford-courant/ |via=Newspapers.com}} and New London. In New London, a disused theater was reopened for the preview, which was interrupted by the emergence of hundreds of bats that had taken up residence in the building while it was closed.{{sfn|Meredith|1974|p=[https://archive.org/details/georgeskaufmanhi00mere/page/228 228]}}
Cast and characters
The characters and opening night cast from the Broadway production are given below:{{cite web |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/minick-9583#OpeningNightCast |title=Minick |website=Internet Broadway Database |access-date=January 11, 2023}}
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+ Opening night cast ! scope="col" | Character ! scope="col" | Broadway cast |
| scope="row" |Old Man Minick |
|---|
| scope="row" |Fred Minick |
| scope="row" |Nettie Minick |
| scope="row" |Jim Corey |
| scope="row" |Al Diamond |
| scope="row" |Mr. Dietenhofer |
| scope="row" |Mrs. Lippincott |
| scope="row" |Marge Diamond |
| scope="row" |Miss Crackenwald |
| scope="row" |Mr. Prince |
| scope="row" |Annie |
| scope="row" |Lil Corey |
| scope="row" |Mrs. Smallridge |
| scope="row" |Miss Stack |
| scope="row" |Lula
|Emma Wise |
Reception
The play received positive reviews from critics.{{sfn|Meredith|1974|p=[https://archive.org/details/georgeskaufmanhi00mere/page/229 229]}} A 1924 review in Time said of Ferber and Kaufman, "they very nearly did a masterpiece. The play is amusing, deeply touching in spots, but overshoots the mark by a too tenacious realism."{{cite magazine |title=New Plays |magazine=Time |date=October 6, 1924|via=EBSCOhost}} Stark Young wrote in a review for The New York Times, "The whole tone of the play is constantly funny, loving and tragic altogether. The long gap between the generations of these people, the lack of any idea that might bring them closer to each other: the barren mediocrity of their lives, their good intentions, their good hearts, their stupid interests, and most of all the dumbness of human beings toward each other no matter what they feel, these are the themes that are woven into the texture of the piece."{{cite news |last1=Young |first1=Stark |title=The Play |work=New York Times |date=September 25, 1924}} {{ProQuest|103350919}}
Adaptations
Famous Players–Lasky adapted the play as a silent film in 1925 under the title Welcome Home, directed by James Cruze.{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=Mourdant |title=Minick |work=New York Times |date=May 18, 1925}} {{ProQuest|103477269}}
Warner Brothers did two sound film adaptations. In 1932, Archie Mayo directed The Expert, starring Chic Sale. In 1939, Terry O. Morse directed No Place to Go, starring Dennis Morgan.
References
{{Reflist}}
=Works cited=
- {{Cite book |first=Scott |last=Meredith |author-link=Scott Meredith |title=George S. Kaufman and His Friends |publisher=Doubleday |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-385-01566-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/georgeskaufmanhi00mere}}