Three Plays

Thornton Wilder

• Verlag: Harper Perennial
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780062232649
• Thema: Literature
• Thema: American Drama

From celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Thornton Wilder, three of the greatest plays in American literature together in one volume.

This omnibus edition brings together Wilder's three best-known plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker. In includes a preface by the author, as well as a foreword by playwright John Guare.

Our Town, Wilder's timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning look at love, death, and destiny, opened on Broadway in 1938 and continues to be celebrated and performed around the world.

The Skin of our Teeth, Wilder's 1942 romp about human follies and human endurance starring the Antrobus family of Excelsior, New Jersey, earned Wilder his third Pulitzer Prize.

The Matchmaker, Wilder's brilliant 1954 farce about money and love starring that irrepressible busybody Dolly Gallagher Levi. This play inspired the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly!

The Matchmaker

A Farce in Four Acts

Playwright’s Note

This play is a rewritten version of The Merchant of Yonkers, which was directed in 1938 by Max Reinhardt and is again dedicated to Max Reinhardt with deep admiration and indebtedness.

Historical Note

The Merchant of Yonkers was produced by Herman Shumlin and directed by Max Reinhardt. The production was designed by Boris Aronson. The cast included Jane Cowl, June Walker, Nydia Westman, Minna Phillips, Percy Waram, Tom Ewell, John Call, Joseph Sweeney, Philip Coolidge, and Edward Nannery. It was first performed on December 12, 1938, at the Colonial Theatre, Boston. The New York engagement opened at the Guild Theatre on December 28, 1938.

The Matchmaker was produced for the Edinburgh Festival by Tennent Productions. It was directed by Dr. Tyrone Guthrie, and the production was designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch. The first performance was at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, on August 23, 1954.

The same production opened at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London, on November 4, 1954. Without changes in the principal roles—with the exception of that of Mr. Vandergelder, which was played successively by Sam Levene, Eddie Mayehoff, and Loring Smith—the play was performed at the Locust Street Theatre, Philadelphia, on October 27,1955.

The Matchmaker opened at the Royale Theatre (now Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre) in New York on December 5, 1955.

The cast of the play from Edinburgh to New York, with the exceptions noted, included:

HORACE VANDERGELDER	Loring Smith
CORNELIUS HACKL	Arthur Hill
BARNABY TUCKER	Robert Morse (following Alec McCowen)
MALACHI STACK	Patrick McAlinney
AMBROSE KEMPER	Alexander Davion (following Lee Montague)
WAITERS	William Lanteau (following and followed by Timothy Findley) and John Milligan
CABMAN	Peter Bayliss
DOLLY LEVI	Ruth Gordon
IRENE MOLLOY	Eileen Herlie
MINNIE FAY	Rosamund Greenwood
ERMENGARDE	Prunella Scales
GERTRUDE	Charity Grace (following Henzie Raeburn)
FLORA VAN HUYSEN	Esme Church
COOK	Christine Thomas (following Daphne Newton)

Characters and Setting

CHARACTERS

HORACEV ANDERGELDER		A merchant of Yonkers, New York
CORNELIUS HACKL BARNABY TUCKE...