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Mister Roberts: A Play
This rowdy, realistic saga of a group of American sailors aboard a Navy cargo vessel in the Pacific shows the crew suffering from that deadly boredom that is part of the routine of war. To the ship's company, the Skipper is a cantankerous, small-minded man and every one of them conspires against him as the ship pursued its runs from Apathy to Tedium and back again. They are on a cargo mission, so little else is going to happen. That Mr. Roberts, [a lieutenant] shared the crew's dislike for the Captain was one reason for his popularity. Roberts joined the world to fight; he hates being inactive almost as much as he hates the Captain. Privy to the crew's hijinks against the Skipper, Roberts still feels it's his duty to retain some discipline. After winning many ingenious battles against the Skipper, Roberts at last wins himself a transfer to combat duty. It was this transfer that cost him his life on a destroyer off Japan.
72 pages, Paperback
First published February 18, 1948
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About the author
Thomas Heggen
7 books3 followersThomas Orlo Heggen (December 23, 1918 – May 19, 1949) was an American author best known for his 1946 novel Mister Roberts and its adaptations to stage and screen. Heggen became an Oklahoman in 1935, when in the depths of the Depression his father's business failed and his family moved from Iowa to Oklahoma City for work. He was Wallace Stegner's cousin.
After attending Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, and graduating from the University of Minnesota, where he was classmate of Max Shulman, Thomas R. St. George and Norman Katkov, with a degree in journalism, Heggen moved to New York City and became an editor for Reader's Digest. He joined the U.S. Navy immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was commissioned as a lieutenant in August 1942. For the duration of the War, he served on supply vessels in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Pacific, the latter as assistant communications officer on the cargo ship USS Virgo and also the USS Rotanin.
During his 14 months aboard the Virgo, Heggen wrote a collection of vignettes about daily life on the ship, which he described as sailing "from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony". Like his fictional alter ego Doug Roberts, he felt "left out" of the War and butted heads with his commander, a coarse martinet who repeatedly denied his requests for transfer to a destroyer. The fictional "Captain Morton" of the movie and dramatizations was Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander Herbert Ezra Randall, a Merchant Marine officer. According to Naval History magazine, Randall "had disdain for the ways of the Navy. Like his fictional “Old Stupid” counterpart, Captain Randall did own two palm trees, and like the characters Doug Roberts and Ensign Pulver, Heggen threw them over the side."
Following his discharge in December 1945, he returned to New York and reworked the material into a loosely structured novel, adding an introductory chapter. His original title, The Iron-Bound Bucket, was changed to Mister Roberts by the publisher.
Despite mixed reviews, it sold over one million copies and made Heggen the toast of the New York literary scene, followed by a lucrative offer to adapt the book for the Broadway stage. For this, he enlisted the aid of humorist Max Shulman but the collaboration did not work out. He then turned to producer-director Joshua Logan, who emphasized the work's farcical elements while retaining its serious undertones. With Henry Fonda in the title role, the 1948 stage version of Mister Roberts was a smash. Heggen and Logan shared the first Tony Award presented for Best Play.
Bewildered by the fame he had longed for, and under pressure to turn out another bestseller, he found himself with a crippling case of writer's block. "I don't know how I wrote Mister Roberts," he admitted to a friend. "It was spirit writing". He became an insomniac and tried to cure it with increasing amounts of alcohol and prescription drugs. On May 19, 1949, Heggen drowned in his bathtub at age 30 after an overdose of sleeping pills. His death was widely reported a probable suicide, though he left no note and those close to him insisted it was an accident. The Chief Medical Examiner reported on June 8, 1949 that Heggen died by drowning though chemical analysis had revealed a "considerable amount of barbiturates".
After attending Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma State University, and graduating from the University of Minnesota, where he was classmate of Max Shulman, Thomas R. St. George and Norman Katkov, with a degree in journalism, Heggen moved to New York City and became an editor for Reader's Digest. He joined the U.S. Navy immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was commissioned as a lieutenant in August 1942. For the duration of the War, he served on supply vessels in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Pacific, the latter as assistant communications officer on the cargo ship USS Virgo and also the USS Rotanin.
During his 14 months aboard the Virgo, Heggen wrote a collection of vignettes about daily life on the ship, which he described as sailing "from Tedium to Apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to Monotony". Like his fictional alter ego Doug Roberts, he felt "left out" of the War and butted heads with his commander, a coarse martinet who repeatedly denied his requests for transfer to a destroyer. The fictional "Captain Morton" of the movie and dramatizations was Naval Reserve Lieutenant Commander Herbert Ezra Randall, a Merchant Marine officer. According to Naval History magazine, Randall "had disdain for the ways of the Navy. Like his fictional “Old Stupid” counterpart, Captain Randall did own two palm trees, and like the characters Doug Roberts and Ensign Pulver, Heggen threw them over the side."
Following his discharge in December 1945, he returned to New York and reworked the material into a loosely structured novel, adding an introductory chapter. His original title, The Iron-Bound Bucket, was changed to Mister Roberts by the publisher.
Despite mixed reviews, it sold over one million copies and made Heggen the toast of the New York literary scene, followed by a lucrative offer to adapt the book for the Broadway stage. For this, he enlisted the aid of humorist Max Shulman but the collaboration did not work out. He then turned to producer-director Joshua Logan, who emphasized the work's farcical elements while retaining its serious undertones. With Henry Fonda in the title role, the 1948 stage version of Mister Roberts was a smash. Heggen and Logan shared the first Tony Award presented for Best Play.
Bewildered by the fame he had longed for, and under pressure to turn out another bestseller, he found himself with a crippling case of writer's block. "I don't know how I wrote Mister Roberts," he admitted to a friend. "It was spirit writing". He became an insomniac and tried to cure it with increasing amounts of alcohol and prescription drugs. On May 19, 1949, Heggen drowned in his bathtub at age 30 after an overdose of sleeping pills. His death was widely reported a probable suicide, though he left no note and those close to him insisted it was an accident. The Chief Medical Examiner reported on June 8, 1949 that Heggen died by drowning though chemical analysis had revealed a "considerable amount of barbiturates".
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 1, 2018
Arguably the best war play ever written. A must read for those who love plays.
March 26, 2022
This is like a relic from a distant time that you find in a crappy thrift store. You're not quite sure why it was ever built or bought or admired but you pick it up anyway, look at it for a second, and then put it back and forget you ever saw it in the first place.
February 16, 2023
The moment I read the set description, I knew that palm tree wasn't gonna make it to the end of the play.
A good play, I'd enjoy watching it, but all the male roles means it'll never be popular in amateur theater circles.
A good play, I'd enjoy watching it, but all the male roles means it'll never be popular in amateur theater circles.
December 13, 2023
I feel bad because I know a part of it is that it just didn’t resonate for *me,* both in spirit and in the fact that it’s been eighty years and I don’t plan on joining an army any time soon, but like…the style and story and misogyny here annoy me nonetheless
October 6, 2018
Two acts of toxic masculinity
February 17, 2020
Predictable old chestnut. I’d like to see the movie that won Jack Lemmon a supporting Oscar for Ensign Pulver.
November 29, 2022
Funny and moving play, but a little dated. Great structure.
February 6, 2020
The book "Mister Roberts" was written by my father's first cousin Thomas Heggen. The film is the first movie, other than Disney, that I remember seeing in a theater. This would have been in 1955 - I was 6 or 7. I was too young to really understand the story, but have a vivid memory of a sailor on shore leave driving a motorcycle off the end of a pier. The book was a great success, so Broadway producer Leland Hayward acquired the rights for the play and hired Heggen and Joshua Logan for the adaptation. Mister Roberts opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre on February 18, 1948, starring Henry Fonda, David Wayne, Robert Keith, and Jocelyn Brando. Logan's brother-in-law, William Harrigan, played the Captain. The original production also featured Harvey Lembeck, Ralph Meeker, Steven Hill, Lee Van Cleef, and Murray Hamilton. Fonda won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. The production ran for 1,157 performances. Fonda later reprised his role of Lieutenant Roberts in the 1955 film of the same name. Also featured were James Cagney as Captain Morton, William Powell, in his last feature film, as "Doc", Jack Lemmon as Ensign Pulver (the role for which he won his first Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor), Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond, Philip Carey, Nick Adams, Ken Curtis, Harry Carey, Jr. and Martin Milner. Logan was co-author of the screenplay, so it is not surprising that all the essential aspects of the play are found in the movie. The role of Ensign Pulver is more fleshed out in the film. Fonda was almost passed over for the role because Hollywood thought he was no longer a box-office draw. Personally I cannot imagine anyone else in the role. In my continuing quest to explore the difference between plays as written and later movie versions. I am curious to see how well the Hollywood version portrays the drama. In the case of Mister Roberts, the movie and play are both exceptional!!! Kristi & Abby Tabby
August 26, 2012
The very first winner of the Tony Award for Best Play.
This is interesting and nuanced enough that I would want to stage it to see if a full-blooded production could really bring it to life. The conflicting desires of man-at-war are given such subtle treatment by the playwright that adding the physical elements could do wonders in filling it out. The build is very very slow, but the discover & reversal come with just enough suffering to make Aristotle proud.
This is interesting and nuanced enough that I would want to stage it to see if a full-blooded production could really bring it to life. The conflicting desires of man-at-war are given such subtle treatment by the playwright that adding the physical elements could do wonders in filling it out. The build is very very slow, but the discover & reversal come with just enough suffering to make Aristotle proud.
January 7, 2013
Funny and charming but also aaaaw... Even though we kinda saw it coming. It was nice to see the men backing each other up and growing. It always is.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews