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The Play's the Thing Shubert Playbill Program October 10, 1927 Philadelphia
Post-Broadway Run.
Paperback
Published January 1, 1927
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About the author
Ferenc Molnár
170 books104 followersFerenc Molnár (Americanized name: Franz Molnar) was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. During the World War II he emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi persecution of Hungarian Jews.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 9, 2016
It's a blague. Musical diva Ilona is carrying on a flirty compromising chat with her mentor in her suite and we see her adoring beau, a young twitty composer outside her door in a Riviera villa, gasping at what he hears. "Control yourself!" she insists. "What are you doing?" Mentor soon exclaims, "How round it is..how smooth, how velvety--" Indeed, what is her companion doing...? "Don't bite," Ilona says in a quivering voice.
The shocked composer threatens to kill someone -- or tear up his music for their forthcoming operetta. He thought Ilona was a Madonna ! Given this crisis, the book writer thinks quickly. Why Ilona and her many-fingered friend were just rehearsing a scene, don't you understand, and he secretly sets to work writing one that is performed in Act 3, using the words we've just heard. Can you guess how he handles "round, smooth, velvety" and "don't bite" ? (And what mustn't he bite...?)
Life is theatre; reality becomes illusion while illusion becomes reality. We can always manipulate the truth, and anyway, does any of it really matter? Ferenc Molnar's famous Hungarian play, "Spiel im Schloss," has a catchy title from "Hamlet" in the PG Wodehouse adaptation. First produced on Bwy in 1926, it ran almost a year and is revived constantly. It's so flimsy that a mistral could blow it
away. Audiences love it. A production demands top actors and must exude ton, high ton or it will shatter like the champagne glass the despairing composer hurls against the wall.
The heroic librettist, who supplied the Happy Ending, reminds Ilona: "There are very few things in this world that are round, smooth, velvety -- and respectable."
The shocked composer threatens to kill someone -- or tear up his music for their forthcoming operetta. He thought Ilona was a Madonna ! Given this crisis, the book writer thinks quickly. Why Ilona and her many-fingered friend were just rehearsing a scene, don't you understand, and he secretly sets to work writing one that is performed in Act 3, using the words we've just heard. Can you guess how he handles "round, smooth, velvety" and "don't bite" ? (And what mustn't he bite...?)
Life is theatre; reality becomes illusion while illusion becomes reality. We can always manipulate the truth, and anyway, does any of it really matter? Ferenc Molnar's famous Hungarian play, "Spiel im Schloss," has a catchy title from "Hamlet" in the PG Wodehouse adaptation. First produced on Bwy in 1926, it ran almost a year and is revived constantly. It's so flimsy that a mistral could blow it
away. Audiences love it. A production demands top actors and must exude ton, high ton or it will shatter like the champagne glass the despairing composer hurls against the wall.
The heroic librettist, who supplied the Happy Ending, reminds Ilona: "There are very few things in this world that are round, smooth, velvety -- and respectable."
October 20, 2017
I decided to reread this play after noticing that Tom Stoppard had done an adaptation of it.
I definitely enjoyed The Play's the Thing more on the second reading and found it a better approach to the story than Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. The Play’s the Thing doesn’t try to be too clever but simply enjoys the story being told and takes full advantage of the plot.
When an up-and-coming young playwright hears his fiancé engaged in a tryst with a former lover, it’s up to the playwright’s protégé to salvage the disaster.
After reading Rough Crossing, I’m all the more convinced that Turai could be played by a woman, giving the play two female characters rather than the single love interest. Recommended.
I definitely enjoyed The Play's the Thing more on the second reading and found it a better approach to the story than Stoppard’s Rough Crossing. The Play’s the Thing doesn’t try to be too clever but simply enjoys the story being told and takes full advantage of the plot.
When an up-and-coming young playwright hears his fiancé engaged in a tryst with a former lover, it’s up to the playwright’s protégé to salvage the disaster.
After reading Rough Crossing, I’m all the more convinced that Turai could be played by a woman, giving the play two female characters rather than the single love interest. Recommended.
January 8, 2022
I'm taking a break from my "immediately flunk any play with cheating" rule to have a big ol' belly laugh at this hilarious comedy. It certainly doesn't hurt that Wodehouse was the adaptor! One of the few plays I want to direct very badly! The script is SO clever and the way it gets turned on its head in the end is fantastic! I also appreciate that, while both guilty parties are chewed out, the man who was the instigator and pursuer with a wife and four children was absolutely CURBSTOMPED, instead of just painting the lady as a hoochy mama. Good show!
May 16, 2022
مسرحية دمها خفيف .. حبيت شخصية تروي و سرعة بديهته في التعامل مع الموقف الحرج اللي اتحط فيه الابطال ♥️
October 30, 2016
This is one of the funniest things I've read, ever. But what else can you expect from a P.G. Wodehouse adaptation of a Hungarian play?
Two playwrights and their young composer protege chance to overhear, through paper thin walls an intimate scene between the composer's fiance (also the prima donna of their upcoming production) and her old flame. When the crushed composer threatens suicide and swears he'll never write another note, one of the playwrights intervenes. How can he save this situation? By writing the overheard words into a play in the wee hours of the morning, and blackmailing the two culprits into pretending they were rehearsing all along. The ridiculous premise gets even more hilarious when the two playwrights start toying with the idea of how a play is supposed to go, and also toy with the actor who tried to woo another man's fiance.
Two playwrights and their young composer protege chance to overhear, through paper thin walls an intimate scene between the composer's fiance (also the prima donna of their upcoming production) and her old flame. When the crushed composer threatens suicide and swears he'll never write another note, one of the playwrights intervenes. How can he save this situation? By writing the overheard words into a play in the wee hours of the morning, and blackmailing the two culprits into pretending they were rehearsing all along. The ridiculous premise gets even more hilarious when the two playwrights start toying with the idea of how a play is supposed to go, and also toy with the actor who tried to woo another man's fiance.
January 7, 2020
قراءتي المتواضعة في هذا النص اللطيف شديد الثراء منشورة في صحيفة مسرحنا بتاريخ 25 فبراير 2019:
https://www.gocp.gov.eg/Masr7na/artic...
https://www.gocp.gov.eg/Masr7na/artic...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews