The Owl and the Pussycat: A Comedy in Three Acts

by Bill Manhoff

Full Length, Comedy 1 male, 1 female Interior Set In a San Francisco loft, aspiring author Felix focuses his binoculars on a prostitute plying her trade. He complains to the landlord, has her evicted, and finds he has trouble pounding on his door in the form of Doris, not a prostitute but an aspiring "model and actress", thank you very much. She figures he owes her a bed for the night, an arrangement that leads to hilarity. Alan Alda and Diana Sands took th

Genres: Plays, Drama

82 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Ben Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a comedy about a struggling writer and a prostitute who fall in love. It originally premiered on Broadway 11/18/1964 with Alan Alda and Diane Sands. On the opening night, the audience laughed maniacally and the NYT review said the play was "animated, vivid, and comic with startling intensity and truth". The opening run lasted for almost 500 shows. The humor is fueled by pain and self recognition in the struggle between a man and a woman trying to come out of their loneliness and overcome their fear of revealing themselves to one another. Diane Sands was a New Yorker best known for her role as Beneatha Younger, the sister of Sydney Poitier's character in Lorraine Hansberry's "Raisin in the Sun". She died in 1973 at the age of 39 of leiomyosarcoma. Bill Manhoff was from Newark, NJ and his peak acclaim was for "The Owl and the Pussycat". He was the author of the radio show "Duffy's Tavern," 1944-46 and the TV comedy series "The Real McCoys" and "The Danny Thomas Show," 1955-59. . His IMDB writing credits include classic television sit-coms like "Sanford and Son", "The Partridge Family", "All in the Family", "Leave it to Beaver" and "The Odd Couple".

[Creolecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The version I read is from the original Broadway production with Alan Alda and the late Diana Sands. Although the play was highly successful, the interracial relationship could not be translated to the screen at the time, so George Segal and Barbra Streisand were given the parts.

[RK Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this a lot but it kinda limped at the very end.

[Anna Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny, and still comments on various serious topics. The ending is a big of a letdown and the timeline is a bit rough for a play, but it is established very nicely in the first act.

[Brian McCann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just terrible and meaningless. How could this have run in NYC for over a year??

[Gorgeous · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️
That third act was hard to get through huh...

[Elsa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be a comedy?! Huh.

Mom picked this (and a number of other dramatic works) for me at a library sale. It's cliched and vulgar. Neither character is likeable. The resolution comes totally out of the blue and is completely unbelievable.

The title is pretty witty, though.