Customer Reviews

A history of the American film (A Bard book)

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It takes a lot of creativity to stage the frequently changing locales and scenes of this play, but the comic spoofery of American film history is a unique twist for what we think of as musical theater. Early scenes begin with the silent movie era, with most of the scenes focusing on the 1930s through the 1950s. The playwright creates comic send-ups of Cagney, Bogart, Dean, Brando, Fonda, Stewart, Peck, and Perkins-- and of actresses Bette Davis, Loretta Young and Eve Arden. Samuel French describes the scenes as "parodies from many Hollywood genres-- a silent tearjerker, slum idyll, gangster epic, courtroom melodrama, chain gang social justice thriller, screwball comedy, Busby Berkeley backstage musical, war propaganda canteen musical-- not to forget "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane" and a variety of minor genres." Lots of zany screwball fun.

Score by Mel Marvin.
Cast: 9 m., 6 f.

I havent read the book yet, but a friend of mine did and told me to use it as a humourous interp peice. So whoever reviewed this the first time thank you so much. I'm glad to know that it worked well, because thats what i'm planning to do with it next year. Christopher Durang is a great playwright, i'm doing a peice of his for my Humourous interp peice this year, and he is so funny. Thanks so much

This piece is a little choppy as far as play progression goes, but I used it as a Humorous Interpretation cutting for my Speech team with great results! The story is the progression of a couple people (mainly a woman) through a satirical movie scenario. It's hilarious as they go through the silent years, western films, even grapefruit weilding gangsters. It's an absolutely hilarious piece and a must-have script!