The Royal Family (play) explained

The Royal Family
Genre:	Comedy
Setting:	a New York City duplex apartment in 1927
Premiere:	28 December 1927
Place:	Selwyn Theatre New York City
Orig Lang:	English

The Royal Family is a play written by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Its premiere on Broadway was at the Selwyn Theatre on 28 December 1927, where it ran for 345 performances to close in October 1928. It was included in Burns Mantle's The Best Plays of 1927–1928.

Characters

• Fanny Cavendish – Cavendish family matriarch
• Julie Cavendish – Fanny's daughter
• Tony Cavendish – Fanny's son
• Gwen Cavendish – Fanny's granddaughter
• Herbert Dean – Fanny's brother
• Kitty Dean – Fanny's sister-in-law
• Oscar Wolfe – Cavendish family's long-time agent
• Gilbert Marshall – Julie's love interest
• Perry Stewart – Gwen's fiancee

Productions

• In Britain, Noël Coward directed the West End version of the play in 1934, with a cast that included Marie Tempest as Fanny Cavendish, Madge Titheradge as Julie Cavendish and Laurence Olivier as Tony Cavendish. The play was retitled "Theatre Royal".^[1]

• The play was revived in the 1975–76 season on Broadway. Directed by Ellis Rabb, it starred Rosemary Harris as Julie Cavendish, George Grizzard as Tony, and Eva Le Gallienne as the theatrical matriarch, Fanny and Sam Levene as Oscar Wolfe. Rabb received the 1976 Tony Award for best director. The production was telecast on the PBS series Great Performances on November 9, 1977,^[2] with Rabb replacing Grizzard as Tony. This version was released on DVD.

• In 2001 Peter Hall directed a West End revival of the play (under its original title) with Judi Dench as Fanny, Harriet Walter as Julie and Toby Stephens as Tony; also in the cast were Peter Bowles, Julia McKenzie and Emily Blunt.^[3]
• 2009 on Broadway, with incidental music by Maury Yeston, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, directed by Doug Hughes and starring Kelli Barrett as Gwen, Ana Gasteyer as Kitty, John Glover as Herbert, Rosemary Harris as Fanny, Jan Maxwell as Julie, Larry Pine as Gilbert, Tony Roberts as Oscar, and Reg Rogers as Tony Cavendish.^[4]

Adaptations

See main article: The Royal Family of Broadway. The play was adapted in 1930 by Herman Mankiewicz for the film The Royal Family of Broadway, released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, and stars Ina Claire and Fredric March.

Several live television adaptions were produced, including one in 1952, a BBC film for television, starring Morton Lowry as Tony Cavendish and Charmion King as Julia, re-named as "Theatre Royal".^[5]

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play
• 2010 Nominated for Best Revival of a Play

Further reading

• Book: Kaufman. George S.. Ferber. Edna. The Royal Family; A Comedy in Three Acts. First. Garden City, New York. Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.. 1928. 1490010.

External links

• Full text of The Royal Family at HathiTrust Digital Library
  • • • 1945 Theatre Guild on the Air radio adaptation at Internet Archive

Notes and References

1. "Lyric Theatre", The Times, October 24, 1934, p. 12
2. News: November 6, 1977 . Television This Week: Of Special Interest . . 2016-09-23 .
3. Nightingale, Benedict. "Revival that celebrates the lure of greasepaint", The Times, November 2, 2001, p. 15
4. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/the-royal-family-483660 "The Royal Family"
5. Web site: 2009-02-13. BFI Film & TV Database THEATRE ROYAL (1952). 2020-11-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20090213094320/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/558845 . 2009-02-13 .