Uproarious George Washington Slept Here Brings Down The House!
Broadway Legend Colleen Dewhurst To Receive Kaufman Award At PPT Gala
Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Ian Wolfe in the film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, one of many comedies inspired by George Washington Slept Here.
Ultra-rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania is a far cry from West 97th Street in New York City, where Annabelle Fuller prefers to hang her hat. But when her husband Newton spends their life savings on a Bucks County home that dates back to the Revolution, the war is on in George Washington Slept Here, a rollicking romp by the most successful comedy-writing team in Broadway history - George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart.
Inspired by the tribulations Kaufman and Hart experienced while refurbishing their own country estates in Bucks County, George Washington Slept Here, at the Public November 2 through December 16, is a must-see for anyone who has ever donned overalls to make that muchneeded home repair. Every homeowner's nightmare, from leaky roofs, bad plumbing, and cantankerous neighbors to meddlesome visiting relatives, pending foreclosure and natural disaster, is richly represented in this uproarious comedy.
First produced on Broadway in 1940, George Washington Slept Here was named one of the 10 best plays of 1941 by the noted Burns Mantle Best Play Series and went on to inspire a slew of stage, film and television comedies about bornand-bred urban couples braving a relocation to the country. Included among these are the 1941 film version of the play starring Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan; the 1948 film classic Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy; the hit television series Green Acres starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor; and the more recent The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long Seldom seen on stage, due to its intricate set and technical requirements, the
comedy marked Kaufman and Hart's last collaborative effort and is a rare gem that hits very close to home for both authors.
For example, the preposterous rich uncle, who the Fullers hope will rescue them from foreclosure, is a conglomeration of Kaufman's own rich uncles, including Sol Kaufman, who became a millionaire investing in tin-plate; Sidney Kaufman, who amassed a fortune as one of the early developers of the typewriter, and Gustave Kaufman, co-founder and co-owner of the Ferris and Kaufman engineering firm that invented the Ferris Wheel on Pittsburgh's North Side in 1893. The mischievous nephew Raymond, though disguised by name, is actually a portrait of Moss Hart himself at the age of 14.
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Colleen Dewhurst will be honored at November 6 Benefit featuring Michael Feinstein In Concert.
The George S. Kaufman Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater was created by the Pittsburgh Public Theater to honor Pittsburgh native George S. Kaufman, who, with over 40 plays produced on Broadway, secures a preeminent place as one of the greatest American comic playwrights.
Legendary star Helen Hayes was the first recipient of this award in 1987. The following year, the Public honored this country's foremost ambassador for the arts, Kitty Carl isle Hart. Continuing this proud tradition, the Pittsburgh Public Theater will present the third annual George S. Kaufman Award to one of the world's finest actresses, Colleen Dewhurst.
America's classic popular song stylist Michael Feinstein, whosetalentthe Los Angeles Times describes as the "stuff of legend." Also featured at the ceremony will be a video salute to Pittsburgh's proudest son, George S. Kaufman, on the centennial of his birth. Certain to be included in the evening's video selection will be Ms. Dewhurst's wonderful performance in the Broadway revival of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's You Can't Take It With You which was televised on PBS Great Performances in 1984. Ms. Dewhurst's work on stage and television has earned her eight Tony and eight Emmy Award nominations. Ms. Dewhurst won the Tony twice, once for All The Way Home and again for A Moon For The Misbegotten, a production originally presented by the Public's.Bill Gardner in 1973 in Lake Forest, Illinois. Earlier this year, Ms. Dewhurst was a double Emmy Award winner for her performance on CBS's Murphy Brown and the NBC Movie of the Week, Those She Left Behind.
Carlisle Hart
honored last year, with the
daughter, Anne Kaufman Schneider.
To celebrate this award and Ms. Dewhurst's achievements, the Public will host a gala at the Benedum Center on Monday, November 6. Performing will be
Helen Hayes, here with PPT Producing Director Bill Gardner, received the first annual Kaufman Award in 1987.
Helen Hayes has also received Tony and Emmy recognition - as well as two Academy Awards - during her illustrious career. Early in her career, George S. Kaufman, along with Marc Connelly, wrote To The Ladies especially for Ms. Hayes. In 1971, she gave her farewell performance as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's l.Dng Day's Journey Into Night, a role reprised by Colleen Dewhurst in the 1988 Broadway revival. It was a pursuit in humanist endeavors that earned a Kaufman Award for Kitty Carlisle Hart in 1988. Best known for her 22-year tenure on To Tell The Truth, Ms. Hart has been an ambassador for the arts since the 1960's, serving as chairman of the New York Council on the Arts since 1976. As an actress prior to her
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Uproarious George
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Director Kip Niven, an avid Kaufman and Hart fan, finds George Washington Slept Here "packed with fun, a humorously heartwarming show for the holidays that everyone can enjoy." The list of eccentric characters of all ages includes country bumpkin Mr. Kimber, portrayed in the original Broadway production by Percy Kilbride (Pa Kettle of the Ma and Pa Kettle films); pesty adolescent Raymond, portrayed in the original production by acclaimed Hollywood director Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, Network, The Verdict); and actor and loverboy extraordinaire Clayton Evans, who has housewarming plans of his own for the Fullers' daughter!
But the true leading role in the play is the house, where George Washington reportedly once spent the night - and survived. But will the Fullers? Find out November 2 through December 16, when George Washington Slept Here rocks the Public with laughter.
George S. Kaufman: Pi.ttsburgh Roots And Bucks County Branches
In preparation for the centennial celebration of the birth of Pittsburgh native George S. Kaufman, the Public Theater did a little digging around the roots of Kaufman's family tree and unearthed some fascinating pieces of local history. Among the finds were foundation stones from the Concordia Club and the Temple Rodef Shalom, some early bits of the world'$ first Ferris wheel, evidence of the origins of the town of Aliquippa and a trove of facts about mid-19th century, Allegheny City commerce and GermanJewish immigration. In addition, the expedition discovered some peculiar roots in the family tree that may have subtly influenced the development of one of its better known branches.
This photo of Kaufman's dance class in Pittsburgh, (Kaufman, age 10, is in the top row, second from the right), hung in the bedroom of his Park Avenue penthouse alongside autographed photos of collaborator Edna Ferber, with whom he wrote the hits The Royal Family and Dinner At Eight; his two favorite producers, Sam H. Harris and Max Gordon, who between them produced 29 Kaufman plays; stage star Lynne Fontanne, who got her big break in Kaufman's first major hit Dulcy, and went on to become a legendary Broadway leading lady; and his favorite collaborator Moss Hart, who fittingly signed his photo "To George-without whom "
November 6 Gala
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marriage to Kaufman collaborator, Moss Hart, Kitty Carl isle's contralto voice earned raves on Broadway.
Colleen Dewhurst shares with the first two recipients a dedication to the arts. In addition to her Tony-winning, performances, Ms. Dewhurst's Broadway career includes Desire Under The Elms, Camille, The Country Wife, Mourning Becomes Electra, An Almost Perfect Person, More Stately Mansions (Tony nomination), and three more Tony nominations for Edward Albee's The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe, All Over and the revival of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Ms. Dewhurst's many films include Glitterdome, The Dead Zone, Tribute with Jack Lemmon, When A Stranger Calls, Annie Hall, McQ with John Wayne, Ice Castles and The Boy Who Could Fly. Among her television specials are The Price, The Crucible, The Kitty O'Neill Story, The Women's Room, Anne Of Green Gables, Between Two Women and Woman In The Wind.
In June, 1985, Ms. Dewhurst took on the demanding role of President of Actors' Equity Association, the 39,000 member union which includes all professional performers and stage managers in the United States. Recently re-elected for a second term, Ms. Dewhurst is the eleventh president of Equity, and the second woman to hold that office since the union was founded in 1913.
To insure the success of the Kaufman centennial gala, the Public has invited Michael Feinstein back to Pittsburgh. Mr. Feinstein is America's foremost performer of the music of the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Rodgers and Hart. In 1988, Mr. Feinstein made his Broadway debut in Michael Feinstein In Concert: Isn't It Romantic? for which he received the Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Awards. In addition to music from his five albums, Mr. Feinstein is scheduled to perform selections from Kaufman musical productions.
Regular performance tickets for the event are $30, $25 and $15 and can be purchased by contacting the Benedum Center at 456-6666. Special Benefit Seats (Choice Orchestra or Director's Circle) are $150 and include a reception with the stars following the performance. To reserve this seating, call the Public Theater Box Office at 321-9800. David Jobin
The Kaufmans frequently attended Pittsburgh's famed Nixon Theater on Sixth Avenue. The Nixon, which was torn down in 1976, showcased plays en route to New York. Little did the Kaufmans know that George's own plays would one day appear on the Nixon marquee.
The grandparents of George S. Kaufman were part of a wave of German Jews who settled the eastern end of Allegheny City (now Deutschtown on the North Side} and prospered as manufacturers and merchants. Simon Kaufman arrived in Pittsburgh in 1848 and found relative prosperity in the manufacture of men's pants. He lived in a large house on Cedar Avenue (a recently restored Victorian near the Giant Eagle) and was a leader in
Kaufman once quipped of his family, ''They managed to get in on every business as it was finishing and made a total of four dollars among them.''
Pittsburgh's burgeoning Jewish Community. George's grandfather Simon was among the founding members of Temple Rodef Shalom, one of Pittsburgh's largest congregations.
Joseph Meyers, George's other grandfather, made his fortune in the meat packing business. Little of that fortune made its way to George, however, because the bulk of it was lost in a scandalous and embarrassing robbery. Joseph and his wife were hosting a fashionable dinner party one night when a band of well-dressed criminals casually slipped into their home, chloroformed the guests and robbed them of their possessions. The thieves made off with a strong-box from the basement which contained the family fortune in the form of negotiable securities. The family survived the loss, however, and managed to recover its respectability. It was Joseph Meyers who, together with several friends, founded Pittsburgh's Concordia Club.
George's parents are the real stars of the Kaufman family saga. Joseph Kaufman and Nettie Meyers Kaufman were a quirky pair who passed on to George a host of neuroses, a penetrating cynicism and more than enough material for his career as a comic playwright. The Kaufman family life In and around turn-of-thecentury Pittsburgh was an unstable one at best, for George's father had some trouble keeping jobs.
Irving Berlin, oneofmanytheater, musical and literary stars who were frequent guests at Kaufman's Bucks County estate_ Others included John Steinbeck, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, Lillian Hellman, Ira Gershwin, Thornton Wilder, Ruth Gordon, Harpo Marx and Gypsy Rose Lee. Beatrice adored entertaining at Bucks County, but Kaufman often retreated to his study to work on these occasions. One such winter evening, Beatrice and their guests were sitting in the living room huddled by the fire. Quite to their surprise, Kaufman strolled in, flung the firescreen down on the hearth, jumped on it and cried, "Firsttime on any screen!"
Joseph Kaufman was born just a stone's throw from the current home of the Public Theater. One of 10 children, he was a self-made man who mastered a variety of trades and sustained interest in none of them. He was a brother to the inventor of the Ferris Wheel, George's Uncle Gustave, and to one of the early developers of the typewriter, Uncle Sidney. Another brother, Sol, made a fortune in tin-plate stock, a venture in which Joseph declined to take part. He was a champion of fair labor practices and lost one of his most lucrative jobs by beContinued on page 3
Opens December 28th!
The Outrageous Off Broadway Hit!
