Play's the Thing, The, 1995 Production Files

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Identifier: PLAYTHING 1995
Inclusive Dates: 1995
Extent:
Produced in the 1994-1995 season, The Play's the Thing was staged at the Criterion Center Stage Right, with previews starting June 17, opening night on July 9, and closing night on August 17, 1995.

Directed by Gloria Muzio using a script adaptation by P.G. Wodehouse, sets designed by Stephan Olson, costumes by Jess Goldstein, lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski, sound design by Douglas J. Cuomo and hair and wig design by David H. Lawrence.

Paul Benedict played Johann Dwornitschek, Peter Frechette played Sandor Turai, Jay Goede played Albert Adam, Joe Grifasi played Mansky, Keith Reddin played Mr. Mell, J. Smith-Cameron played Ilona Szabo and Jeff Weiss played Almady. Understudies were Jonathan Bustle, George Hosmer, Jared Reed and Rebecca Wiscoky.
 
The Play's the Thing is an English adaptation by P.G. Wodehouse of Ferenc Molnar's Hungarian play within a play comedy, The Play at the Castle. Theatre critic Vincent Canby of the New York Times said of the work, "The Play's the Thing is one of the three funniest comedies ever written about mythomania in the theater. It's also the most playwrighterly...being virtually post-modern in the way that it calls attention to the very theatrical conventions it so skillfully uses while also sending them up" (New York Times, July 10, 1995). Playwright Tom Stoppard also wrote an adaptation called Rough Crossing that premeried at the Lyttelton Theatre in London in 1984.
Collection consists of 1 Hollinger box containing 12 folders documenting the 1995 production. Contents include news clippings file, playbills, script, author's agreement and administrative files. Collection lacks documents detailing artistic vision for the play (director's notes, set, costume, sound, lighting). Contracts removed from production box and relocated to contract shelves and are not open for research.

Digital files contain scanned photographs (including opening night contact sheets), scanned press clippings, scanned playbill, scanned study guide, and show art used by the marketing department to promote the production.

Photograph file contains copies of black and white contact sheets from opening night and select black and white prints.
Access Restrictions: Open and available for research by appointment only.
Preferred Citation: The Play's the Thing 1995, Roundabout Theatre Company Archives

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