The PlayFinder™

Type of Play
Genre

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Dark Comedy Farce Historical Melodrama Mystery Romantic Satire Tragedy Thriller

Stage Door

Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman
$13.00
Qty:
Full Length, Comedy
11 men, 19 women (flexible casting)
Total Cast: 30, Interior
ISBN-13: 978-0-8222-1069-6


MIN. PERFORMANCE FEE: $130 per performance.
THE STORY: During the Depression, the Footlights Club in the West Fifties of Manhattan provides an affordable respite and community for the bevy of struggling stage actresses who reside there. They are an amusing and varied lot. The main story concerns Terry Randall, a headstrong and witty girl from the Midwest who is determined to become a leading actress on the Great White Way. While pursuing her career, she becomes involved with two completely different beaux: the left-wing arrogant playwright Keith Burgess, who eventually goes Hollywood as a screenwriter, and David Kingsley, a well-groomed elegant film producer who decides to return to Broadway. Among her co-residents at the Footlights Club are Jean Maitland, who lands the Holy Grail—a seven-year film contract; Kaye Hamilton, whose lack of stage success leads to suicide; Pat Devine, a nightclub dancer; and Linda Shaw, a society girl who shocks her mother by having an affair with a wealthy married man. Despite the vicissitudes of the theater trade, Terry sticks to her guns and wins both the leading role in a Broadway play and the affections and respect of the man she loves.

A revised version of this title with more manageable casting requirements and contemporary sensibilities is available here.
NOTE: Can be presented in a single setting. Direction on this and instructions covering slight alterations in the play appear in the back of the script.