Arsenic and Old Lace and Your Own Thursday Headlines

 

Courtesy New York Public Library.

This week's Notable Opening Night is June 26, 1986, when the revival of Arsenic and Old Lace opened at what is now the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

Arsenic and Old Lace is another play I should revisit. I've never seen it on stage, or read the script, but I remember enjoying the 1944 Cary Grant film. Grant died on Nov. 29, 1986, while the Arsenic revival was still running. It closed on Jan. 3, 1987, immediately followed by a national tour that ran for most of the year.

In case you don't remember Arsenic and Old Lace, written by Joseph Kesselring and directed in 1986 by Brian Murray, here goes. Drama critic Mortimer Brewster (Tony Roberts, then Gary Sandy, who went on to the tour) discovers that aunts Abby (Jean Stapleton, who did both the Broadway run and national tour) and Martha (Polly Holliday, succeded by Marion Ross) believe they're acting mercifully by poisoning lonely old bachelors. Abby and Martha's elderberry wine includes arsenic, strychnine, and cyanide.

The Brewster family also includes Mortimer's brothers Teddy (MichaelJohn McGann, who also did the Broadway run and national tour), who thinks he's Theodore Roosevelt, and Jonathan (Abe Vigoda, then Jonathan Frid), a psycho out to dispose of his own victim before getting Mortimer. In the original Broadway production, everyone noted that Jonathan's face looked like Boris Karloff's. Karloff himself originated the role of Jonathan, whose accomplice was shady Dr. Einstein (played in 1986-87 by William Hickey, then Larry Storch). Complications also come from Officer O'Hara (played throughout the revival and tour's run by Kevin McClarnon), Mortimer's bride-to-be Elaine (Mary Layne, ditto), and Elaine's father, the Rev. Dr. Harper (Gwyllum Evans, then John Eames). Oh, and of course, all those corpses.

"The years haven't been kind to Mr. Kesselring's farce," Frank Rich declared. "(It) once provided escapist entertainment for theatergoers who had a real reason to seek escape (World War II) and who had not yet been presented with television, the invention that now permits audiences to watch situation comedies in the privacy of their own homes. Seeing the play now, in a production fittingly top-heavy with television performers, is to understand why high schools have been more inclined than Broadway managements to revive it over the past four decades."

Rich wasn't impressed with the cast, either. "While Miss Holliday and Miss Stapleton are solid character actresses, they never really let go and give the sisters distinctive personalities. ... Although Mr. Vigoda's visage is almost as formidable as Frankenstein's monster's, his performance is merely heavy, when it's a comic heavy that's required. ... (Roberts is) trapped in a part too young for him and a play too geriatric for the audience. (He) must overcompensate (with excessive) mugging."

As of 2025, Arsenic and Old Lace hasn't been seen on Broadway since 1987. The original production, which ran for nearly three-and-a-half years from 1941-44, is currently No. 71 on the all-time long-runners list.

Notable Opening Nights will return on Thursday, July 10, with another production featuring Tony Roberts. Next week ... I dunno, a straight headlines post?