ALLEN, Woody.

£2,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Don't Drink the Water. Rehearsal script of the author's first Broadway play, inscribed by the author on the title page, "To Clive, Best, Woody Allen", formerly belonging to the actor Lou Jacobi with his annotations and a loosely inserted telegram from Allen, sent on opening night, reading "You will always be the world's funniest human".The work was the author's first professionally produced full play and opened on Broadway on 17 November 1966. The farce closed in April 1968 and was adapted for a 1969 film. Allen then adapted and starred in a 1994 made-for-television film version. He played the role of Walter Hollander, originally created by Lou Jacobi.The text is significantly different from that first published by Random House in 1967, including the names of characters (Warren Pritchard would become Walter Hollander). The play is structured in three acts (later revised to two). The script opens with an instruction that "on each seat in the theatre there is a mock, impressive looking newspaper with bold headlines emblazoned on it that reads: American Family accused of Spying - Trapped Behind Iron Curtain". This dressing of the auditorium was later abandoned.Lou Jacobi (1913-2009) has annotated his copy with deletions, a few additions, a handful of typographical corrections, and occasional circling of the name of his character. Jacobi made his film debut in 1953 and his Broadway debut two years later. He would later appear in Allen's film, Everything You Always Wanted to Know

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