HART, Moss, & George S. Kaufman.

£2,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Man Who Came to Dinner. First edition, signed by both authors and by 33 of the 36 original Broadway cast members. The signatures include that of the star, Monty Woolley, who reprised his role as Sheridan Whiteside for the film adaptation of 1942. The theatrical premier took place on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on 16 October 1939, running for 739 performances."The role of Whiteside was rich in acerbic wisecracks delivered memorably by Woolley. The New York Times described his performance as 'arrogant, waspish, murderously comic and strangely lovable'. Woolley scored a significant personal success in the role, and the play was a long-running and much-revived hit. The role made Woolley a star and a well-known theatrical personality" (ANB).This copy is from the theatre collection of Clive Hirschhorn (b. 1940), who spent decades as the Sunday Express's film and theatre critic and whose various histories of Hollywood include The Warner Bros. Story (1978) and The Hollywood Musical (1981). Hirschhorn's ownership inscription is pencilled on the front pastedown, dated 1999.

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