Green Grow the Lilacs is a 1931 play by Lynn Riggs named for the popular folk song of the
same nameGreen Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid-1800s.The song title is familiar as the source of a dubious popular etymology for the word gringo, supposedly being a Hispanicization of "green grow," which Mexicans certainly could have heard...
. It was performed 64 times on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
, opening on January 26, 1931 and closing March 21, 1931. It also played January 19, 1931 through January 24, 1931 at the
National TheatreThe National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C. and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in Washington D.C. It was produced by the
Theatre GuildThe Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1919 by Theresa Helburn, Lawrence Langner, and Armina Marshall. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players....
and directed by Herbert J. Biberman. Rather startlingly, the debonair, ultrasophisticated actor
Franchot ToneFranchot Tone was an American actor.-Early life:He was born Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the president of the Carborundum Company, and his wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. He was of French Canadian, Irish, English and...
portrayed cowboy Curly.
Green Grow the Lilacs is a 1931 play by Lynn Riggs named for the popular folk song of the
same nameGreen Grow the Lilacs is a folk song of Irish origin that was popular in the United States during the mid-1800s.The song title is familiar as the source of a dubious popular etymology for the word gringo, supposedly being a Hispanicization of "green grow," which Mexicans certainly could have heard...
. It was performed 64 times on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
, opening on January 26, 1931 and closing March 21, 1931. It also played January 19, 1931 through January 24, 1931 at the
National TheatreThe National Theatre is located in Washington, D.C. and is a venue for a variety of live stage productions with seating for 1,676.Despite its name, it is not a governmentally funded national theatre, but operated by a private, non-profit organization....
in Washington D.C. It was produced by the
Theatre GuildThe Theatre Guild is a theatrical society founded in New York City in 1919 by Theresa Helburn, Lawrence Langner, and Armina Marshall. It evolved out of the work of the Washington Square Players....
and directed by Herbert J. Biberman. Rather startlingly, the debonair, ultrasophisticated actor
Franchot ToneFranchot Tone was an American actor.-Early life:He was born Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone in Niagara Falls, New York, the youngest son of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone, the president of the Carborundum Company, and his wife, Gertrude Van Vrancken Franchot. He was of French Canadian, Irish, English and...
portrayed cowboy Curly.
June WalkerJune Walker was an American stage and film actress. She is best known for her roles in the Broadway productions of The Farmer Takes a Wife and Twelfth Night, as well as the 1960 film, The Unforgiven...
was seen as his sweetheart Laurey. Theatre Guild board member
Helen WestleyHelen Westley was an American character actress.-Career:She was one of the members on the original board of the Theatre Guild, and appeared in many of their productions, among them Peer Gynt, and some of their productions of plays by George Bernard Shaw—Pygmalion, Caesar and Cleopatra,...
, who had appeared as Mrs. Muskat in the original Broadway production of
Ferenc MolnarFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...
's
LiliomLiliom is a 1909 play by Ferenc Molnár. It was very famous in its own right during the early to mid-twentieth century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.- Plot :...
, played Aunt Eller.
Lee StrasbergLee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with director Harold Clurman, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective". In 1951, he became director of the non-profit Actors Studio, in New York City, considered "the...
, later to become a renowned teacher of
method actingMethod acting is a technique in which actors try to engender in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters in an effort to create lifelike performances. It can be contrasted with more classical forms of acting, in which actors simulate thoughts and emotions through external means,...
, played the part of the Persian peddler.
The play also toured the Midwest , and was nominated for a
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
.
It appeared at the Dallas Little Theatre during the week of March 7, 1932, and again in Dallas at the Festival of Southwestern Plays, on May 10, 1935.. Although the 1943
Rodgers and HammersteinRichard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
musical play
Oklahoma!Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...
, which is based on the Riggs play, used a new score rather than the old folk songs in Riggs' work, the plot of
Green Grow The Lilacs is almost identical, except for the ending, which unlike that of the musical, is left rather undecided as to Curly's trial for accidentally killing farmhand Jeeter (renamed Jud Fry in the musical). In addition, the cowboy Will Parker is only referred to in the original Riggs play; he does not actually appear in it. Therefore, the entire comic subplot involving the fifty dollars that Will must obtain in order to be able to marry Ado Annie is an invention of Hammerstein's.
Green Grow the Lilacs is today largely forgotten in its original form, while
Oklahoma! remains one of the most acclaimed and popular American musicals ever written.
Characters
- Curly McClain
- Aunt Eller Murphy
- Laurey Williams
- Jeeter Fry
- Ado Annie Carnes
- A Peddler
- Cord Elam
- Old Man Peck
Setting
Indian Territory, 1900.
Scene 1
The front room of the Williams farmhouse, a June morning.
Scene 2
Laurey's bedroom.
Scene 3
The smoke house.
Scene 4
The porch of Old Man Peck's house, that night.
Scene 5
The hayfield, a month later.
Scene 6
The front room, three nights later.
External links
- Green Grow The Lilacs production credits, Internet Broadway Database
The Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....