Buy Me Blue Ribbons
| Buy Me Blue Ribbons | |
|---|---|
 Playbill cover | |
| Written by | Sumner Locke Elliott |
| Date premiered | 17 October 1951 |
| Place premiered | Empire Theatre, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | show business |
| Genre | farce |
| Setting | An apartment on Park Avenue, New York |
Buy Me Blue Ribbons was a 1951 play by Australian writer Sumner Locke Elliott. It was one of the few Broadway plays to be written by an Australian.[1]
Premise
[edit]Jordan Sable, an ex child movie star, tries to buy himself a role in a play through producing the stage play Sounding Brass, written by Professor Oscar Nimrod, on Broadway. However Sable's behaviour is so chaotic he is fired from his own production.
Background
[edit]The original production was co produced by the actor Jay Robinson, who also appeared in the cast.[2]
The plot of the play was based on an idea of Robinson's involving a Broadway revival of The Green Bay Tree involving Robinson: he financed the play to get a role but was fired from the production.[3] Robinson raised $50,000 from his father to finance the production of Buy Me Blue Ribbons as well. Cyril Ritchard directed.[4]
Reception
[edit]The play was not well received critically ("merciless" according to Robinson[5]) and only ran 13 performances.[6]
A review of the Broadway production in Time magazine said, "the play does have a certain breeziness and three talented comediennes", but it added that those characteristicse were not enough to offset "a sagging play and an actor who keeps spoiling his jokes."[7]
Critic Walter Kerr later said:
The play which Mr. Elliott had supplied wasn't too bad as a stock enterprise. It moved with relatively little awkwardness, it handled its stereotyped show-business characters with an ease born of familiarity, it had a few bright lines. But whatever small praise might have been eked out for the play was shot to pieces the min¬ ute Mr. Robinson entered it.[8]
Variety said "the whole affair seems tasteless and a bit embarrasing."[9]
Elliott said, "After a flop I like to take the bad taste out of my mouth by starting a new play. I'm not really disappointed. If we had had a great star in the leading role and if I had thought the play was great, this would have driven me into the ground. It would have taken a year to .get over it. As it is, I'm through with plays about the theatre. My next will be aimed at a wider audience."[10] Robinson's father never recovered from his financial losses on the production.[11]
Other productions
[edit]The play was produced in Sydney at the Independent Theatre in 1953.[12]
Reviewing this the ABC Weekly wrote "Every playwright sooner or later writes a play about the theatre. It’s not a bad idea to get it out of your system early, and, having written it, it is sometimes a still better idea to put it in the bottom drawer and leave it there. Mr. Locke-Elliott’s attempt is as good as most plays that I have seen of this kind, and, though it limps along rather badly towards the end, it shows a good deal of technical skill and a nice sense of comedy. "[13]
The play received a number of other productions, including one in San Francisco starring Robinson in 1958.[14][15]
1954 television adaptation
[edit]The 1954 television adaptation of the play was an episode of the Goodyear Playhouse. It was directed by Arthur Penn with a cast including Roddy McDowall.
Variety wrote "Roddy McDowall did himself proud in the lead part, playing It with a mixture of gusto and understanding... Penn directed in crackerjack fashion. Show had plenty of pace and Imagination and a little pathos, too. Opening sequences, a takeoff on the early talkies, were a howl... one of the best of the Elliott scripts. There were plenty of laughs and a thoughtful and charming ending."[16]
1956 British television adaptation
[edit]The play was filmed for British television in 1956.[17]
References
[edit]- ^ "Australian Makes Broadway". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 8 July 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 10 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "For Locke-Elliott". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 23 September 1951. p. 11. Retrieved 10 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Story Behind Austin's Play". The News. Vol. 57, no. 8, 797. South Australia. 18 October 1951. p. 14. Retrieved 6 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Robinson, p. 35.
- ^ Robinson p 35
- ^ "No Blue Ribbons For Locke-Elliott". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 21 October 1951. p. 11. Retrieved 10 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "The Theater: Condition Unchanged". Time. October 29, 1951. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
- ^ Kerr, Walter (1957). Pieces at eight. Simon and Schuster. p. 101.
- ^ "Buy Me Blue Ribbons". Variety. 24 October 1951. p. 68.
- ^ "It's "A Flop", Says Sydney Playwright". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 28 October 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 10 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Robinson p 63
- ^ "Programmes and People". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 19 April 1953. p. 14. Retrieved 10 January 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Australian Broadcasting Commission. (6 June 1953), "theatre Lewd and Lusty...", ABC Weekly, 15 (23), Sydney: ABC, retrieved 6 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ Robinson p 64
- ^ "Sumner Locke Elliott", The Bulletin, John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., 86 (4411), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 5 September 1964, ISSN 0007-4039, retrieved 6 September 2023 – via Trove
- ^ "Television follow up comment". Variety. 3 March 1954. p. 34.
- ^ Buy Me Blue Ribbons 1956 British TV version at IMDb
Notes
[edit]- Clarke, Sharon (1995). Sumner Locke Elliott: writing life. University of Woollongong. pp. 359–373.
- Robinson, Jay (1979). The comeback.
External links
[edit]- Buy Me Blue Ribbons at the Internet Broadway Database
- Buy Me Blue Ribbons at IMDb
- Buy Me Blue Ribbons at Playbill
- Buy Me Blue Ribbons at Ausstage
- Review of 1951 Broadway production at Variety