By Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Based on a play by Charles Bruce Millholland
In a new adaptation by
Ken Ludwig
By Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Based on a play by Charles Bruce Millholland
In a new adaptation by
Ken Ludwig
A hilarious new adaptation of the classic 1930's farce about Oscar Jaffe, an egomaniacal Broadway director, and Lily Garland, the chorus girl he transformed into a leading lady and who was the love of his life. Bankrupt and with his career on a steep downslide, Oscar boards the Twentieth Century Limited in Chicago and encounters Lily, now a temperamental Hollywood star, on the train and pulls out all the stops to persuade her to return to Broadway in his upcoming show in order to save his theatre and his career. Add in a jealous boyfriend, a Russian theatre troupe, a doctor (who thinks he's a playwright) and his sexy secretary and a crazy woman who believes that "the end is near" and you have the makings of a riotous evening in the theatre
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By the early 20s he was embroiled in the Chicago literary scene, much respected for his youthful achievements as a daring WWI correspondent, columnist, short-story writer, and budding novelist (his fictionalized reminiscences of the Chicago period provided the basis for Norman Jewison's 1969 film Gaily Gaily). The Chicago Literary Times, which he began publishing in 1923, brought him more prestige than monetary rewards, and in 1925 he arrived in New York penniless. A telegram from writer Herman Mankiewicz, an old friend, offering Hecht a Paramount contract, ("Your only competition is idiots.") brought him to Hollywood that same year and later Hecht would divide his time between movie assignments and New York.
Hecht remembered his first meeting with Charles MacArthur: "I met Charlie in Chicago when I was doing some publicity work for a not-too-reputable outfit. When they tried to give the public a fast shuffle, Charlie's paper sent him over to take a look."
His first big Broadway success (with Charles MacArthur) was The Front Page (1928), a comedy-drama set in Chicago's newspaper scene. (Note: there have been several film adaptations of this play, among them The Front Page (1931), dir. by Lewis Milestone, starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brian; His Girl Friday (1940), dir. by Howard Hawks, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell; The Front Page (1974), dir. by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau; Switching Channels (1988), dir. by Ted Kotcheff, starring Kathleen Turner, Burt Reynolds). Hecht would follow up this success with other collaborations with Charles MacArthur including the musical Jumbo (with music by Richard Rogers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart-1935), Ladies and Gentlemen (1939), Fun to be Free (1946), and Swan Song (1946).
A facile and prolific storyteller, Hecht turned out some of Hollywood's most entertaining screenplays with amazing ease. According to his own account, in the 1954 autobiography A Child of the Century, he completed most of his scripts in a matter of two weeks, never more than eight, and received from $50,000 to $125,000 for each. He never liked Hollywood and saw in films only a reliable source of quick money, accepting movie assignments only when he ran out of funds, which was quite often. Over a period of nearly 40 years Hecht received screen credit, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films, but he was also known to have collaborated on many more productions credited to other writers. Some of the films that Hecht contributed to without credit include Back Street (1932), Queen Christina (1933), The Hurricane (1937), Foreign Correspondant (1940), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), Roxie Hart (1942), The Outlaw (1943), Lifeboat (1944), Gilda (1946), Rope (1948) and Roman Holiday (1953).
"Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle. It gets him, however, more jobs. If his movie is bad it will attract only critical tut-tut for him. The producer, director and stars are the geniuses who get the hosannas when it's a hit. Theirs are also the heads that are mounted on spears when it's a flop." (Hecht in "Let's Make the Hero a MacArthur," The Penguin Book of Hollywood, ed. by Christopher Silvester, 1998)
Hecht himself won an Academy Award for Underworld (1927) and another with Charles MacArthur for their original story for The Scoundrel (1935). In 1957 appeared Hecht's biography of his friend Charles MacArthur, entitled Charlie. Hecht later directed a number of films alone or with other collaborators, but his contribution to American cinema as a director was hardly comparable to the influence he exerted as a screenwriter. In the late 40s Hecht was boycotted by British exhibitors for his outspoken criticism of British policies in Palestine and his active support of the Jewish resistance movement. For five years his credits were removed from all films shown in England. He had his own TV talk show aired to the New York metropolitan area in the 1950s and early 1960s. He continued writing for the screen until his last day. He died in 1964 while working on the script of Casino Royale (1967), another collaboration for which he received no screen credit. Link to Ben Hecht's credits on The Internet Broadway Database and The Internet Movie Database.
A man nearly always loves for other reasons than he thinks. A lover is apt to be as full of secrets from himself as is the object of his love from him.
Chicago is a sort of journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to a last herd of fantastic bravos.
In Hollywood, a starlet is the name for any woman under thirty who is not actively employed in a brothel.
Love is a hole in the heart.
Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.
People's sex habits are as well known in Hollywood as their political opinions, and much less criticized.
Television excites me because it seems to be the last stamping ground of poetry, the last place where I hear women's hair rhapsodically described, women's faces acclaimed in odelike language.
The honors Hollywood has for the writer are as dubious as tissue-paper cuff links.
Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.
Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
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Other notable screen-writing credits include King of Jazz (1930), The Sins of Madelon Claudet (1931), Once in a Blue Moon (1935), Gunga Din and Wuthering Heights (both 1939), His Girl Friday (1940, from The Front Page), The Senator was Indiscreet (1947) and Perfect Strangers (1950, from his play Ladies and Gentlemen). Link to Charles MacArthur's credits on The Internet Broadway Database and The Internet Movie Database.
Born in Economy, Indiana, Charles Bruce Millholland was headquartered in Chicago when he wrote a play based on his experiences on the Twentieth Century Limited. At that time he was working as a publicist for producer Morris Gest and titled his play, Napoleon of Broadway. After having it accepted by producer Jed Harris for Broadway on the condition that writers Charles McArthur and Ben Hecht would rework it, the retitled Twentieth Century was ready for Broadway. It was made into a 1934 movie with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore, directed by Hoosier Howard Hawks. It also has been on Broadway at least three times. Since that time, the late Millholland had written over 60 plays, none of which would go onto the same success of his first. Among his other plays are Gabe, Faun, Walt Whitman I Am and Sacred Satyr.
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Broadway and London Theatre:
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Off-Broadway and Regional Theatre:
When asked about his special affinity for comedy, Ludwig noted that
When you ask if comedy is more difficult to write than drama, I think the answer is probably no. For someone who thinks in terms of comedy, I think drama is probably harder - and vice versa. No one has ever written in both forms with equal success except Shakespeare.
The trouble is that many people dismiss comedies as somehow frivolous and consider only dramas to be "serious" plays. But of course comedies are equally serious - and equally important. They can and do have enormous significance. Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream are the greatest comedies ever written. (And I'd argue that Henry IV, part I is the third.) They're not merely comic, even in the broad sense. They're profoundly comic. And profoundly moving. They tell us about who we are.
Yet comedy in the theatre can do other things as well and doesn't have to be of Shakespearean proportions to be significant. A stage comedy is beautiful because of its proportions. A great one has an architectural rightness that you can feel instinctively when you sit in the theatre and watch it. It starts out with a balanced exposition that isn't tedious; it presents its comic premise; it builds on that premise and gets more complex; it has a climax, and then it resolves itself, all of the pieces falling into place.
(Source: "The Ride of the Century" by John Pike)
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In the 1930s, when commercial airlines were in their infancy, trains were at their zenith in terms of comfort and service. Century passengers would leave in the afternoon from Grand Central or Chicago's La Salle Street Station and arrive mid-morning the next day refreshed from a good night's sleep due to the mostly flat land route cut by the tracks. "Limiteds," like the Century, were trains that made few stops, which meant both decreased travel time and increased punctuality. So devoted to timeliness was the Twentieth Century that passengers would receive one dollar for each hour that the train was late to their designated stop.
Those who boarded the Century were a special sort. Particularly during the Great Depression, it was only the well-to-do, the status seekers, politicians, and society swells who were in attendance when the train's famous red carpet was rolled out each day. Hollywood studios often booked their biggest stars on the Century as a way of guaranteeing a high profile for their latest motion pictures. At the end of the line a clique of press photographers hovered, hoping to capture one of the Century's celebrated guests as they disembarked.
 New York City: 1932 |
The three-act play by Bruce Millholland was based on its author's harrowing experiences as a personal press agent for a maniacal theatrical producer/director, Morris Gest, whom he observed on a trip on the 20th Century Limited. During that ride, Gest had set up the Fassnecht Family in the Fassnecht Passion Play at the Hippodrome. The experience almost unhinged the young Millholland who decided to turn the adventure into a play. After Millholland sent the script to four producers, one producer said yes (Harris). Broadway producer Jed Harris agreed to produce this script under the stipulation that the accomplished writing team of Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht rework it. MacArthur and Hecht had already collaborated to create the Broadway success of The Front Page and would continue to collaborate in years to come. The reworking of Napoleon of Broadway became the successful Twentieth Century. Although two acts were rewritten within a month (the problematic third act remained unresolved until almost two years later).
Harris found the first two acts hysterical and promptly announced an opening of August 15, 1931. He set about casting Oscar Jaffe by approaching every big name in the business (including Morris Gest himself). When he learned that two of the characters were listed as First Beard and Second Beard, he instructed the hired actors to stop shaving (whose beards would reach their belts when the play finally opened a year and a half late).
Hecht and MacArthur helped refine the machiavellian character of Oscar Jaffe into a blend of P.T. Barnum, David Belasco and even their own producer, Jed Harris. They matched him evenly with Lily Garland, the tempestuous actress whom Jaffe had molded into a star. But most importantly, Hecht and MacArthur decided to set the entire action aboard the Century, which contrasted the elegance of the train with the low capers of the show business scoundrels on board.
Harris panicked when he learned that Hecht and MacArthur were about to head out to Hollywood to write a desert picture for Ronald Colman- and there was still no third act! When Hecht returned, MacArthur stayed behind, furiously at work on The Sins of Madelon Claudet (his wife Helen Hayes' motion picture debut). When MacArthur returned to New York, Hecht was off to California again, and Hecht decided to cancel the production. What finally got the Twentieth Century back on the tracks was another play by Ben Hecht, The Great Magoo (about a flagpole sitter) that producer Billy Rose wanted George Abbott to direct. Harris would agree to let Abbott direct provided that Hecht would finally finish the elusive third act (a job he accomplished in 10 days).
The play, which was retitled Twentieth Century, finally opened on Broadway December 29, 1932 under the direction of George Abbott. Link to the entry for the 1932 production of Twentieth Century in the Internet Broadway Database (www.ibdb.com)
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The play was revived on Broadway on December 24, 1950 and starred José Ferrer (also the director) and Gloria Swanson. It opened at the ANTA Playhouse (now the August Wilson Theatre) where it played for two weeks, then moved to the Fulton Playhouse where its run would a total of 181 performances. Link to the ibdb.com entry for the 1950 Broadway revival. The play enjoyed many revivals but faded from view soon after the actual train was retired in 1967.
In 1977, Betty Comden and Adolph Green decided it was time to take the legendary train out of mothballs as they sought to recapture the glamour of the era with their musical version of the comedy. Comden and Green had previously written about the denizens of show business and the conflict between stage and screen performers in films like Singin' in the Rain (1952). They had also experienced the Twentieth Century's ride first-hand as passengers, which gave them an appreciation not only for the train's elegance but also for its limited space. The confined quarters of the train were the perfect vehicle for physical comedy; the antics of temperamental stars, fawning fans, would-be playwrights, and a general assortment of larger-than-life characters were compounded as the travelers attempted to stay out of each other's way.
But how would these out-sized characters sing? Comden and Green were determined not to write a typical pastiche score of 1930s numbers. With composer Cy Coleman, the pair began improvising in the heroic comic opera style of Rossini. The ultimate effect of their score gave the play a grand sweep that made the train as important as any character in the play.
 On the Twentieth Century |
But still the Twentieth Century was not completely sidelined and would see the light of day in a new production- in a streamlined adaptation by comic playwright Ken Ludwig, who stated
I think a great stage comedy needs to have a great comic premise. It has to be simple and bold and plausible - with possibilities for great abandon and development. Twentieth Century is about a maniacal director, Oscar Jaffe, who desperately needs to get his former pupil, lover, and star, Lily Garland, to sign a contract by a certain time. (Deadlines are always enormously helpful in comedies in order to keep the engine going.) It's that simple. Oscar will go to any lengths to get Lily to sign, and Lily needs a lot of persuading. It's brilliant.
 New York - 2003 |
Twentieth Century is a great American play that had lost its stage life because of the size of its cast and because much of its dialogue was severely dated. As written by Hecht and MacArthur, the play required twenty-four actors - and theatres today simply can't afford that many. So my goal was to give the play a new life by cutting down the size of the cast. Eventually, I cut the cast size down to ten, and this ended up requiring some restructuring of the piece as well… Because it was written over 70 years ago, many of the lines were simply obscure and out of date. The comic premise and the characters still worked like crazy - but many of the individual lines didn't work any more because we don't laugh at the same references now that audiences did in 1933. So I ended up keeping the plot and many of the characters - and rewriting some of the dialogue.The new adaptation of Twentieth Century first appeared at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia on August 25, 2003. It made its Broadway debut at the Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre on March 25, 2004. Link to the ibdb.com entry for the 2003 revival.
" It is hard to be judicial before the boyish exuberance with which these writing roustabouts satirize the things they love. For this review is written by one who enjoyed last evening immensely the picturesque epithets with which Mr. Hecht and Mr. MacArthur have decorated their noisy hugger-mugger… Under George Abbott's muscular direction, Twentieth Century hurries along at express-train speed."
"In eighteen long years nothing has happened to the Hecht and MacArthur Twentieth Century except that Jose Ferrer and Gloria Swanson are now in it. That would be a fine thing to happen to any comedy. For they make a very funny pair of cartoonists- broad in style and fast in pace; and Twentieth Century, which was hilarious when it was new, is still uproarious in the new version…" "After eighteen years, Twentieth Century is still as lusty and pungent as ever." "With Jose Ferrer and Gloria Swanson costarred, it belies its 18 years, stacking up as a vigorous, hilarious show." "A lively and memorable evening in the theatre." "The pleasant news is that it is still a bright and hilarious lampoon about the strange antics of the peculiar flora and fauna that produce and act in Broadway plays." "Hilarious." "This makes you fall in love with the theater all over again!" "A breathless joyride! Hysterical, madcap mayhem." "Perfection!… Delightful and gorgeous… don't miss this one!" "A thrilling funhouse ride!" "Vintage snap and crackle!"
Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times (December 30, 1932)
New York - 1950
Brooks Atkinson, The New York Times (December 25, 1950)
Howard Barnes, The New York Herald Tribune (1950)
Variety (1950)
John McClain, The New York Journal American (1950)
Richard Watts Jr., The New York Post (December 26, 1950)
Clive Barnes, The New York Post
Jacques LeSourd, The Journal News
Roma Torre, NY1
Liz Smith
John Lahr, The New Yorker
Michael Sommers, The Star-Ledger
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Compiled by Daniel Yurgaitis
Posted: January 21, 2006.
Copyright © 2006 by Northern State University , Aberdeen, SD