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Robert E Sherwood

ROBERT E SHERWOOD

  (1896 - 1955)
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a

Robert E. Sherwood was born in New Rochelle, New York, on April 4, 1896. He graduated from Harvard University in 1918 and served with the Canadian Black Watch during World War I. After the war he wrote for Vanity Fair and Life and was a member of the Algonquin Round Table with Dorothy Parker, Harold Ross, Robert Benchley, Harpo Marx, George S. Kaufman, and Edna Ferber. In 1927 he published his first play, THE ROAD TO ROME, a successful antiwar comedy. He followed this with WATERLOO BRIDGE (1930), REUNION IN VIENNA (1931), THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1935), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays IDIOT's DELIGHT (1936), ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1938), and THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT (1940), an account of Russia's invasion of Finland. During World War II, Sherwood worked as a speechwriter for President Roosevelt and served as director of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information. His book Roosevelt and Hopkins (1948), which drew from his experiences during this period, won a Pulitzer Prize and a Bancroft Prize. After the war, Sherwood wrote the plays THE RUGGED PATH (1945) and SMALL WAR ON MURRAY HILL (1957), completed Philip Barry's play SECOND THRESHOLD (1951), and wrote several screenplays, including The Bishop's Wife (1947) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), for which he won an Academy Award. He died in New York City in 1955.

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below is a list of Robert E Sherwood's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Abe Lincoln In Illinois         Acropolis         Idiot's Delight         Miss Liberty         Petrified Forest, The         Reunion In Vienna         Road To Rome         Rugged Path, The         Second Threshold         Small War On Murray Hill         There Shall Be No Night         Tovarich         Waterloo Bridge
Abe Lincoln In Illinois

Abe Lincoln In Illinois
the play shows in a series of scenes the critical years of Lincoln's early manhood up to the moment of his election as president. We see the backwoodsman, a failure at shopkeeping, but a great favorite with friends and neighbors, slowly groping forward through the troubled years in Springfield, at last beginning to realize the great destiny before him.

Notes:
Pulitzer Prize-winning play, And one of the most famous plays in American theatre

1st Produced:
Plymouth Theatre, New York     15 Oct 1938

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1939   

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Biographical Drama

Parts:
Male:  25            Female:  7            Other:  of the 25 men, several bit parts and of the 7 women, 2 or 3 are minor roles

Further Reference:
-

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Acropolis

Synopsis:
Alcibiades a youth loved by Socrates

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Gay historical character    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Historical drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Idiot's Delight

Idiot's Delight
A young English couple on their honeymoon, a German scientist, a French munitions magnate, the inscrutable Irene, and the vulgar but lovable American Harry Van are thrown together in a small winter resort in the Alps. For a short time they are forced to depend upon their own resources under threat of an air-raid, which at the last descends upon the few who are left. the play throws into ironic relief the individual human being who, having brought upon himself the obscene idiocy of wholesale destruction by war, wakes up to find that he can do nothing more than make a futile gesture against the forces he has set in action.

Notes:
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. A fast-moving story About A group of Europeans And Americans caught in A mountain hotel on the outbreak of A world war, this remarkable play is A commentary on the greed, fear, stupidity And idealism of mankind

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (October 1, 1936)   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  17            Female:  10            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Miss Liberty

Miss Liberty
1885. Horace a newspaper photographer bungles an assignment to photograph the Statue of Liberty and is fired. Maisie his girlfriend persuades him to go to Paris and find and photograph the model for the statue. He goes and finds Monique at the sculptor's studio. Meanwhile Maisie has persuaded a newspaper to bring Monique over for a tour of the US. Horace does not know he found the wrong model. Maisie does not know that Horace is now in love with Monique

Notes:
Music And lyrics by Irving Berlin; book by Robert E Sherwood

1st Produced:
Imperial Theatre, New York     15 Jul 1949

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: Columbia (4220) 1949

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Petrified Forest, The

Petrified Forest, The
Gabby Maple is a young girl who wants to see the world, but necessity compels her to work as a waitress in the middle of the Arizona desert. Out of the desert comes Alan Squier, a disillusioned sophisticate on his way to the Petrified Forest, which to him symbolizes self-destruction, the only answer he can find to living in a pointless world. He pauses at the restaurant to sympathize with Gabby's dreams, then decides to help her realize them by leaving her his life insurance. When the restaurant empties, gangsters, looking for a hideout, enter and take possession. Alan amuses himself by philosophizing with the criminals, who in the end oblige the suicidal Alan by shooting him. the desperadoes make their escape as Gabby contemplates the death of Alan and the fact that she'll have to bury him, where he wanted to die, in the Petrified Forest.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1948   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  18            Female:  3            Other:  of the 18 men, several are bit parts

Further Reference:
-

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Reunion In Vienna

Synopsis:
Elena is married to Dr. Anton Drug, a Viennese psychoanalyst. But in the golden days before the fall of the Empire, she had a love affair with Prince Rudolf Maximilian. After World War I and the expulsion of the aristocracy, Elena developed into a responsible, mature woman, and a devoted wife. A group of her former cronies, some of whom have been living in poverty and exile, return to Vienna to attend a party to which Rudolf is (surreptitiously) invited. Elena's old friends press her to attend the party. But she refuses, saying the past means nothing to her, but Anton thinks she should go, if only to prove to herself that she has left the past behind. Rudolf, who eeks out an existence abroad as a taxi driver, arrives incognito and immediately sends for Elena. Elena arrives, and for a moment an illusion of gaiety is established. Rudolf makes violent love to Elena, she runs home, and he follows her, determined to renew their affair. But Elena, though caught in the excitement of old memories and still attracted to Rudolf, knows he belongs to the past, and her husband and the present is the better of the two. But she allows Rudolf to hide in her apartment while Anton arranges for him to escape from the country. the experiment of trying to renew a past that no longer has meaning has been successfully carried out.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  23            Female:  7            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Road To Rome

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1927

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
C. Scribner's Sons (1928)   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rugged Path, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Plymouth Theatre, New York     10 Nov 1945

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Second Threshold

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
written by Philip Barry and Robert E Sherwood

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service Inc (January 1, 1951)   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Small War On Murray Hill

Synopsis:
Chapman describes, "Sherwood let his frequently impish imagination toy with an item in the history booksthe one in which Mrs. Robert Murray beguiles British General Sir William Howe into tarrying in her home instead of pushing on with his redcoats and his Hessians and driving a wedge between the armies of General Isaac Putnam and George Washington. Thanks to his lady's enticements, Putnam was able to join Washington on the Harlem River under cover of night. According to Sherwood, Mrs. Murray's delaying tactics include a cocktail made of Holland gin and sherry called a stone wall, an excellent lunch prepared by a Creole cook, some intelligent conversation, a dinner featuring steamed clams, plenty of good brandy and, one suspects, finally her own beautiful self. . ."

Notes:
the last play by one of America's outstanding playwrights

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  8            Other:  of the 10 men, 8 are non speaking and of the 8 women, 5 are non speaking

Further Reference:
-

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There Shall Be No Night

There Shall Be No Night
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. It is a proclamation of faith in the courage of free men everywhere, and the essential soundness of Democracy. the principal setting is a living-room, but there are two other, very simple bare rooms, one in a hotel and one in a small schoolhouse.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Scribner 1940   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tovarich

Synopsis:
Two impoverished Russians in exile in France have to take jobs as servants to survive

Notes:
Original Playwright - Jacques Deval

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc, New York   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Translation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Waterloo Bridge

Synopsis:
American Deauville gets stuck in London during the First World War. She cannot get back to the States or get work. She turns to prostitution. Waterloo Bridge is her beat. She meets young Canadian soldier Roy Cronin who is on leave recovering from wounds. She takes him back home for tea. Roy falls for Myra. Myra's landlady hears that Roy is due a lot of back pay and wants Myra to get her hands on it so that back rent can be paid on the house. Roy gets his recall papers. Myra in distress has gone back to Waterloo Bridge. Roy meets her there on his way to Waterloo Station. He tells her that he has made her the beneficiary of his insurance policy. He leaves. Myra stands on the bridge. A German Zeppelin flies over and Myra is killed

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Fulton Theatre, New York     1930

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  10            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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