Art, Glitter, and Glitz: Mainstream Playwrights and Popular Theatre in 1920s America

The theatre and drama of the 1920s reflects a great synergy of art, glitter, and glitz—a decade of experimentation and incubation for mainstream American playwrights coexisting with important revivals of European playwrights and Shakespeare, a flourishing commercial theatre, and the vibrant worlds of burlesque, musical comedy, Revues and Follies.

The 22 essays gathered by Gewitz and Kolb reflect recent scholarship and research, including several provocative, new readings of the plays of Eugene O'Neill, contrasting essays for and against the significance of Philip Barry, and considerations of less well-known plays by Elmer Rice and Sidney Howard. Essays also address the continuing relevance of Anderson and Stallings' What Price Glory?, the impact of George Pierce Baker on the playwrights of the 1920s, an analysis of the commercial success, Broadway, and a thoroughly detailed account of the Dramatists Guild and its negotiation of a minimum basic agreement. Essays on the popular theatre cover an extraordinary gamut from the popularization of Shakespeare in the hands of John Barrymore to the contrasting acting styles of Jeanne Eagels and Pauline Lord, the one-night Revue presented by members of the Algonquin Circle, grand-guignol, Ring Lardner on Broadway, the Ziegfeld Follies, downtown burlesque, the travesty act of Barbette, the production history of A. H. Woods, and the early musical comedy of Rodgers and Hart. An important resource for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with 20th-century American theatre and drama.