Tag Archives: Joe E. Brown

Pulitzers play Little Rock – HARVEY

Posted on by
harveybrown3

Joe E. Brown in HARVEY

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama being given. It went to Jesse Lynch Williams’ Why Marry?  To pay tribute to 100 years of the Pulitzer for Drama, each day this month a different Little Rock production of a Pulitzer Prize winning play.  Many of these titles have been produced numerous times.  This look will veer from high school to national tours in an attempt to give a glimpse into Little Rock’s breadth and depth of theatrical history.

First up – an appropriate on Easter Sunday, a look at Mary Chase’s HARVEY.  Though not the Easter bunny, it does revolve around a rabbit—or does it?

The winner of the 1945 Pulitzer came to Little Rock in 1948 on its national tour.  Comedian Joe E. Brown was playing the leading role when the show came to Robinson Auditorium.  That same year, Brown received a special Tony Award for starring in the Harvey tour.

Tony Awards Week – History of theatre in Little Rock

Posted on by
Joe E. Brown in HARVEY

Joe E. Brown in HARVEY

Little Rock existed as a theatre town for over 100 years prior to the Tony Awards.  But since this is Tony Awards week, “let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start” (words by my favorite lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II).

The first documented theatrical performance was on November 4, 1834, and in August 1838 the construction of the first theatre in Little Rock was announced.  Through Little Rock’s early years a variety of spaces were used for performances including the City Hall on Markham near Main Street which had been built in 1867.

The opening of the Capital Theatre in December 1885 would be Little Rock’s first large-scale, non-church space for performances and gatherings.  The Capital had a seating capacity of approximately 2,000 seats.  Designed to house theatrical productions, it also played host to civic events ranging from high school graduations (for both the white and African American high schools) to public memorials.  For instance, in 1901 it was the site of a public memorial for the recently assassinated President William McKinley.  In time, the Capital Theatre (which was situated on land that is now occupied by a portion of the Statehouse Convention Center) would be joined by a variety of other theatres, public houses, vaudeville houses and lodge halls.

The 1908 “temporary” City Auditorium probably played host to theatrical performances, but records do not exist for it.  The amphitheatre in Forest Park was home to many theatrical performances including appearances by Sarah Bernhardt.  Judy Baker Goss’s play Fond Farewell looked at one of Bernhardt’s visit to Little Rock.  (In the local production of that play, Bernhardt was played by Judy Trice, the mother of a three-time Tony winner Will Trice. His father, Bill Trice, played a Little Rock City Council member smitten with the actress.)

When Robinson Auditorium opened in 1940, it had space to host theatrical productions in the main music hall as well as in the lower level “little theatre.”  By that time, there were a variety of community theatre groups performing.  The first national tour to play in Robinson was Springtime for Henry starring Edward Everett Horton.

The first Tony winning production to play Robinson was the national tour of Harvey starring Joe E. Brown.  Brown, in fact, received a special Tony for starring in the national tour of the play.

SOME LIKE IT HOT tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater

Posted on by

Some_Like_It_Hot_posterNobody’s Perfect. But Some Like It Hot comes pretty close to it.

Billy Wilder’s screwball comedy set in the 1920s stars Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.  Written by Wilder and his longtime scribe partner I.A.L. Diamond, it tells the tale of two musicians who witness the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre and must go undercover to escape the attention of some mobsters.  Along the way, they meet a big-hearted blonde who always gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop stick, a randy aging millionaire and a spats wearing gangster.

Joining Lemmon, Curtis and Monroe in the cast are Joe E. Brown, George Raft, Pat O’Brien, and many others.

Shot in black and white, this movie’s zany characters provide enough color regardless of the film stock.  The film was nominated for six Oscars; it won for Orry-Kelly’s Black and White costume design.

The movie starts at 7pm tonight. Admission is $5. Concessions are available for purchase as well.

ROCKing the TONY AWARDS – Joe E. Brown

Posted on by

Rock the Tonysharveybrown3JOE E. BROWN

Little Rock connection: Appeared at Robinson Auditorium in the national tour of Harvey in 1948.

Tony Awards connection: At the 1948 Tonys, received a special Tony Award for touring in Harvey while the original play still was on Broadway.  He had previously played the role on Broadway earlier in the run (succeeding original star Frank Fay). The original production of Harvey was directed by Antoinette Perry, after whom the awards were named.

The photo on the right was a publicity photo showing Brown taking down a painting of Fay with Harvey to mark the fact that Brown was taking over the role.