Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace (1941), a comedy by Joseph Kesselring. [Fulton Theatre, 1,444 perf.] Abby Brewster (Josephine Hull) and her sister Martha (Jean Adair) are two nice, sweet old ladies who murder nice, sweet, lonely old men by offering them elderberry wine laced with arsenic. The sisters' crazy but harmless brother Teddy (John Alexander), who sports a large mustache and a pince‐nez, believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and often charges up the flight of stairs as if it were San Juan Hill. Teddy digs graves in the Brewster cellar, burying the sisters' victims whom he believes are yellow fever casualties working on the Panama Canal. Complications set in when their nephew Mortimer (Allyn Joslyn) learns of the sisters' activities; and matters get more farcical when another Brewster nephew, the criminal Jonathan (Boris Karloff) on the lam, and a strange Dr. Einstein (Edgar Stehli) arrive with the body of their latest victim. As next of kin, Mortimer arranges to commit the entire family to a mental institution, but before they leave, the sisters inform Mortimer that he is adopted; he is thrilled and announces to his fiancée that he's a bastard. The play ends with Abby and Martha offering the old gentleman from the mental home a glass of their special elderberry wine. Richard Lockridge of the Sun described the play as “a noisy, preposterous, incoherent joy,” adding, “You wouldn't believe that homocidal mania could be such great fun.” Legend has it that the play, originally called Bodies in Our Cellar, was conceived as a serious thriller and that producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were responsible for turning it into a comedy. A 1986 Broadway revival with familiar television faces managed a healthy run despite mixed notices. Joseph KESSELRING (1902–67) was a New York‐born teacher, actor, author, and playwright. This was his only success.

Joseph Kesselring
1941

In 1941, New Yorkers were looking for some entertainment to take their minds off of the war in Europe and the growing fear that America would be pulled into it. On January 10, Broadway gave them exactly what they were looking for in the form of a hilarious new play by Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace. The play became an immediate critical and popular success, running for 1,444 performances. It also became a hit in England in 1942 as theatergoers who were suffering through post-blitz London lined up for tickets. In 1944, Hollywood produced a film version staring Cary Grant that became a huge box office success.

The play, a clever combination of the farcical and the macabre, centers on two elderly sisters who are famous in their Brooklyn neighborhood for their numerous acts of charity. Unfortunately, however, their charity includes poisoning lonely old men who come to their home looking for lodging. The two women are assisted in their crimes by their mentally challenged nephew who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and who frequently blasts a bugle and yells "charge" as he bounds up the stairs. Matters get complicated when a second nephew, a theater critic, discovers the murders and a third nephew appears after having just escaped from a mental institution. In his adroit mixture of comedy and mayhem, Kesselring satirizes the charitable impulse as he pokes fun at the conventions of the theater.

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Arsenic and Old Lace
Written by	Joseph Kesselring
Characters	Mortimer Brewster Martha Brewster Teddy Brewster Jonathan Brewster The Rev. Dr. Harper Elaine Harper
Date premiered	January 10, 1941 (1941-January-10)
Place premiered	Fulton Theatre (later named Helen Hayes Theatre)
Original language	English
Genre	Black comedy
Setting	The living room of the Brewster home in Brooklyn. The Present.
IBDB profile

Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on 10 January 1941. On 25 September 1943, the play moved to the Hudson Theater. It closed there on 17 June 1944 having played 1,444 performances. Of the twelve plays written by Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace is the only one to be successful.

Cast

The opening night cast consisted of:

• Jean Adair (Martha Brewster)
• John Alexander (Teddy Brewster)
• Wyrley Birch (The Rev. Dr. Harper)
• Helen Brooks (Elaine Harper)
• Bruce Gordon (Officer Klein)
• Henry Herbert (Mr. Gibbs)
• Josephine Hull (Abby Brewster)
• Allyn Joslyn (Mortimer Brewster)
• Boris Karloff (Jonathan Brewster)
• William Parke (Mr. Witherspoon)
• John Quigg (Officer Brophy)
• Anthony Ross (Officer O'Hara)
• Edgar Stehli (Dr. Einstein)
• Victor Sutherland (Lieutenant Rooney)

When Kesselring taught at Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, he lived in a boarding house called the Goerz House, and many of the features of its living room are reflected in the Brewster sisters' living room, where the action of the play is set. The Goerz House is now the home of the college president.

The 'murderous old lady' plot line may also have been inspired by actual events that occurred in a house in Windsor, Connecticut, where an older woman took in boarders and allegedly poisoned them for their pensions. Kesselring originally conceived the play as a heavy drama, but a friend, reading the half-finished play, convinced him it would be much more effective as a comedy.

In 1966, Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler and Richard Briers appeared in the play in London. The play is still widely performed and has been translated into many languages, including a Russian film. A revival of the play ran from June 26, 1986 to January 3, 1987 at the 46th Street Theatre in New York.

Plot

The play is a farcical black comedy revolving around Mortimer Brewster, a marriage-hating drama critic who must deal with his crazy, homicidal family and local police in Brooklyn, NY, as he debates whether to go through with his recent promise to marry the woman he loves. His family includes two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of home-made elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; a brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of the Brewster home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims); and a murderous brother who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein (a character based on real-life gangland surgeon Joseph Moran) to conceal his identity and now looks like horror-film actor Boris Karloff (a self-referential joke, as the part was originally played by Karloff). The film adaptation follows the same basic plot, with a few minor changes. It is customary, after the cast takes several curtain calls, for the final one to finish with the "murder victims" (often well-known local personalities) entering from the basement and joining the cast for the final bow.

External links

• Information on the Goerz House

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