Awake and Sing!
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Awake and Sing!
Awake and Sing! (1935), a drama by Clifford Odets. [ Belasco Theatre, 184 perf.] The Bergers, a lower‐middle‐class Jewish family in the Bronx, are a miserable lot. The mother, Bessie (Stella Adler), is shrill and selfish; the father, Myron (Art Smith), a drudging ne'er‐do‐well; and their unmarried daughter, Hennie (Phoebe Brand), is pregnant with an unwanted child. If there is any hope for redemption, it rests with the Berger son, Ralph (Jules, later John, Garfield), a bitter but ambitious young man, and his grandfather, Jacob (Morris Carnovsky), who long ago found his consolation in philosophy. Seeing only one way out for Ralph, Jacob quietly makes him the beneficiary of his $3,000‐life insurance policy, then “accidentally” falls from the roof of their tenement. His death allows Hennie to run away with Moe Axelrod (Luther Adler), a crippled war veteran who offers her financial security. It also liberates Ralph: “Did Jake die for us to fight for nickels? No! ‘Awake and sing,’ he said . . . I saw he was dead and I was born!” Ralph departs, resolved to become a left‐wing agitator. In the uneasy climate of the Great Depression, John Mason Brown considered the play “a well‐balanced, meticulously observed, always interesting and ultimately quite moving drama.” A number of critics saw something Chekhovian in the Group Theatre presentation (though without Chekhov's gift of understatement). The drama was revived on Broadway in 1939, 1970, 1984, and Off Broadway in 1979, but it never proved as potent as the original.
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Awake and Sing!
| Awake and Sing! | |
|---|---|
 Playbill title page, Belasco Theatre, 1935 |
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| Written by | Clifford Odets |
| Date premiered | February 19, 1935 |
| Place premiered | Belasco Theatre New York City |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | A family struggles for survival amongst harsh conditions |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | The Bronx, 1933 |
| IBDB profile | |
Awake and Sing! is a drama written by American playwright Clifford Odets. The play was initially produced by The Group Theatre in 1935.
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Contents
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Summary and characters
The play is set in The Bronx in 1933; it concerns the impoverished Berger family and their conflicts as the parents scheme to manipulate their children's relationships to their own ends, while their children strive for their own dreams.
- Myron Berger - the father of the family
- Bessie Berger - his wife
- Hennie Berger - their daughter, age 26
- Ralph Berger - their son, age 22
- Uncle Morty - Bessie's brother, a successful businessman
- Jacob - father of Bessie and Morty; a Marxist; he lives with the Bergers
- Moe Axelrod - a friend of the family who eventually boards with the Bergers
- Sam Feinschreiber - an immigrant who courts Hennie
- Schlosser - the janitor in the Bergers' apartment building
Productions
The play premiered on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre on February 19, 1935, running for 184 performances before closing on July 27, 1935; it returned two months later on September 9 for an additional 24 performances through September 28, 1935. Directed by Harold Clurman, the cast starred Luther Adler (Moe Axelrod), Stella Adler (Bessie Berger), Morris Carnovsky (Jacob), John Garfield (Ralph Berger) and Sanford Meisner (Sam Feinschreiber).
It was revived off-Broadway in 1970, 1979, 1993, and 1995.[1] It was revived on Broadway in 1938, 1939, 1984, and 2006.
A television adaptation was made in 1972 starring Walter Matthau.[2]
It was last revived in a Lincoln Center Theater production on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre, opening on April 17, 2006 and closing on June 25, 2006 after 80 performances and 27 previews. Directed by Bartlett Sher, the cast featured Ben Gazzara (Jacob), Zoë Wanamaker (Bessie), and Lauren Ambrose (Hennie).[3]
Following its American success, the play was staged in London at the Off West End Almeida Theatre, from August 31, 2007 through October 20, 2007. Directed by Michael Attenborough, the cast featured Stockard Channing as Bessie.[4]
The play opened in Toronto June 6, 2009 for a 2 month run at Soulpepper.
Awards and nominations
- Tony Awards (2006)
- Best Revival of a Play (win)
- Best Costume Design of a Play (win)
- Best Lighting Design of a Play (nomination)
- Best Scenic Design of a Play (nomination)
- Best Direction of a Play (nomination)
- Featured Actress – Zoe Wanamaker (nomination)
- Featured Actor – Mark Ruffalo (nomination) and Pablo Schreiber (nomination)
- Drama Desk Awards (2006)
- Outstanding Revival of a Play (win)
- Outstanding Set Design of a Play (win)
- Outstanding Ensemble Performance (win)
- Outstanding Lighting Design (nomination)
References
- ^ Internet Off-Broadway database listing, Awake and Sing lortel.org, accessed May 13, 2009
- ^ Internet Movie Database listing imdb.com, accessed May 13, 2009
- ^ article on 2006 revival playbill.com, 2006
- ^ Almeida Theatre's 2007 London production almeida.co.uk
- Ernio Hernandez (17 April 2006). "Playbill Archives: Awake and Sing! — 1935". Playbill. http://www.playbill.com/features/article/99111.html. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
Further reading
- Odets, Clifford (1900s) (in Yiddish). Shtey uf un zing. United States: O.fg. OCLC 83856392.
- Odets, Clifford (1935). Awake and Sing, A Play in Three Acts. New York: Random house. OCLC 2128928.
External links
- Internet Broadway Database for all Broadway productions
- Awake and Sing! at the Internet off-Broadway Database
- Review of 1981 revival
- Photos of the Jewish Repertory Theatre's 2008 production of Awake and Sing
- Study guide for UK Almeida 2007 production
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Oxford Companion to American Theatre
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Stella Adler
(American Theater)
Harold Clurman
(American dramatist & writer)
another county heard from
(Idiom)
Group Theatre
(organization, United States – in theater)
Luther Adler
(American Theater)
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