Dinner at Eight

Dinner at Eight (1932), a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber. [Music Box, 232 perf.] The guests invited to the dinner party of Millicent Jordan (Ann Andrews) have all seemed to reach turning points in their lives. Larry Renault (Conway Tearle), a broke, alcoholic, fading matinee idol, loses his last chance for a comeback, so commits suicide. His young mistress, Paula Jordan (Marguerite Churchill), is the daughter of Oliver Jordan (Malcolm Duncan), who is seriously ill and whose shaky shipping interests are in danger of being taken over by the greedy upstart Dan Packard (Paul Harvey). Packard's sluttish wife, Kitty (Judith Wood), a former hatcheck girl, is in love with Dr. Wayne Talbot (Austin Fairman), but Talbot has tired of her and prefers to return to his wife, Lucy (Olive Wyndham). The long‐retired star, Carlotta Vance (Constance Collier), once Jordan's mistress, has sold her stock in his company, unaware that his interests are beleaguered. Even Millicent's servants are touchy and quick to blow up. Then the cook announces that part of the dinner has been spoiled. Nevertheless, tired of waiting for Renault and unaware of his suicide, the guests and their hostess head for the dining room to make the best of it. Praised by the Herald Tribune as “one of the best of the shrewdly literate Broadway dramas,” the Sam Harris production broke theatre records in its early weeks. But its large cast, expensive production, and effects of the Depression, then at its nadir, prevented the play from spanning the summer. A 1966 Broadway revival with an all‐star cast somehow missed capturing the original's glitter, and a 2002 revival by Lincoln Center was praised for its high style but criticized for its uneven acting.