Light up the Sky

Light up the Sky (1948), a comedy by Moss Hart. [ Royale Theatre, 216 perf.] Just before the opening of a new play in Boston, the leading figures involved in the show assemble in the Ritz‐Carlton suite of the leading lady, Irene Livingston (Virginia Field). The others include the coarse‐mouthed producer Sidney Black (Sam Levene); his brassy wife, Frances (Audrey Christie); the swishy, lugubrious director Carleton Fitzgerald (Glenn Anders); and the young playwright Peter Sloan (Barry Nelson). They are gushily sweet and loving to each other until they return from the first performance, which they believe to be a flop. Then a screaming, name‐calling session ensues. When the reviews prove encouraging, the sweetness and camaraderie return. The show was originally written by Hart as a more philosophic comedy, but after a Boston tryout that mirrored the fictitious events in the play, it was rewritten as a slam‐bang farce. Insiders recognized that the vain, effusive Irene was a send‐up of Gertrude Lawrence; the Blacks, of Billy Rose and his wife, Eleanor Holm; and Fitzgerald, of Guthrie McClintic. The play was Hart's only successful solo venture, aside from the wartime Winged Victory (1943), but appearing in a season of exceptional competition it didn't enjoy the longer run it deserved.