No Time for Comedy

No Time for Comedy (1939), a play by S. N. Behrman. [ Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 185 perf.] With the world plunging toward war, meddling, pushy Amanda Smith (Margalo Gillmore) convinces her friend Gaylord Esterbrook (Laurence Olivier) that he should abandon his writing of frivolous comedies and turn to more serious dramatic works. This suggestion infuriates Gaylord's wife, Linda (Katharine Cornell), who has been the star of his plays. She snaps at Amanda, “Sleep with him if you must, but don't spoil his style.” Gaylord and Amanda decide to leave their respective spouses. Linda finds Gaylord packing and slyly suggests that the situation would make a good play. Gaylord agrees, except that he cannot think of how to end the play. When Amanda calls, impatiently demanding to know what is taking him so long to pack, Gaylord realizes the perfect ending for just such a play, so he hangs up on her and remains with Linda. This Playwrights' Company production was Cornell's first attempt at modern comedy. Richard Watts Jr. wrote in the Herald Tribune of the author, “His prose style is so graceful, his wit so sprightly, his mind so tolerant and his viewpoint so modest that he becomes the most winning of the drama's counselors.”