Rocket to the Moon

Rocket to the Moon (1938), a play by Clifford Odets. [ Belasco Theatre, 131 perf.] Ben Stark (Morris Carnovsky) is a young dentist badgered by his pushy, shrewish wife, Belle (Ruth Nelson), who believes he can make more money for himself and have more celebrity as a specialist. Belle's rich father, Mr. Prince (Luther Adler), is caught in the middle. He wants the best for his daughter and has offered to set his son‐in‐law up as a specialist, but he himself was unhappily married and longs for the life he never had. He suggests that Ben have an affair with his dental secretary, Cleo Singer (Eleanor Lynn). Ben does, but the affair turns out badly and Ben returns to his wife. When many critics assailed the Group Theatre offering for its weak last act, Odets rewrote the work, but despite much fine dialogue and character observation, the play never fully succeeded.

Clifford Odets
1938

Clifford Odets's Rocket to the Moon was first produced for the stage by the Group Theatre in New York in 1938. The play was the second Odets play produced by the Group Theatre after Odets's return from a brief hiatus in Hollywood where he worked as a scriptwriter. Like its predecessor, Golden Boy, the play signaled a move on the part of Odets away from the more overtly political drama of his earlier plays towards a drama more focused on interpersonal relationships and the pressures of life on the individual.

Set entirely in the waiting room of a dentist's office in New York City, the play focuses on the relationships between its central characters. In the play, dialogue is more important than action. The play takes place between June and August, and the oppressive heat of a stifling New York summer serves as the backdrop to the play's events. The play focuses on the mid-life crisis of a dentist, Ben Stark, who attempts to escape the confines of his life by having an affair with his secretary, Cleo. In the play, Odets develops many of the themes familiar to his audience from his earlier (and more overtly political) plays: economic pressures, the ability of the individual to rise above his circumstances, and the effects of personal responsibility on ambition. The play can also be seen as a meditation on the effects of marriage and personal relationships on the development of artistic talent.