The Seven Year Itch

Seven Year Itch, The (1952), a comedy by George Axelrod. [Fulton Theatre, 1,141 perf.] Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) is a nervous paperback book publisher who finds that his wild imagination leads to thoughts of infidelity when he becomes a summer bachelor. These thoughts are given a nudge by a flowerpot that nearly lands on him from a balcony above his. The flowerpot belongs to the girl (Vanessa Brown) upstairs and serves as an excuse for their meeting. But despite Richard's Walter Mittyish dreams of conquest, the voice of his conscience and his own comic apprehensions keep him on the straight and narrow. Brooks Atkinson hailed the Courtney Burr–Elliott Nugent production as “original and funny” and it had a long life in summer theatres, still revived today on occasion. The New York–born George AXELROD (1922–2003) wrote only one other popular play, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955), a spoof of Hollywood told in terms of the Faust legend. He was also co‐producer of Visit to a Small Planet (1957) and later directed several comedies.

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