The Subject Was Roses

Subject was Roses, The (1964), a play by Frank D. Gilroy. [Royale Theatre, 832 perf.; Pulitzer Prize, Tony, NYDCC Awards.] When Timmy Cleary (Martin Sheen) returns from the war, his father, John (Jack Albertson), and his mother, Nettie (Irene Dailey), find themselves fighting each other to win his love and respect. After two days together, Timmy tells his parents that he is leaving to strike out on his own. Scarred from the family infighting, John and Nettie grudgingly agree. A small‐cast, largely actionless play typical of its day, its winning so many awards, especially after two seasons in which no Pulitzer award was given, testified to the hollowness of American playwriting at the time. Frank D[aniel] GILROY (b. 1925) was educated at Dartmouth and Yale. His early play, Who'll Save the Ploughboy? (1962), won him some recognition. After the surprise success of The Subject Was Roses Gilroy directed several films, but none of his later plays found favor, including the prequel Any Given Day (1993), which looked at John and Nettie Cleary before Timmy was born.

Frank D. Gilroy
1964

The Subject Was Roses was first presented at the Royale Theatre, New York City, on May 15, 1964. It was an outstanding success with critics and the public alike and it won many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The play belongs to the category of domestic realism and has a cast of only three characters. John and Nettie Cleary live unhappily together in a middle-class apartment in the Bronx, New York. Their twenty-one-year-old son Timmy has just returned home after serving three years in the army during World War II. As the drama unfolds, the tensions in the family become apparent. Husband and wife squabble; Nettie is overprotective toward her grown son; John tries to overcome years of neglect and make an affectionate connection with Timmy, but that path proves stormy. Eventually, Timmy, who has more awareness of the effect of the negative family dynamics than his parents, decides he must leave home. The play achieves its effects in part through effective use of dialogue. The dialogue conveys the long-standing hostility between John and Nettie, their doomed efforts to recapture their lost love, and their failure to understand that their old ways of behavior alienate Timmy and drive him away. They manage to achieve the very opposite of what they intend.

For the 1968 film, see The Subject Was Roses (film).

The Subject Was Roses
Written by	Frank D. Gilroy
Characters	John Cleary Nettie Cleary Timmy Cleary
Date premiered	May 25, 1964
Place premiered	Royale Theatre New York City, New York
Original language	English
Subject
Genre	Drama
Setting	the Cleary's apartment, 1946
IBDB profile

The Subject Was Roses is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 1964 play written by Frank D. Gilroy, who also adapted the work in 1968 for film with the same title.

Contents 1 Background 2 Cast and characters 3 Synopsis 4 Film adaptation 5 Awards and nominations 6 References 7 External links

Background

The play premiered on Broadway at the Royale Theatre on 25 May 1964, starring Jack Albertson, Irene Dailey and Martin Sheen, and directed by Ulu Grosbard. A major critical and commercial success, the play ran 882 performances and was nominated for five Tony Awards, winning two for Best Play and Best Featured Actor (Albertson). For his work in the play, Gilroy won the year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Columbia Records recorded the complete play in a recording studio with the original cast members and released it as a double-LP set.

In the published script, Gilroy included a day-by-day journal he titled, About Those Roses or How 'Not' To Do a Play and Succeed. According to the journal, "The Subject Was Roses opened on Broadway with a producer who had never produced a Broadway play; a director who had never directed one; a scenic artist who had never designed one; a general manager who had never managed one; and three actors who were virtually unknown."^{[citation needed]} Additionally, the play opened after all of the award deadlines, so it was not eligible until the following year, triumphing over Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, Murray Schisgal's Luv and Edward Albee's Tiny Alice for the Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. During the play's two year run, The Subject Was Roses played five different Broadway theatres and Dustin Hoffman became a replacement stage manager and understudied the role of Timmy.

In 1991, the Roundabout Theatre Company revived the play in New York City with John Mahoney, Dana Ivey and Patrick Dempsey. A 2006 revival of the play was produced by Jeffrey Finn at the Kennedy Center starring Bill Pullman, Judith Ivey, and Steve Kazee. All three performers were nominated for 2007 Helen Hayes Awards.

Cast and characters

Columbia Records recording of the complete play, The Subject Was Roses.

• Irene Dailey - Nettie Cleary
• Jack Albertson - John Cleary
• Martin Sheen - Timmy Cleary

Synopsis

Timmy Cleary returns home from his service during World War II. While he seems to vindicate himself in his father's eyes for surviving the war, his drinking and cursing disturb his mother. Though his parents, John and Nettie, seem to be happy, the peace proves to be a facade. Soon old emotional wounds and unresolved marital problems resurface. Caught in the middle, Timmy feels responsible for their squabbling, but can see no way to resolve their problems.

Film adaptation

Main article: The Subject Was Roses (film)

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Frank D. Gilroy
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Play - Frank D. Gilroy, Edgar Lansbury
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play - Jack Albertson

Nominations

• 1965 Tony Award for Best Author - Frank D. Gilroy
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Director - Ulu Grosbard
• 1965 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play - Martin Sheen

References

External links

• The Subject Was Roses at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Subject Was Roses (film) at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Shrike (1952) · Picnic (1953) · The Teahouse of the August Moon (1954) · Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) · The Diary of Anne Frank (1956) · Long Day's Journey into Night (1957) · Look Homeward, Angel (1958) · J.B. (1959) · Fiorello! (1960) · All the Way Home (1961) · How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962) · The Subject Was Roses (1965) · A Delicate Balance (1967) · The Great White Hope (1969) · No Place to be Somebody (1970) · The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1971) · That Championship Season (1973) · Seascape (1975) Complete list: (1918-1925) · (1926-1950) · (1951-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

v • d • e Tony Award for Best Play Mister Roberts (1948) · Death of a Salesman (1949) · The Cocktail Party (1950) · The Rose Tattoo (1951) · The Fourposter (1952) · The Crucible (1953) · The Teahouse of the August Moon (1954) · The Desperate Hours (1955) · The Diary of Anne Frank (1956) · Long Day's Journey into Night (1957) · Sunrise at Campobello (1958) · J.B. (1959) · The Miracle Worker (1960) · Becket (1961) · A Man for All Seasons (1962) · Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1963) · Luther (1964) · The Subject Was Roses (1965) · Marat/Sade (1966) · The Homecoming (1967) · Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1968) · The Great White Hope (1969) · Borstal Boy (1970) · Sleuth (1971) · Sticks and Bones (1972) · That Championship Season (1973) · The River Niger (1974) · Equus (1975) Complete list: (1948-1975) · (1976-2000) · (2001-present)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)