Twentieth Century

Twentieth Century (1932), a comedy by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. [ Broadhurst Theatre, 152 perf.] In desperate need of a success to recoup both his fortune and his reputation, the flamboyant, egomaniacal producer Oscar Jaffe (Moffatt Johnston) books a compartment on the famous train the Twentieth Century Limited. He hopes not only to elude his persistent creditors, but also to sign the screen star Lily Garland (Eugenie Leontovich), who is in the neighboring compartment. Oscar feels Lily owes him a favor, since he had taken her when she was merely Mildred Plotka and made her his star and his mistress. His plan is to have her play Mary Magdalene in his production of The Passion Play. A check from a fanatically religious millionaire, Matthew Clark (Etienne Girardot), would seem to assure his production. Although the check proves worthless when Clark is shown to be a harmless mental case, Jaffe manages to sign Lily in the midst of one of their tempestuous battles. Percy Hammond wrote, “Show business gets a cruel razzing from 20th Century . . . in which those impish bad boys of the Drama kick it urgently on its pants and inspire, thereby, much hilarity.” The play was a reworking of Charles Bruce Millholland's unproduced comedy The Napoleon of Broadway that used David Belasco for its model for Oscar. When Hecht and MacArthur took over they added some touches of Jed Harris to their leading figure. The play was successfully revived in 1950 with Gloria Swanson and José Ferrer. Later it became the basis of the musical ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (1978), written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (book and lyrics), with music by Cy Coleman, and with John Cullum and Madeleine Kahn as Jaffe and Lily. (The religious fanatic was turned into a woman, Letitia Primrose, played with relish by comedienne Imogene Coca.) A high point of the evening was Robin Wagner's scenery re‐creating the famous old train, which led Variety to begin its notice, “It's ominous when an audience leaves a musical whistling the scenery.” Yet the score, a merry pastiche of operetta, was tuneful and the Hal Prince–staged evening a good deal of fun. It ran 449 performances at the St. James Theatre. Notable songs: On the Twentieth Century; Our Private World; Repent; We've Got It All; Never.