Theatre
Street Scene
Elmer Rice · 1929
Synopsis
From one June evening to the afternoon of the next day, in front of a tenement without a lift in a poor New York neighbourhood. The neighbours take the air on the steps, complain about the heat and talk about the woman on the first floor, who is said to be secretly seeing the dairy collector. Her husband, a theatre stagehand, is jealous. Their daughter Rose, twenty, is courted by the son of the Jewish neighbours, who is finishing his studies and is training for the law, and pressed by her boss, a married man who offers her a flat.
Context
The author writes it from November 1927 to February 1928, from an older draft, and sees it refused by almost every producer in New York. William A. Brady finally stages it: it opens at the Playhouse on 10 January 1929, with sets by Jo Mielziner and direction by the author, who took over the rehearsals after George Cukor's departure, and runs until May 1930. It is performed in Madrid as early as 1930 by Margarita Xirgu. King Vidor brings it to the screen in 1931, and in 1947 it becomes an opera, subtitled an American opera, with music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Langston Hughes.
Who it is for
Three acts on a single set, with several dozen roles coming and going. The plot takes a long time to form, and the comings and goings of the street are part of the subject.
Prizes and reception
Pulitzer Prize in 1929 and six hundred and one performances on Broadway; the play gave rise to a film and an opera.
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