Theatre
Golden Boy
Clifford Odets · 1937
Synopsis
Joe Bonaparte, son of an Italian immigrant in New York, is about to turn twenty-one; his father has saved up to give him a violin and wants him to remain a musician. Joe, for his part, steps in at the last minute for an injured boxer and wins. The manager Tom Moody signs him and instructs his mistress, Lorna Moon, to keep him in the trade; an armed gambler, Eddie Fuseli, buys a share of him. But a boxer must strike without sparing his hands, and a violinist cannot.
Context
The play opened on 4 November 1937 at the Belasco Theatre, produced by the Group Theatre, then short of money, in a staging by Harold Clurman, with Luther Adler, Frances Farmer and Elia Kazan; Odets said he had written it to make a success and to keep the company together. It ran for two hundred and fifty performances. Rouben Mamoulian made a film of it in 1939, with William Holden, and a musical was staged in 1964 with Sammy Davis Jr. A French adaptation by Yvan Noë, never published, is attested as early as 1938.
Who it is for
Three acts, in a spoken, fast-moving language. No published French translation; only an adaptation from 1938 is attested.
Prizes and reception
Its author's biggest commercial success, and that of the Group Theatre, which staged it to get back on its feet financially.
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