The Doughgirls (play)

The Doughgirls is a three-act play written by Joseph Fields. Producer Max Gordon staged it on Broadway, where it debuted at the Lyceum Theatre on December 30, 1942. The play is a comedy about three unmarried women sharing a room in an overcrowded hotel in Washington, D.C. during World War II. The Broadway production was a hit that ran for 671 performances and closed on July 29, 1944.[1][2] It was adapted as a film of the same name in 1944.

The Doughgirls
Playbill cover for The Doughgirls on Broadway
Written byJoseph Fields
Date premieredDecember 30, 1942 (1942-12-30)
Place premieredLyceum Theatre
Original languageEnglish
GenreComedy
SettingA hotel in Washington, D.C.

Cast and characters

The characters and cast from the Broadway production are given below:[3]

Opening night cast
Character Broadway cast
Edna Virginia Field
Julian Cadman King Calder
Mr. Jordan Sydney Grant
Col. Harry Hallstead Reed Brown, Jr.
A bellboy George Calvert
Maid Mary Cooper
Maid Mildred Haines
Vivian Arleen Whelan
Another bellboy Jerome Thor
A porter Hugh Williamson
Another porter Kermit Kegley
Waiter Walter Beck
Nan Doris Nolan
Brigadier General Slade William J. Kelly
Tom Dillon Vinton Hayworth
Judge Honoria Blake Ethel Wilson
Natalia Chodorov Arlene Francis
A stranger Harold Grau
Orderly Joseph Olney
Warren Buckley Edward H. Robins
Sylvia Natalie Schafer
Chaplain Stevens Reynolds Evans
Admiral Owens Thomas F. Tracey
Timothy Walsh James MacDonald
Stephen Forbes Maurice Burke
Father Nicholai Maxim Panteleieff

Film adaptation

Warner Bros. paid $250,000 for the right to adapt the play as a movie. James V. Kern and Sam Hellman wrote the screenplay, which had to remove the play's implications of extramarital sex to be accepted by the censors at the Breen Office. Kern directed the film, which was titled The Doughgirls.[4]

References
  1. Wertheim, Albert (2004). Staging the War: American Drama and World War II. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 107. ISBN 0-253-34310-0.
  2. Bordman, Gerald (1996). American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy and Drama, 1930–1969. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 220. ISBN 0-19-535808-2.
  3. Nichols, Lewis (December 31, 1942). "The Play". The New York Times. p. 19.
  4. Dick, Bernard F. (2014). The President's Ladies: Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis. University Press of Mississippi. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-61703-980-5.
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