The Mint Theater Company's revival of Rachel Crothers' 1937 Susan and God has been extended for two additional weeks, through July 30th. Artistic Director Jonathan Bank directs. Performances began June 6th, with opening night on June 18th.
Susan and God, which concludes its season dedicated to neglected plays by American women, features Opal Alladin, Jennifer Blood, Matthieu Cornillon, Alex Cranmer, Timothy Deenihan, Katie Firth, Leslie Hendrix, Anthony Newfield, Al Sapienza and Jordan Simmons, and in the title role, Leslie Hendrix ("Law and Order").
Susan and
God marked the culmination of Crothers' career as both playwright and
director. For over thirty years, her plays (such as He and She and When Ladies Meet) had lit up the Great White Way. Now, with Susan and God,
she once again reigned supreme. The play's initial run lasted 288
performances. In 1938, selections from the award-winning play were the
first dramatic scenes broadcast on television, still an experimental
medium. In 1943, the play was chosen to open City Center, with Gertrude
Lawrence reprising her performance as Susan."Audiences were
charmed by the endearingly selfish Susan, a socialite who embraces a
new religious philosophy while abroad and returns home eager to change
everyone around her," according to press notes. "On one level, Susan and God
satirizes the trendier aspects of the Oxford Group, a religious
movement of the 1920's and 1930's. Pre-dating the spiritual trends of
our day, the Oxford Group inspired everything from evangelical soirees
to the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous."
Crothers (1878-1958) was the most prolific and successful female
dramatist writing for the American stage during the early years of the
twentieth century. In a career that lasted almost four decades
(1899-1937), Crothers contributed twenty-four full-length plays to the
New York stage. Because she was a talented craftswoman with a thorough
knowledge of her profession, most of these plays were critical and
popular successes. In addition, at least six of her early one-act plays
were produced and a number of others published, including five that
appeared in popular periodicals of the day such as "The Smart Set."Mint Theater Company has excavated such worthy but neglected treasures as J.M. Barrie's Echoes of the War, Arthur Schnitzler's The Lonely Way and D.H. Lawrence's The Daughter-in-Law,
which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a
Play and named one of the top ten productions of the year in 2003 by The New York Times.
In 2001, the Mint was awarded an Obie grant for "combining the
excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition," and in 2002 a
special Drama Desk Award for "Unearthing, presenting and preserving
forgotten plays of merit." Mint has published two books: a volume of
seven plays entitled, "Worthy But Neglected: Plays of the Mint Theater
Company" and "Arthur Schnitzler Reclaimed," which contains The Lonely Way and Far and Wide.
Susan and God is performed in the theater on the Third Floor of 311 West 43rd Street. Remaining performances, which continue through July 30th, will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7 PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM. Tickets are $45 and are available by calling (212) 315-0231 or online at
www.minttheater.org.
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