The Royal Family
Opening Night: October 8, 2009
Closing: December 13, 2009
Theater: Samuel J. Friedman
It’s half past one in the fabulously cluttered Cavendish duplex in the East Fifties, and anyone who’s anyone is still asleep. So begins The Royal Family, the classic comedy of theatrical manners, written by two of the theatre’s greatest writers, George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, whose other storied collaborations include Dinner at Eight and Stage Door. This devilishly funny play follows the Cavendishes, the famous family of stage stars, as they go about the drama of the day: choosing scripts, dashing off to a performance, and stealing kisses with handsome beaus. But what’s this business about the younger Miss Cavendish wanting to quit the stage for domestic bliss? Never, darling!
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October 9, 2009
Hard-core disciples of the religion known as the Theater are scarce on the grounds these days. But two evangelists of that embattled creed have set up camp at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater to attest that the faith lives on. Portraying 1920s stage stars in the Manhattan Theater Club’s Broadway revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s “Royal Family,” which opened on Thursday night, Jan Maxwell and Rosemary Harris are giving the kinds of performances that turn agnostics into true believers.
READ THE REVIEWApril 22, 2014
Oh, those theater folks! They do carry on. And the way they cavort and complain has been captured perfectly in the effervescent Manhattan Theatre Club revival of "The Royal Family," the still sturdy 1927 comedy by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber.
READ THE REVIEWApril 22, 2014
The Manhattan Theatre Club revival of The Royal Family (* * * out of four) endured some real-life drama Sunday when cast member Tony Roberts had a minor seizure during a matinee, forcing its cancellation.
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April 22, 2014
There’s a sentimental satisfaction in watching Rosemary Harris — who played equivocating diva Julie Cavendish in the 1976 Broadway revival of "The Royal Family" — still navigating the stage with grace and good humor, this time as the clan’s proud matriarch, in the play’s latest appearance. The rhythms of Doug Hughes’ production are too uneven to make all its rewards equal, but George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s 1927 comedy about a New York stage dynasty retains plenty of charm for theater lovers. And while the ensemble work could be tighter, its lead performers rise to the occasion in sparkling turns.
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April 22, 2014
George S. Kaufman was the Neil Simon of his day, a commercial craftsman whose comedies used to be immensely popular but are now mostly forgotten, "The Man Who Came to Dinner" and "You Can’t Take It With You" excepted. The Manhattan Theatre Club’s revival of "The Royal Family," written in 1927 by Kaufman and Edna Ferber, the author of such blockbuster novels as "Show Boat" and "Giant," is only the third Kaufman revival to open on Broadway in the past quarter-century.
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