George Kaufman

Biography

George Kaufman (November 16, 1889 - June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theatre director and producer, humorist, and drama critic.

Born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kaufman added the middle initial to his name to lend it balance and rhythm. He was known as "The Great Collaborator" because he wrote very few plays alone. His most successful solo script was The Butter and Egg Man in 1925. With others, Kaufman was prolific: with Marc Connelly he wrote Merton of the Movies, Dulcy, and Beggar on Horseback; with Ring Lardner he wrote June Moon; with Edna Ferber he wrote The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, and Stage Door; with John P. Marquand he wrote a stage adaptation of Marquand's novel The Late George Apley; and with Howard Teichmann he wrote The Solid Gold Cadillac. His 1945 musical Hollywood Pinafore (based on H.M.S. Pinafore), was in posthumous collaboration with Arthur Sullivan.

His most successful collaborations were with Moss Hart, with whom he wrote many plays, including Once in a Lifetime, Merrily We Roll Along, You Can't Take It With You, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937, and The Man Who Came to Dinner, whose lead character was based on critic and wit Alexander Woollcott. Once in a Lifetime is the story of New Yorkers who leave vaudeville to strike it rich in Hollywood.

Kaufman began his career as a journalist and drama critic. He was the drama editor for The New York Times. His Broadway debut was in 1918 with the now-forgotten Someone in the House, written with Larry Evans and W. C. Percival. In every Broadway season from 1921 through 1958, there was a play written or directed by Kaufman. Since Kaufman's death, there have been 12 Broadway productions of Kaufman plays (either revivals or productions based on Kaufman properties, such as a 1981 musical version of Merrily We Roll Along adapted George Furth and Stephen Sondheim).

Despite his claim that he knew nothing about music and hated it in the theatre, Kaufman collaborated on many musical projects. His most successful efforts include two Broadway shows crafted for the Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts, written with Irving Berlin, and Animal Crackers, written with Morrie Ryskind, Bert Kalmar, and Harry Ruby. These two productions allowed the Marx Brothers to make the transition from their vaudeville roots into the more prominent worlds of "legitimate" musical comedy and film. Kaufman was one of the writers who excelled in writing intelligent nonsense for Groucho Marx, a process that was inevitably collaborative, given Groucho's skills at expanding upon the scripted material. Though the Marx Brothers were notoriously critical of their writers, Groucho and Harpo Marx expressed admiration and gratitude towards Kaufman.

Humor derived from political situations was of particular interest to Kaufman. He collaborated on two musical hits, Of Thee I Sing (1931 Pulitzer Prize, the first musical so honored), and Let 'Em Eat Cake, and one troubled but eventually successful satire that had several incarnations, Strike Up the Band. Working with Kaufman on these ventures were Ryskind, George Gershwin, and Ira Gershwin.

This inveterate collaborator also contributed to historically important New York revues, including The Band Wagon (not to be confused with the Astaire/Minnelli 1953 film) with Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. His often anthologized sketch "The Still Alarm" from the review The Little Show lasted long after this influential show closed.

Source:
Wikipedia contributors, "George S. Kaufman," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George S. Kaufman&oldid=102443805 (accessed February 13, 2007). [Read More...]

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