By TOWNES COATES
While the earliest Players Revivals were classic works of the English stage, this production was a new look at a two-decade-old play by Player George M. Cohan. In this staging the playwright took a leading role. The revival took place at the National Theatre, known today as the Nederlander. Besides Cohan, the cast included Josephine Hull, James Kirkwood Sr., Ernest Glendinning, and future club president Walter Hampden. This play was adapted seven times on film, twice for radio, and twice again for television over the course of eight decades following its original staging.
Cohan, who made his early mark on the vaudeville stage and is widely regarded as the father of the American musical comedy, loomed large in popular culture as a performer, composer, playwright, and producer. He was memorably played on screen in the 1942 biopic Yankee Doodle Dandy, earning a Best Actor Academy Award for Player James Cagney.
Townes Coates is a writer and producer of documentary film. He serves as the twentieth President of The Players.