Talk:The Man Who Came to Dinner

Note[edit]

Sources for 6/10/05 Edit: Philadelphia Enquirer "Playwright Kaufman was part of NYC nexus"

Sources?[edit]

Are there any sources that can support the part of the article titled "Influence of Alexander Woollcott" where it says that Woollcott declined to play as the lead? --Foe666 20:31, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Howard Teichmann discusses the history of the play at considerable length in his biography of Alexander Woollcott, Smart Aleck: The Wit, World and Life of Alexander Woollcott, chapter 18, "Enter Sheridan Whiteside".

The Lizzie Borden reference is obvious from the text of the play, which paraphrases the famous Lizzie Borden jump-rope jingle: "Harriet Sedley took an axe / And gave her mother forty whacks / And when the job was nicely done / She gave her father forty-one." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.112.230.114 (talk) 03:26, 19 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, shoot. I just added footnotes documenting the character influences. The bot decided that they were unconstructive, and deleted them.

Howard Teichmann, in Smart Aleck, identifies Banjo as Harpo Marx, Metz as Dr., Gustav Eckstein of Cincinnati, and Lorraine Sheldon as Gertrude Stein. He also discusses Woollcott's decision not to play the lead in the original production. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.112.230.114 (talk) 03:38, 19 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Synopsis[edit]

Why isn't there a significant synopsis? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.225.69.122 (talk) 20:06, 14 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to ask that question too - please summarise the PLOT! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.151.27.92 (talk) 20:46, 7 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Anybody can jump in and summarize the plot. Yours, GeorgeLouis (talk) 05:37, 19 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Question.[edit]

"When she died, her will revealed that she had received royalties for all future productions and adaptations." An editor deleted this, but apparently she received the royalties in advance. Not sure how this would work in practice. Does anybody know? Yours, GeorgeLouis (talk) 06:17, 2 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like nonsense. Paid by whom?

So if I want to stage an amateur production of this now, I pay nothing, because her estate was already paid off in perpetuity years ago?

That is not rational.

I assumed the sentence was badly written when I deleted it.

Varlaam (talk) 08:15, 2 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]