The Amazons (play)

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A publicity photo featuring (left to right) Katherine Florence, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Georgia Cayvan, Herbert Kelcey, Bessie Tyree, and Fritz Williams, around 1894
In this sketch by Marguerite Martyn, the College Club of St. Louis was in rehearsal for “The Amazons,” a play by Arthur Wing Pinero, in which all the parts were played by women, April 1910.

The Amazons: A Farcical Romance is an 1893 play by Arthur Wing Pinero.[1][2]

The play subsequently opened the Royal Court Theatre on 7 March 1893 and ran for 111 performances until 8 July 1893. It subsequently opened at the Lyceum Theatre on 19 February 1894.[3]

The plot involves three sisters (Noeline/Noel, Wilhelmina/Willis, and Thomasin/Tommie) raised by their aristocratic father as his male heirs. They have trouble adjusting to society.[4]

The play was revived (again with Billie Burke) and opened at the Empire Theatre on 28 April 1913.[5] The revival included the song "My Otaheitee lady" with music by Jerome Kern, using lyrics by the deceased Charles H. Taylor.[6]

In 1917 it was adapted as a film of the same name.

Broadway cast[edit]

Billie Burke in The Amazons (1913)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Staff report (March 27, 1893). The Stage. Detroit Free Press
  2. ^ Staff report (September, 1893). Notes of the Drama.. Chicago Tribune
  3. ^ Staff report (February 18, 1894). New Bills of the Week. New York Times
  4. ^ "'The Amazons,' Satire on Mannish Woman, The New Bill at Auditorium" Wichita Daily Eagle (September 18, 1910): 28. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  5. ^ "The Amazons" at IBDB.com.
  6. ^ Jerome Kern, My Otaheitee lady (New York: Harms and Francis, Day & Hunter, 1913), cover.

External links[edit]