''Play It Again, Sam'' is a 1969 Broadway play written by and starring

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

. A substantial hit, it ran for more than a year and helped build Allen's reputation as a performer who could portray a comedic romantic lead as well as the neurotic persona for which he was best known at the time. The play became the basis for a 1972 film of the same name, starring Allen and directed by

Herbert Ross Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award. He is known for directing ...

Plot

The play is about a recently divorced film magazine writer, Allan Felix, who is trying to restart his romantic life. Eventually he falls in love (and has a brief affair) with Linda, the wife of his best friend, Dick. During the course of the play, he repeatedly seeks advice from the ghost of his idol,

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

, but eventually decides that he needs to be himself rather than imitating Bogart. Telling Linda that the right thing for her to do is to return to her husband, Felix quotes the famous lines that Bogart delivers to

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films, television movies, and plays.Obituary '' Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, she is ofte ...

in the last scene of ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

''.

Cast

*Woody Allen as Allan Felix *Sheila Sullivan as Nancy *

Jerry Lacy Gerald LeRoy Lacy (born March 27, 1936) is an American soap opera actor best known for playing the roles of Tony Peterson, Reverend Trask, Reverend Gregory Trask, Mr. Trask, and Lamar Trask on the TV serial ''Dark Shadows''. He has also appear ...

as Bogart * Tony Roberts as Dick Christie *

Diane Keaton Diane Keaton (''née'' Hall, born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and director. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Glo ...

as Linda Christie *Barbara Brownell as Dream Sharon/Barbara *Diana Walker as Sharon Lake *Jean Fowler as Gina *Cynthia Dalbey as Vanessa *Lee Ann Fahey as Go Go Girl *Barbara Press as Intellectual Girl

Production

Diane Keaton, Woody Allen, Jerry Lacy Play it Again, Sam Broadway

Original production

After 2 previews, the

Broadway production Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...

opened at the

Broadhurst Theatre The Broadhurst Theatre is a Broadway theater at 235 West 44th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1917, the theater was designed by Herbert J. Krapp and was built for the Shubert brothers. The Bro ...

on February 12, 1969 and ran for 453 performances before closing on March 14, 1970. Directed by Joseph Hardy, the cast included Allen as Allan Felix,

as Linda Christie, Tony Roberts as Dick Christie, and

as Bogart."Play It Again, Sam"
at the

Internet Broadway Database The Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It was conceived and created by Karen Hauser in 1996 and is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade asso ...

. Allen left the show near the end of its run and was replaced by Bob Denver.Adam Bernstein
"Bob Denver, 70; Brought Goofy Comedy to Role as TV's Gilligan"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', September 7, 2005. It was while auditioning for this play that Diane Keaton first met Woody Allen and they began their professional and personal relationship.

London production

A production of ''Play It Again, Sam'' opened at the

Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and ...

in London's West End on September 11, 1969, starring

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

. Australian actor

Bill Kerr William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian actor, comedian, and vaudevillian. Born in South Africa, he started his career as a child actor in Australia, before emigrating to Britain after the Second Wor ...

played the Humphrey Bogart role.

Reception

The Broadway production received generally positive reviews, including several from critics who saw it as a tribute to Bogart.Henry Bial, ''Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage & Screen'' (

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, 2005), .
Excerpts available
at

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. UPI critic Jack Gaver thought it was "an amusing entertainment" in which " thing of consequence happens". On the other hand, '' New York's'' John Simon delivered a characteristically negative review, criticizing the "rawly autobiographical" content of the play as well as Allen's performance in it. Bob Denver's performance as Allen's late-run replacement was praised by ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic

Clive Barnes Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, '' The New York Post.'' Barnes had sig ...

for conveying "a genuine clown-like wistfulness" that Barnes had found lacking in Allen. The production received three

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual c ...

nominations, for Hardy's direction and for the supporting performances of Keaton and Roberts. The 1969 London production was later described in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'''s 2002 obituary of Moore as "a mistakenly Anglicised version" of the play.Ronald Bergen
"Dudley Moore: Theatre and television comic, classical musician and jazz original, and briefly an unexpectedly adorable Hollywood movie star"
''

'', March 27, 2002. It received mixed reviews: ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' found Moore's "cuddly appeal" appropriate to the character, but others thought Moore failed to capture the specifically "neurotic" image of "Jewish-American manhood" that the play required, while ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'''s Hilary Spurling found Moore to be "trapped with a fairly measly supply of jokes in a glum, transatlantic no-man's-land" and "sadly unconvincing as a gormless twit".Hilary Spurling
"ARTS: Nut-and-apple case"
''

, September 19, 1969. In his 2005 book, ''Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage & Screen'', theater historian Henry Bial interpreted the play as one that "carries the banner for a Jewish masculinity that is explicitly contrasted with both Bogart and the only other male character in the play, Dick". In more general terms, Bial notes that Allen's character, like Bogart, "overcame being 'not too tall and kinda ugly' to succeed as a ladies' man."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Play It Again, Sam 1969 plays Broadway plays Comedy plays Plays by Woody Allen Plays set in New York City American plays adapted into films Cultural depictions of Humphrey Bogart