''Cafe Crown'' is a three-act play by Hy Kraft that premiered on Broadway on January 23, 1942, at the Cort Theatre. The cast included

Sam Jaffe Shalom "Sam" Jaffe (March 10, 1891 – March 24, 1984) was an American actor, teacher, musician, and engineer. In 1951, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''The Asphalt Jungle'' (1950) and app ...

and Morris Carnovsky. Its action presented "a motley group of amiable squatters found in a Second Avenue restaurant ... members of the Yiddish theatre", 21 characters in all.

Elia Kazan Elia Kazan (; born Elias Kazantzoglou ( el, Ηλίας Καζαντζόγλου); September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003) was an American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one o ...

directed and Boris Aronson designed the set.

Brooks Atkinson Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theatre critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his ...

, writing in ''

The 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 ...

'', called it a "hospitable comedy", "simple but warm-hearted", set in the cafe where: It ended its run on May 23 after 140 performances. It was revived at the Public Theatre in 1988 with

Eli Wallach Eli Herschel Wallach (; December 7, 1915 – June 24, 2014) was an American film, television, and stage actor from New York City. From his 1945 Broadway debut to his last film appearance, Wallach's entertainment career spanned 65 years. Origina ...

and Anne Jackson. It moved to Broadway, pared to two acts, in the spring of 1989 and ran for 45 performances. A

musical Musical is the adjective of music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact def ...

version with the same name premiered in 1964. It had music by Albert Hague, lyrics by Marty Brill and a book by Kraft. It opened in previews on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on March 21, 1964. After 30 preview performances, the musical officially opened on April 17, 1964. It received less than stellar reviews and closed after three performances on April 18. The Broadway musical version starred actors

Sam Levene Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway theatre, Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and Television director, director. In a career spanning over five decades, ...

and Theodore Bikel and co-starred

Alan Alda Alan Alda (; born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the war come ...

, sopranos Monte Amundsen and Brenda Lewis, dancer Tommy Rall, and Betty Aberlin.

References

External links

Charlotte Hughes, "Of Morris Carnovsky", ''The New York Times'', February 22, 1942
* (play) * (musical) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cafe Crown 1942 plays 1964 musicals Broadway plays Broadway musicals