Notable Quotes"Satire is what closes on Saturday night." "I saw the show at a disadvantage: the curtain was up." "Skylark, starring Gertrude Lawrence, is a bad play saved by a bad performance." "I can trace my ancestors all the way to the Crusades - Sir Roderick Kaufman. He went as a spy, of course." GSK on the much-altered film version of Stage Door:"They should have called it Screen Door." GSK telegram to a misbehaving actor:"Saw your performance tonight from back of house. Wish you were here." GSK on film directing:"It's all right, I suppose, if you can stay awake." GSK in the linen department of Bloomingdale's:"Have you got any good second-act curtains?" Overture to
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BiographyGeorge S. Kaufman was the most successful playwright in the American theater during Broadway's golden years between the two World Wars. His particular brand of sharp comedy and satire produced forty-five Broadway plays, the majority of which were successes; all but one of which were written in collaboration with other authors. He was also a talented and precise director of his own work and several other popular plays and musicals. Renowned as a humorist and wit, he was a charter member of the famed Algonquin Round Table. Kaufman worked with most of the major theatrical talents of his era and was the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for drama, including the first Pulitzer ever awarded to a musical.
To download a PDF version of George S. Kaufman's biography, please see the Archive section. |