The Late George Apley
(1944)
By John P. Marquand and George S. Kaufman
Cast size: 8 men, 8 women. One interior.
The Late George Apley opened at the Lyceum Theatre on November 21, 1944; it ran 357 performances. It was made into a 1947 film starring Ronald Colman as Apley.
For performance rights, contact: Dramatists
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The Plot
Based on John p. Marquand’s prize-winning best-selling novel and set in the early days of the 20th Century, The Late George Apley investigates the double-edged sword of family honor and tradition among the upper classes of Boston’s Brahmin set.
George Apley is a well-respected patriarch and a Harvard graduate who has carefully cultivated his fortune, his tastes, and his family relations. But, the times change, and faced with two impending marriages that distress him—both his daughter and son want to marry outside the circle of their class and education—Apley finds that he is not nearly as flexible nor as happy as he always believed. He discovers in the end that he is a product of his world—a world whose values he begins to doubt–and that his world is vanishing before his eyes.
About the Play
The adaptation of Marquand’s novel was suggested to Kaufman by his frequent producer, Max Gordon. As Marquand himself put it, “Mr. Kaufman and I are perfect complements to each other. He knows nothing about Boston and I know nothing about playwriting.” Still, the two writers collaborated well and Kaufman directed the show with particular finesse, yielding one of Kaufman’s biggest hits of the 1940s. A fine comedy of manners, it provided Leo G. Carroll with a career-making performance as Apley and remains an excellent social comedy, with traces of Henry James, Upstairs, Downstairs, and Edith Wharton. A particular effective play for a cast of experienced character actors.
Stage history
The Late George Apley opened at the Lyceum Theatre on November 21, 1944; it ran 357 performances. It was made into a 1947 film starring Ronald Colman as Apley. It still has not had the professional revival it deserves, although the Acting Company presented a reading in 1999 with Edward Herrmann as Apley.
Other Plays in the Catalogue
By Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman. Cast size: 7 men, 5 women (One man can be cut); 3 sets. June Moon was the last major comedy to open on Broadway before the Stock Market Crash. It had its premiere on October 9, 1929 at the Broadhurst and ran 249 performances.
Strike Up the Band opened on January 14, 1930 at the Times Square Theater and ran 191 performances. In 1990, the 1927 book was restored, in collaboration with a Nonesuch/Roxbury recording of all the variants of both versions. The 1927 version was staged by ENCORES! at City Center in 2000 and that version is available for performance.
Kaufman had always been a Gilbert and Sullivan fan and when a fellow card-player once murmured a bit of doggerel to a bit of HMS Pinafore—"He nodded his head and never said no,/And now he's the head of the studio"—Kaufman was inspired. He used the tunes of Sir Arthur Sullivan and, for the first time in his career, wrote the lyrics as well as the libretto to a new musical.
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Contact Us Today
Interested in bringing George S. Kaufman’s timeless plays to your stage?
Please refer to the contact information for each specific play on the various collection pages for direct amateur and professional licensing information.
Plays are represented by Concord Theatricals and Music Theatre International respectively.
If you are interested in first-class performance or film/television rights:
In the US, George S. Kaufman’s plays are represented by:
CPK Artists, LLC
In the UK, George S. Kaufman’s plays are represented by:
Alan Brodie Representation
For more information about George S. Kaufman or this website, contact:
Laurence Maslon
Literary Trustee, George S. Kaufman Estate
