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The Man Who Came to Dinner
As the play opens, Mr. Sheridan Whiteside - world-renowned
journalist, lecturer and radio broadcaster - has been laid up with a
fractured hip while a guest in a small-town Ohio home. Still threatening
lawsuits over the injury he received by slipping on the front porch,
Whiteside antagonizes the household with his many demands, and commandeers
the library, kitchen, and living and dining rooms for his own private
use.
Soon Whiteside's gang of glitterati descend upon the
house, bringing all kinds of eccentric gifts along with their Hollywood
personalities. Whiteside, meanwhile, is pestered by a local doctor (turned
author) and a local newspaperman who has written a play. When Whiteside
learns that his treasured secretary has fallen in love with the newspaperman,
he hatches a devious scheme to break up the budding romance.
"The Man Who Came to Dinner" is both a satire
of and a love-letter to the literary and pop-culture celebrities of
its day. Whiteside is modeled on Alexander Woollcott, a friend of the
authors and one-time drama critic at the New York Times, who parlayed
his success as a reviewer into a career as a lecturer, writer and broadcaster.
The play's first audiences would have recognized many other allusions
to celebrities in the play, including thinly-disguised portrayals of
Noel Coward and Harpo Marx.
Cast List:
Mrs. Ernest W. Stanle....…..Edith Teasley
Miss Preen...........................Katherine Conroy
Richard Stanley.....................John Baine
June Stanley...................…..Kathryn Greene
John.....................................Larry Alred
Sarah…...............................Holly Tramel
Mrs. Dexter…......................Pat Kelly
Mrs. McCutcheon................Pat Alred
Mr. Stanley…......................Ron Walker
Maggie Cutler…...................Jeri Mangum
Dr. Bradley..........................Bob Fritzius
Sheridan Whiteside...............E. O. Hawkins
Harriet Stanley......................Joan McMinn
Bert Jefferson…...................David Cook
Professor Metz….................Peter Shillingsburg
The Luncheon Guests..... .....Norman Tramel
............................................Leonard Brandon
............................................Kandasamy Veeramany
Mr. Baker…........................Steve Martin
Exressman…........................Bob Alred
Sandy…...............................Phil Mitchell
Lorraine Sheldon..................Gatha Wallace
Beverly Carlton…................Raggy Ragsdale
Westcott…..........................Denise Ragsdale
T.V. Technicians…..............Nita Bishop
............................................Tom Wellborn
Choir Members…................Eric Fritzius
........................................... Justin Conroy
........................................... Steven Dewberry
........................................... Jay Perry
........................................... Kevin Graef
........................................... David Bouchillon
Banjo…...............................John Perry
Two Deputies…..................Norman Tramel
............................................Kandasamy Veeramany
A Plainclothes Man…..........Steve Martin
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