3 - Flappers and fanatics

Summary

The twenties roar

By 1920, New York had become the unquestioned theatrical center of the United States, completing a process that had begun after the Civil War. In 1920, 150 plays were produced on Broadway and steadily rose until the 1927/28 season when 280 were produced. As might be imagined, the New York theatre provided something for virtually everyone. A new generation of producers, playwrights, and designers had witnessed the disaster of war, revolution, and the loss of ideals, and attempted to transform theatre into a forum where this new and uncomfortable discourse might take place. George Cram Cooke and Susan Glaspell along with their colleagues at the Provincetown Playhouse introduced New York audiences to Eugene O'Neill and proved that American playwrights were indeed artists. The Theatre Guild and its directors, Theresa Helburn, Lawrence Langer, Lee Simonson, Philip Moeller, and Maurice Wertheim, established an art theatre that was thoroughly professional – and successful. And Robert Sherwood, Sidney Howard, Rachel Crothers, Maxwell Anderson, John Howard Lawson, and Eugene O'Neill introduced New York audiences to a frank and often brutal portrayal of the human condition.

By no means, however, did these young Turks unseat the entrenched Broadway establishment who thought of theatre as a commercial enterprise, not social work. Lee and J. J. Shubert owned over 100 theatres nationwide, including a dozen in Manhattan, and kept them filled with revues and musical comedies. George M. Cohan frequently had three or four productions running simultaneously.