The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened on Broadway in 1939.
Characters
Main characters
Joe, a loafer with money and a good heart Tom, his admirer, disciple, errand boy, stooge and friend Kitty Duval, a young streetwalker who longs for a better life Nick, owner of Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace Arab, an Eastern philosopher and harmonica-player Kit Carson, a teller of tall tales who looks like an old Indian-fighter McCarthy, an intelligent and well-read longshoreman Krupp, his boyhood friend, a waterfront cop who hates his job but doesn't know what else to do instead Harry, a natural born hoofer who wants to make people laugh but can't Wesley, a young Black man who plays a mean and melancholy boogie-woogie piano Willie, a marble-game maniac Dudley, a young man in love Elsie, a nurse, the one he loves Lorene, an unattractive woman Mary L., an unhappy woman of quality and great beauty Blick, a heel
Minor characters
A Newsboy A Drunkard Nick's Ma Sailor Killer, a streetwalker Killer's sidekick Society Gentleman Society Lady Cops
Plot The play is set in Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, a run-down dive bar in San Francisco. Much of the action of the play centers around Joe, a young loafer with money who encourages each of the bar's patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry, and sets up his flunky, Tom, with a prostitute, Kitty Duval. The bar is frequented by a number of colorful characters, including a frenetic young man in love, an old man who looks like Kit Carson, and a wealthy society couple.
Nick's saloon is based on the café operated by Izzy Gomez in San Francisco, which Saroyan frequented.
Productions The play was produced by the Theatre Guild. It premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on October 25, 1939, closed on January 27, 1940, and re-opened at the Guild Theatre on January 29, 1940 to April 6, 1940 and September 23, 1940 to October 19, 1940, for 249 performances."'The Time of Your Life' 1939" playbillvault.com, accessed December 22, 2015 Direction was by Eddie Dowling, who also starred as Joe, and William Saroyan. The cast featured Julie Haydon (Kitty Duval), Celeste Holm (Mary L.), Charles De Sheim (Nick), and Gene Kelly (Harry).
The Time of Your Life has been revived three times on Broadway: in 1940 with Dowling and Saroyan directing again, in 1969 directed by John Hirsch and in 1975 directed by Jack O'Brien.
The play was revived on March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles where Henry Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Thompson, Gloria Grahame, Strother Martin. Jane Alexander, Richard X. Slattery and Pepper Martin were among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.
Adaptations
The play was adapted for film in 1948 with H. C. Potter directing James Cagney as Joe and his sister, Jeanne Cagney as Kitty Duval. In 1958 an adaptation by A.J. Russell was presented in a live television broadcast directed by Tom Donovan with stars Jackie Gleason, Jack Klugman, and Dick York for the Playhouse 90 series.
Awards and nominations Awards 1940 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play 1940 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
References
External links
Photo from 1972 National Company Revival of Saroyan’s “The Time of Your Life“, foreground: Ron Thompson as Willie the pinball maniac, background: Henry Fonda, Strother Martin