Hasty Pudding Theatricals

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The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, known informally simply as The Pudding, is a theatrical student society at Harvard University, known for its burlesque musicals. They present original student-written and -composed musicals with near-professional production values. Formed in 1795 as a fraternity, the Pudding has performed a production every year since 1844, except twice during World War I and twice during World War II. Each production is entirely student-written. Previous members of the Theatricals have included Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Randolph Hearst, lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, Oscar winner Jack Lemmon, and former Massachusetts governor William Weld. Although the cast remains all-male (with female parts performed by actors in drag), women participate in the productions as writers, composers, orchestra, and members of the business staff and tech crew. Each spring, the Theatricals tours to New York City and Bermuda. The 2007 production is titled The Tent Commandments.

The name comes from a Colonial Era (originally British) dish called Hasty Pudding, a kind of porridge made from cornmeal with molasses, honey or other ingredients, a New World cousin to the Italian polenta; called "hasty" because cheap and easy to make. It is not clear whether the dish was originally a staple or a dessert, but it is now served for dessert at the banquets thrown by the Pudding, such as opening night celebrations and the annual 'roasts' for their Man/Woman Of The Year (see below). Most modern diners find hasty pudding tastes peculiar at best.

The Pudding's long history has served two seemingly contradictory functions. On the one hand its deliberately retro theatrical trappings (all-male cast; all-live pit orchestra with no computers or synthesizers; no sound amplification until recently; silly plots full of crude jokes, collegiate humor and ancient puns which seem odd or unfunny to non-Harvard or non-Boston audiences) seem to preserve a museum-piece approach to musical theater. Yet the Pudding has served for decades as an incubator of new talents: Pudding graduates are leaders in the fields of writing, directing, and performing in theater, television, movies and the other arts. The last three winners of the prestigious annual Ed Kleban Award for achievement in lyric writing have each been Pudding graduates. Pudding librettist Mark O'Donnell won a Tony Award in 2003 for co-authoring the book for Hairspray. Librettist David Javerbaum is now writing the book to the upcoming Broadway musical Cry-Baby and has won several Emmy Awards as head writer for The Daily Show -- which also featured comedian Mo Rocca, a former Pudding librettist and President. Paris Barclay wrote two Pudding shows and later won two Emmys for directing NYPD Blue. Pudding actor and composer Laurence O'Keefe wrote the music and lyrics for the Off-Broadway show Bat Boy: The Musical; and he and his wife, Pudding librettist Nell Benjamin are co-writing the score to the upcoming Broadway musical Legally Blonde. Pudding bookwriter Mark O'Keefe co-wrote and co-produced the movies Bruce Almighty and Click.

The society is notable for their annual selection of famous actors as Woman of the Year (since 1951) and Man of the Year (since 1967). These awards are usually treated with great seriousness by the honoree, who always attends the awards ceremony, despite the tradition that some of the performance be done in drag.

In 1969, John Wayne was invited to be the Hasty Pudding's annual parade marshall and dinner speaker, for which he rode into Harvard Square atop an M-113 armored personnel carrier.

Below is a list of those who have received the award: