Summer and Smoke

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Summer and Smoke is a 1948 play by Tennessee Williams, originally entitled Chart of Anatomy when Williams began work on it in 1945. It was later revised as The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. (1964)

The play tells the story of a lonely, unmarried minister's daughter (Alma Winemiller) who is courted by her childhood love, a wild, undisciplined doctor (Dr. John Buchanan, Jr.).

1 Stage Performances
2 Film Adaptation
3 Television Adaptation

[edit] Stage Performances

[edit] Broadway

Summer and Smoke received its first performance at the Music Box Theatre, New York City, on 6 October 1948 in a production staged by Margo Jones and designed by Jo Mielziner with Tod Andrews, Margaret Phillips, Monica Boyar and Anne Jackson. The play ran for 102 performances.

In 1952, Geraldine Page played the lead role in a production by José Quintero at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

The play was revived in 1996 at the Criterion Center Stage Right, in a production directed by David Warren, with Harry Hamlin and Mary McDonnell.

[edit] West End

London had to wait nearly sixty years for the premiere of Summer and Smoke. It opened at the Apollo Theatre on 17 October 2006. The production, directed by Adrian Noble and starring Rosamund Pike and Chris Carmack first opened at the Nottingham Playhouse in September, prior to its London transfer. It closed ten weeks short of its planned sixteen week run due to disappointing ticket sales.

[edit] Other revivals

In January 2007, the Paper Mill Playhouse presented a revival starring Amanda Plummer and Kevin Anderson, directed by Michael Wilson.

[edit] Film Adaptation

The play was made into a 1961 film starring Laurence Harvey and Geraldine Page with Rita Moreno, Una Merkel, John McIntire, Thomas Gomez, Pamela Tiffin, Malcolm Atterbury, Lee Patrick and Earl Holliman. It was adapted by James Poe and Meade Roberts and directed by Peter Glenville.

The film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Geraldine Page), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Una Merkel), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

[edit] Television Adaptation

A television version was produced in 1972. It starred Lee Remick, David Hedison and Barry Morse. Another production, called Eccentricities of a Nightingale, appeared on television in 1976. This version starred Blythe Danner and Frank Langella.

The Plays of Tennessee Williams

Adam and Eve on a Ferry, And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens, At Liberty, Auto Da Fé, Baby Doll (screenplay), Battle of Angels, Beauty Is the Word, Camino Real, Cairo! Shanghai! Bombay!, Candles to the Sun, The Case of the Crushed Petunias, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Chalky White Substance, Clothes for a Summer Hotel, Creve Coeur, The Dark Room, Demolition Downtown, The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, The Fat Man's Wife, The Frosted Glass Coffin, Fugitive Kind, Garden District, The Gentleman Callers (screenplay), The Glass Menagerie, Grand, Hello from Bertha, A House Not Meant to Stand, I Can't Imagine Tomorrow, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix, Kingdom of Earth / Seven Descents of Myrtle, Kirche, Küche und Kinder (play), The Lady of Larkspur Lotion, The Last of My Solid Gold Watches, Lifeboat Drill, The Long Goodbye, Lord Byron's Love Letter (libretto), The Magic Tower, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, Moony's Kid Don't Cry, The Mutilated, The Night of the Iguana, Not about Nightingales, The Notebook of Trigorin, Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws, The One Exception, Orpheus Descending, Out Cry, The Palooka, A Perfect Anaysis Given by a Parrot, Period of Adjustment, The Pink Room, Portait of a Madonna, The Purification, The Red Devil Battery Sign, The Rose Tattoo, Something Unspoken, Slapstick Tragedy (The Mutilated and The Gnädiges Fräulein), Something Cloudy, Something Clear, Spring Storm, Stairs to the Roof, Steps Must be Gentle, A Streetcar Named Desire, Suddenly, Last Summer, Summer and Smoke, Summer at the Lake, Small Craft Warnings, Sweet Bird of Youth, Tiger Tail, This Is (An Entertainment), This is Peaceable Kingdom/Good Luck God, This Property is Condemned, Three Players of a Summer Game, Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, The Two-Character Play, Vieux Carré, Will Mr. Merriweather Return from Memphis?, You Touched Me