Thieves (play)
Thieves is a play by Herb Gardner.
Its focus is on Martin and Sally Cramer, whose twelve-year marriage slowly is disintegrating. He has become the stuffy headmaster of a fashionable Manhattan private school, while she clings to her dedication to the underprivileged and continues to teach in a ghetto public school. For him, their new high-rise apartment is a sign of their steady upward mobility; she is so unhappy with his need to earn and spend she moves all the antique furniture he has purchased to their first apartment on the Lower East Side. The growing chasm between them isn't helped by individual one-night stands, an unwanted pregnancy and consequent contemplation of abortion, an attempted mugging, and her racist cab driver father Joe Kaminsky.
After twelve previews, the Broadway production, directed by Charles Grodin, opened on April 7, 1974 at the Broadhurst Theatre and later transferred to the Longacre to complete its 313-performance run. The cast included Richard Mulligan as Martin, Marlo Thomas as Sally, and Irwin Corey as Joe, with William Hickey and Dick Van Patten in supporting roles.
In 1977, Gardner adapted his play for a feature film directed by John Berry. Thomas and Corey reprised their stage roles for the Paramount Pictures release, with Charles Grodin as Martin and Hector Elizondo, Mercedes McCambridge, John McMartin, Gary Merrill, and Bob Fosse in supporting roles.