The Barretts of Wimpole Street

The Barretts of Wimpole Street is a 1930 play by Rudolf Besier, based on the romance between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, and her father's unwillingness to allow them to marry. The play gave actress Katharine Cornell her signature role.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street
First US edition 1930
Written byRudolf Besier
Date premieredAugust 20, 1930 (1930-08-20)
Place premieredMalvern Festival,
Malvern, Worcestershire
SettingElizabeth Barrett's bed-sitting-room at 50 Wimpole Street, London, in 1845

Production
Katharine Cornell as Elizabeth Barrett in the original Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931)

The Barretts of Wimpole Street was Rudolf Besier's only real success as a playwright. It was first staged August 20, 1930, at the Malvern Festival in Malvern, Worcestershire. Directed by Sir Barry Jackson, the production starred Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Scott Sunderland as Robert Browning.[1]

Besier then turned to the United States, but was rebuffed by no fewer than 27 producers, before the actress Katharine Cornell took a personal interest in the play and had it staged at the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio in 1931. The role of Elizabeth Barrett worked so well for Cornell that it became her signature role.[2]

The Barretts of Wimpole Street then went to Broadway, where it opened on February 9, 1931, at the Empire Theatre, starring Katharine Cornell and Brian Aherne.[3] It was revived there in 1934 and 1945.

Adaptations
Katharine Cornell reprising her role in the Producers' Showcase television production of the play in 1956

Film
Main articles: The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934 film) and The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957 film)

It was filmed in 1934, starring Fredric March, Norma Shearer and Charles Laughton. That film was remade scene-for-scene and almost shot-for-shot, in colour, in 1957, starring Bill Travers, Jennifer Jones and Sir John Gielgud. Both films were directed by Sidney Franklin.

Musical

The play also spawned a musical. It was first set as The Third Kiss by Judge Fred G. Moritt, which was never produced, but that was reworked as Robert and Elizabeth, with music by Ron Grainer. It opened in London in 1964, starring June Bronhill and Keith Michell.

Television

On April 2, 1956, the Producer’s Showcase aired a TV production of “The Barrett’s of Wimpole Street’ featuring Katherine Cornell as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Margalo Gillmore as Arabel Moulton-Barrett; the roles they had first created on Broadway in 1931. This was one of several TV productions of the play done in the US and England between the 1950 and 1961.[4]

A 1982 TV film The Barretts of Wimpole Street was made by the BBC starring Jane Lapotaire, Joss Ackland, Jeremy Brett and Nigel Stock.

Sources
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References
  1. Besier, Rudolf (1932) [1930]. The Barretts of Wimpole Street, A Comedy in Five Acts. London: Victor Gollancz.
  2. Stanley Hochman, McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama
  3. IBDB
  4. https://www.imdb.com/find?q=The%20Barretts%20of%20Wimpole%20Street&s=tt&exact=true&ref_=fn_tt_ex
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