Paris Is Out!

Paris Is Out! is a 1970 Broadway play by Richard Seff that starred Sam Levene and Molly Picon as Daniel and Hortense Brand, a married couple planning a vacation.[1][2] The Broadway production ran for 96 performances after 16 previews at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre between February 2 and April 18, 1970.

Flyer for Paris Is Out, 1970 Broadway play by Richard Seff starring Molly Picon & Sam Levene produced by Donald J. Trump & David Black at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

The Broadway play was produced by David Black and Donald Trump and directed by Paul Aaron.[2] Trump invested $70,000 in the production (equivalent to $460,848 in 2019).[3] Black had been General Manager of five Broadway shows and producer of 16 Broadway shows, including George M! with Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters; The Impossible Years first starring Alan King and replaced by Broadway star Sam Levene; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Phil Silvers; Ready When You Are, CB! with Julie Harris, among others) among other shows.[4]

Seff said of Trump that "He seemed to like to be in the theater but I think he looked at it more like real estate, like a business venture, period. He was a very sweet young man at 24".[5]

Brooks Atkinson said that the play was "A delightful family comedy in which Molly Picon and Sam Levene are in top form" but as Atkinson had recently retired as a critic for The New York Times the quote was could not be used in promotion as Atkinson did not wish to undermine his replacement.[6] Clive Barnes reviewing the play for the New York Times stated that "I pitied it more than I disliked it", and described it as "a bad play".[3]

On February 22, 1970, a review[7] by Walter Kerr of the play for the Sunday edition of The New York Times featured the headline "Paris is Out Can Leave Kerr Out". Kerr wrote that "Paris is out is not exactly what those who hate it take it to be. (I neither hated it I simply sat there and looked at it)". Kerr lauded Sam Levene's performance describing him as "blessedly funny, as he practically can't help being, no matter what curmudgeonly things he is called upon to do. If a son asks him "Why do you and Mom fight all the time, Pop?" and he roars "Because I could kill her, that's why!", that seems a richly clarifying answer the way he tears it from his throat. When he massages his cheek in despair, you want him sculptured by Rodin, and when he comes in out of the night, ashen but fully dressed, white hair flowing upward as though it had been preened by a cockatoo, he succeeds in looking exactly like a pair of empty pajamas. I don't know why, but that's what he looks like". Kerr's review ended with the observation that tThe production is professional where the play is not".

The box office gross of the original Broadway production increased each of the eleven weeks it was open, yet a blizzard on Easter Sunday forced the closure of Paris Is Out along with two others, Art Buchwald's Sheep on the Runway and a revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives with Tammy Grimes and Brian Bedford.[6]

The play has successfully been revived several times since in tours and dinner theatre, and the play broke records in a run at Philadelphia's Playhouse in the Park with its original co-star Picon. Pat O'Brien and his wife toured with Paris Is Out for 48 weeks, another tour starred Ann B. Davis.[6]

Cast
  • Sam Levene as Daniel Brand
  • Molly Picon as Hortense Brand
  • Gwyda DonHowe as Charlotte Grael
  • Terry Kiser as Roger Brand
  • Zina Jasper as Arlene Kander
  • Laryssa Lauret as Hellevi Gessnehr
  • Dorothy Sands as Hattie Fields
  • Gary Tigerman as Andrew Grael

References
  1. Roy Liebman (7 February 2017). Broadway Actors in Films, 1894-2015. McFarland. pp. 291–. ISBN 978-1-4766-2615-4.
  2. "Paris Is Out". IBDB. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. Paulson, Michael (6 March 2016). "For a Young Donald J. Trump, Broadway Held Sway". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  4. "David Black – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
  5. "Donald Trump was once a Broadway producer on short-lived show". Inside Edition via AOL. 16 March 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2020.
  6. "Donald Trump—From Broadway Producer to President". Huffington Post. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  7. Kerr, —Walter (1970-02-22). "'Paris Is Out' Can Leave Kerr Out". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-07-11.
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