Harvey (play)

Infobox Play
name = Harvey


image_size =
caption =
writer = Mary Chase
characters = Elwood P. Dowd
Veta Louise Simmons
Betty Chumley
E. J. Lofgren
Mrs. Ethel Chauvenet
Mr. Peeples
Judge Omar Gaffney
William R. Chumley, M.D.
Lyman Sanderson, M.D.
Miss Johnson
Ruth Kelly, R.N.
Myrtle Mae Simmons
Duane Wilson
setting =
premiere = 1944
place = 48th Street Theatre
New York City, New York
orig_lang = English
subject =
genre = Comedy
ibdb_id = 1593

"Harvey" is a 1944 play by American playwright Mary Chase. Directed by Antoinette Perry, the play premiered on 1 November 1944 at the 48th Street Theatre on Broadway where it was staged for 1,775 performances before closing on January 15 1949. The original production was directed by and starred Frank Fay and Josephine Hull. The play also had a production in 1949 at London's Prince of Wales Theatre. Chase received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work in 1945.

Plot synopsis

The story is about an affable man Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary friend Harvey, a 6 foot 1 ½ inch (1.87 m) tall rabbit. When Elwood starts to introduce Harvey, a pooka, to guests at a society party, his society-obsessed sister, Veta, has seen as much of his eccentric behavior as she can tolerate. She decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her daughter Myrtle Mae and their family from future embarrassment.

When they arrive at the sanitarium, due to a comedy of errors, the doctors commit Veta instead of Elwood, but when the truth comes out, the search is on for Elwood and his invisible companion. When he shows up at the sanitarium looking for his lost friend Harvey, it seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors, including renowned Dr. Chumley, his medical partner Dr. Sanderson, and the head nurse Miss Kelly.

Only just before Elwood is to be given an injection, Dr. Chumley's Formula 977, that will make him, as his taxi driver says, into a "perfectly normal human being; and you know what bastards they are!" does Veta realize that she'd rather have Elwood be the same as he's always been — carefree and kind — even if it means living with Harvey the pooka.

Adaptations

The play was later adapted for film by Chase, Oscar Brodney, and Myles Connolly in 1950. Directed by Henry Koster, its stars were Josephine Hull and James Stewart.

Two television movies adaptations for were made. The first came in 1958 starring Art Carney, Marion Lorne, Elizabeth Montgomery, Larry Blyden, Fred Gwynne, Charlotte Rae, and Jack Weston. The latest was in 1998 with Harry Anderson, Swoosie Kurtz, Jessica Hecht, Leslie Nielsen, and William Schallert.

References

External links

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