PLAY-

WRIGHT’S

RÉSUMÉ

Betty Smith was born Elisabeth Wehner in 1896 and grew up in Brooklyn — the Williamsburg section, when it was closer to a slum than the fashionable neighborhood it is now. She took the surname of her first husband, George H.E. Smith, and was best known for “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” her 1943 novel, which became a best seller and a 1945 film, directed by Elia Kazan. She won a $1,000 prize in 1931 (a little over $19,000 now) for “Becomes a Woman,” which she used to study at the Yale Drama School. She died in Shelton, Conn., in 1972.

SO NICE SHE USED THE NAME TWICE

“Comes a Woman” was originally titled “Francie Nolan,” the name of its 19-year-old main character. Problem was – Smith used the name again more than a decade later, making the adolescent heroine of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” Francie Nolan also.

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FINDING STUFF ON NETFLIX

The New York Times recently told us how involved Netflix is getting with the theater world (producing “Patriots” on Broadway, for one thing). Just for laughs, we searched “Broadway” on the site.

 The top 25 results included:

“Tick, Tick … Boom” (2021) Jonathan Larson’s early work. Somewhat moviefied.

“Springsteen on Broadway” (2018) Actually filmed onstage at the Walter Kerr Theater. Wonder of wonders!

“The Prom” (2020) Moviefied within an inch of its life.

“Mamma Mia” (2008) The movie version.

“Annie” (1982) John Huston’s film version.

“Matilda the Musical”  (2022). Conceived as a movie.

Documentaries on Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Barbra Streisand.

“Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken” (2023). An animated film about evil mermaids. The relevance escapes us.

Well, it’s always better to search by title, when you have one. Like “The Boys in the Band” or “Hamilton” (though that one’s on Disney Plus).

REVIEW-ISH:

‘BECOMES A WOMAN’

A GOOD GIRL GOES BAD, A CENTURY OR SO AGO .

Francie is our heroine, a pretty young redhead in a basic black dress, who works in a store’s music department and lives at home with her parents and two younger brothers.

First, when you see “Becomes a Woman,” now streaming free, half the fun is getting used to the period: America in the 1920s.

When someone wants to hear a song at home, he or she (yes, he or she, damn it!) goes to a store and buys a piece of sheet music, so they — or someone close to them — can play it on a piano. Which every decent home had one of.

Francie (Emma Pfitzer Price. in photo) does the singing. She works at Kress five-and-ten, and that is her first mistake. Yes, she has collegial co-workers, pleasant working conditions and a respectable salary of $18 a week. But.

But in walks handsome Leonard Kress Jr. (Peterson Townsend). And you know what happens to good girls when faced with the seductive powers of the boss’s son. In fact, by the time Francie invites Leonard to meet her parents, she’s just the tiniest bit pregnant.

And here’s where things get interesting, culturally and sociologically. Ma and Pa Nolan (Jeb Brown and Antoinette LaVecchia) really believe that they have no choice but to throw their daughter out of the house. Immediately. Here. I’ve packed your suitcase. Take it with you and never darken our apartment door again.

In fact, later, Francie defends them for their actions: “All poor people can have is decency.” She thought everybody threw their kids into the street. In the ‘20s, heartless was considered better than sinful.

Betty Smith’s script is a reminder of how ordinary people once managed to talk freely about sex in public without saying any forbidden words. Francie’s older, wiser co-worker Flo (Pearl Rhein) refers disdainfully to men and “what they think might happen on a date.”

Francie’s father, a policeman, talks about a brothel raid he and his fellow officers made: “I don’t have to tell you what kind of a place this was.”

Even when Francie says, much later in the play,  “I knew him intimately,” it sounds as if it’s meant to obscure, or at least soften, reality rather than clarify.

“Becomes a Woman” is a pretty straightforward lesson in evolving morés. As her co-worker Tessie (Gina Daniels) mentions in passing, a young woman who finds herself unmarried and pregnant really has only one choice: she can always move to a new town and pretend to be a widow.

And while the rich guy may want to get off the hook, he is, in this world, actually willing to marry the young woman for the sake of giving the child a legal name. As long as she files for divorce after the baby is born. He doesn’t actually live with her after the wedding.

In Act III, Francie sounds as if she could be a 21st-century heroine when she says, “I’m just beginning to believe in me” and “The thing I was so afraid of happened. And I didn’t die.”

Proving that some things really don’t change.

This article is review-ish, not a review. It contains no references to line readings, blocking, casting or any of the thousand things actors and directors are heir to. Britt Berke directed.

THE PRESS NIGHTS GLOSSARY: STILL HERE.

Theater names you ought to know, from the Shubert to the Belasco. Stage terms you ought to understand, from book musical to dream ballet. Like that.

In photo: The Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

UPDATED ON MARCH 6, 2024

THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE LINES …

“Are you dying again? To teach your kids a lesson?”

— Pa Nolan (Jeb Brown), to his overwrought wife (Antoinette LaVecchia), “Becomes a Woman,” by Betty Smith, Mint Theater Company.

Theater connection? Total. Streaming through March 18, 2024, free, minttheater.or

“You’re not afraid to be vivid, are you?” — Lee Radziwill (Calista Flockhart) to Ann Woodward (Demi Moore), at La Côte Basque.“Feud: Capote vs. the Swans,” by Jon Robin Baitz and Laurence Leamer, Hulu. 

Theater connection?: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1966, 2013) and “The Grass Harp” (1952, 1971) were among the Broadway productions based on Truman Capote’s books. Robert Morse won a Tony Award for playing Capote in “Tru” (1989-90). Jon Robin Baitz’s most recent Broadway play was “Other Desert Cities” (2011-12).

But wait! There’s more. Joe Mantello, who plays Jack Dunphy, has directed more than 30 productions on Broadway He won Tonys for “Take Me Out” (2003) and “Assassins” (2004), He played Louis in both parts of “Angels in America” (1993-94). “The Glass Menagerie,” in 2017, was his last starring role. Dunphy himself was a dancer in the original 1943 Broadway production of “Oklahoma!”

“Never trust a socialist with a country house..”

— Colin Quinn , “Red State Blue State,” by Colin Quinn, old comedy special worth rewatching, Netflix.

Theater connection? “Colin Quinn: Long Story Short” (2010-11) was Mr. Quinn’s second Broadway show.

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PRESS NIGHTS ________________

One retired New York Times editor's on-and-off (Broadway) love affair with the theater, theater people, brave new musicals, socially significant dramas, starry revivals, gilded interiors, entrance applause, eleven o'clock numbers and seated ovations.

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ANITA GATES

Founder, editor, publisher and senior domestic correspondent

DESIGN BY MARY ENGELS