Samuel Goldwyn Does Broadway

By John Strasberg

When I go to the theater, I hope I will be surprised, though, I rarely am. Going to see Mr. Goldwyn was no exception. When I was growing up, and my father took me to the theater, he taught me that you should be able to tell what the play was about by looking at the set. As I sat in the Promenade Theater, looking at the set representing the office of Samuel Goldwyn, with immense windows looking out on the Hollywood Studios that bore his name, I thought the set was immense. It looked meant for a Broadway theater. The $65 ticket price at the box office window said it even more clearly. Though this show is officially an off-Broadway production, it is a solid, Broadway product.

Going to see Alan King play Samuel Goldwyn, one knows that one will be entertained. If I had any question, it was whether I would see Samuel Goldwyn, as well as Mr. King. Regardless, the audience laughs and has a good time. Mr. King is a consummate entertainer, more than he is an actor. His personality dominates the evening. His pacing, delivery and his contact with the audience, are impeccable, as I expected. King’s presence is the basis for the success, or failure, of the show, obviously, because there are only two actors. The other, Lauren Klein, plays Mr. Goldwyn’s secretary competently; though, there seems little genuine contact between them. That is not her fault. Gene Saks is the director. He is a solid director, with a long and admirable track record, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Odd Couple and Mame. He makes us, and the actors, feel at home.

Still, I found the production uninspiring, without spark, but, a good theater evening. I think that we see Alan King, more than we see Samuel Goldwyn. That probably doesn’t matter to most people. But, even before I went to the theater, I kept imagining what Samuel Goldwyn was really like. I kept doing that during the play, too. Goldwyn is one of the titans who founded Hollywood. Their and specifically, his personality, is legendary. They were Jewish, immigrants, pioneers of movie-making and he was the only one who remained independent, the only sole owner of his studio. He made many good movies, The Best Years of Our Lives (the winner of seven Oscars) being one of them. Goldwyn (Mr. King) speaks about this film, telling us how he insisted, against much good advice, on using a real sailor, Harold Russell, who had really lost both hands in the war. He wanted the film to be “real”. Goldwyn was a maverick, an original, who did what he wanted. Anyone familiar with what it is really like to create anything in collaboration, knows what it’s like to try to do that.

I imagine Goldwyn’s individuality is the reason the writers, Marsha Lebby and John Lollos, wrote a play about him. The writing the audience hears is clever, and funny. The play is full of humorous anecdotes and lines, like about how he got his name. His name was Goldfish and before he became Goldwyn, he had partners named Selwyn. They discussed the name of their partnership, and came up with Gold, from Goldfish, and wyn, from Selwyn. Goldwyn was better than Selfish, maybe (Mr. King tells it a lot better than I do).

Anyway, Mr. Goldwyn was famous for his immigrant’s way of speaking English with his own particular thought process that was unique enough that Webster’s Dictionary made “Goldwynisms” an official word. We are entertained throughout the evening with them. Despite these malapropisms, I couldn’t help wonder whether the original text didn’t have the intention to go deeper into who Samuel Goldwyn really was. But, that’s Hollywood. Or Broadway. So, it’s an evening where everything is as safe and salable as it should be. But, I don’t know whether Mr. Goldwyn would have produced it.

Mr. Goldwyn Now playing at The Promenade Theater  2162 Broadway New York,  NY  10024  (212) 239-6200 The producers are also planning for a national tour.