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Cat's Meow, The

  • Steven Peros
  • Full Length Play, Drama, 1920s
  • 6M, 8F
  • ISBN: 9780573696244

Recommended - Hands down! Will have you on the edge of your seat.

CBS Radio

A Terrific New Drama

The Los Angeles Daily News

More information

Description

  • Full Length Play
  • Drama
  • 120 minutes

  • Time Period: 1920s
  • Target Audience: Teen (Age 14 - 18), Senior, Adult
  • Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
  • Cautions: Gun Shots, Mild Adult Themes

  • Performance Group:
  • Dinner Theatre, Community Theatre, High School/Secondary, Professional Theatre, College Theatre / Student, Senior Theatre
Based on the true story of a mysterious Hollywood death, The Cat's Meow offers a fascinating cross section of Jazz Era characters who intersect for one notorious weekend on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924. The play was adapted for film in 2002, with a screenplay by the author, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, and Edward Herrmann. 

Weekend guests include: Charlie Chaplin, who has been carrying on with movie star Marion Davies, a secret known to Davies' paramour, the married – and much older -- Hearst; and movie mogul Thomas Ince, who is hoping to revive his flagging fortunes by forming a partnership with Hearst. Playing with fire, Ince tries to convince Hearst that he can handle both Marion's movie career... and her private life as well.

During its 1997 Los Angeles premiere, audiences and critics were both entertained and moved by this darkly comic morality play, laced with clandestine romance, Hollywood excess, and steadily heating tensions, which erupt in a shocking act of violence.
REVIEWS:

Hearst Yacht Mystery is The Cat's Meow...A stylish and sardonically funny expose of corrupt Tinseltown values. ' - The Los Angeles Times'Recommended – Hands Down! Will have you on the edge of your seat.' - CBS Radio 'A Terrific New Drama.' - The Los Angeles Daily News'Steven Peros' intriguing fictionalized speculation imagines the worst as everyone cavorts through an oceanic orgy of intrigue, seduction, infidelity, blackmail, booze, drugs, and murder.

The Daily Variety
Premiere Production: 1997 - The Coast Playhouse, West Hollywood, California - Rialto Entertainment

Characters

  • Casting: 6M, 8F
  • Casting Attributes: Reduced casting (Doubling Possible), Ensemble cast, Flexible casting
  • Casting Notes: Doubling possible for 'Mrs. Ince' and 'Mrs. Goodman.'

ELINOR GLYN - 60; British romance novelist, screenwriter, and social dictator.
THOMAS INCE - 40s; a silent film pioneer and studio mogul.
MARGARET LIVINGSTON - 20s; an actress and mistress to Ince.
GEORGE THOMAS - Ince's business manager.
MARION DAVIES - 27 (but passing for 23); a movie star and Hearst's public mistress.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN - 35; British; an internationally known movie star.
LOUELLA PARSONS - 40s; a Hearst movie reviewer from the East Coast.
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST - 62; Newspaper and silver mining magnate. A large, wealthy, powerful, married man.
JOSPEH WILLICOMBE - Hearst's loyal and discreet personal secretary.
DR. DANIEL GOODMAN - 40s; former physician, now a Hearst movie studio executive.
MRS. GOODMAN - 30s; Dr. Goodman's conservative wife.
CELIA MOORE - 20s; a flapper/actress
DIDI DAWSON - 20s; also a flapper actress.
MRS. INCE (VOICE ON PHONE) - 40s; Ince's recently awoken wide, who remained at home.
( For "Mrs. Ince," some productions have had an actress appear on stage, with a phone in her hand. If this method is utilized, doubling is possible with "Mrs. Goodman.")

Available Material

Name Price
Cat's Meow, The Script Order Now

Based on the true story of a mysterious Hollywood death, The Cat's Meow offers a fascinating cross section of Jazz Era characters who intersect for one notorious weekend on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924. The play was adapted for film in 2002, with a screenplay by the author, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, and starring Kirsten Dunst, Eddie Izzard, and Edward Herrmann.Weekend guests include: Charlie Chaplin, who has been carrying on with movie star Marion Davies, a secret known to Davies' paramour, the married – and much older -- Hearst; and movie mogul Thomas Ince, who is hoping to revive his flagging fortunes by forming a partnership with Hearst. Playing with fire, Ince tries to convince Hearst that he can handle both Marion's movie career... and her private life as well.During its 1997 Los Angeles premiere, audiences and critics were both entertained and moved by this darkly comic morality play, laced with clandestine romance, Hollywood excess, and steadily heating tensions, which erupt in a shocking act of violence.

$24.95

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