SHAW ON THE AMERICAN STAGE

The slow, steady acceptance of the plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) on the American stage began in the mid-1890s with his least controversial works:Arms and the Man, produced at the Herald Square Theatre in 1894, andThe Devil's Disciple, staged at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1897.Richard Mansfieldwas the driving force behind these early Shaw productions in the United States, but in the last days of the 19th century, actor-managerArnold Dalyoffered a series of Shaw's plays beginning withCandida, which he first presented in Chicago in 1899 (the play had been seen in two amateur productions prior to this one) and later in Philadelphia in 1903, followed by a New York run later that year.Daly also produced other Shavian works, includingThe Man of Destiny(1904),You Never Can Tell(1905), andJohn Bull's Other Island(1905). Mainstream audiences were clearly attracted to the vaguely scandalous reputation of Shaw, a socialist and women's rights advocate inspired by the plays of Henrik Ibsen, but when Daly presented Shaw's controversialMrs. Warren's Professionat the Garrick Theatre in October 1905, he andMary Shaw, the play's star, were arrested for indecency through the efforts of Anthony Comstock's Society for the Suppression of Vice and a flurry of editorials in newspapers. Despite Comstock's efforts, the play was performed and drew substantial audiences.

Shaw's plays were not always appreciated in England, as was the case with hisAndrocles and the Lion, which was hissed at its London premiere, but American audiences were receptive when Harley Granville-Barker staged it in New York in 1915.Grace Georgeproduced and starred in the American premiere ofMajor Barbarathat same year and it became one of the most frequently revived Shaw plays in the United States. Other productions of Shaw's works followed, as well as Oscar Strauss'soperettabased onArms and the Man, a popular success calledThe Chocolate Soldier(1921). Most of Shaw's plays premiered in England with United States productions following, but a few of his works had their initial performances in New York through the auspices of the Theatre Guild, includingHeartbreak Houseat the Garrick Theatre in 1920 andSaint Joan, also at the Garrick, in 1923. All told, the Guild produced American premieres of seven Shavian works, also includingBack to Methuselah(1922) andThe Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles(1935). By 1930, Shaw's plays were produced frequently on Broadway and, later, became staples of repertory theatres emerging after 1960 across the United States. Shaw's influence on American drama can be seen to a greater or lesser degree in the works of a range of playwrights, includingClyde Fitch, Langdon Mitchell, Edward Sheldon, Eugene O'Neill, Rachel Crothers, Robert E. Sherwood, Philip Barry, and S. N. Behrman, among others, and many American actors made their reputations appearing in Shaw's works.