Even if they did, there's no straw-hat circuit to wear them to.
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On June 29, 1931, the curtain went up on the first production at the Westport Country Playhouse. The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England "straw hat circuit" of summer stock theaters.
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"Novelties on Straw Hat Circuit." Philadelphia Inquirer, 19 June 1960. Nype caught Hollywood's attention early and was offered a role in MGM's "Young Man in a Hurry." MGM released him after eight days of filming, and the movie eventually debuted with Glenn Ford as Young Man with Ideas in 1952.
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The cast featured Theodore Bikel and Taina Elg. It was considered the best touring show of the "Straw Hat Circuit" that summer. ;1983 Broadway Revival The 1983 revival directed by Michael Cacoyannis and choreographed by Graciela Daniele opened on October 16, 1983, at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 362 performances and 14 previews.
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Peters delivered her lines from a sofa which was repositioned in every act to give the illusion of movement. Over the course of the next half-century, Kenley's summer stock productions blossomed into what Variety called the "largest network of theaters on the straw hat circuit". His Kenley Players company brought the great shows of the era to the stages of Ohio, in Akron, Dayton, Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland and Warren. Many of the shows would also travel to an associated theatre in Flint, Michigan.
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The Kenley Players was an Equity summer stock theatre company which presented hundreds of productions featuring Broadway, film, and television stars in Midwestern cities between 1940 and 1996. Variety called it the "largest network of theaters on the straw hat circuit." Founded by and operated for its entire lifespan by John Kenley, it is credited with laying the groundwork for Broadway touring companies. The company's success was predicated on booking big-name stars for their box office potential, casting them in familiar plays and musicals, and keeping prices low, thereby attracting large crowds.
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In 1951 she toured the United States as Sarah Millick in a production of Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet."Schedules Along the Straw Hat Circuit", The New York Times, June 17, 1951 She returned to London's West End in 1951-1952 to assume the title role in Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate."Theater Notes", Chicago Tribune, December 2, 1951 She returned to Broadway for the last time as Julie in the 1954 revival of Show Boat; a production which was mounted by the NYCO. She later toured the United States in that role in 1956-1957.
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She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat circuit" along the East Coast, all the while writing one play after another. Her plays were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but somehow none of them ever made it to the stage, Hanff herself saying her plays specialized in "plotless charm." When network television production geared up in New York City in the early 1950s, Hanff found a new career writing and editing scripts for many early television dramas. Chief among these was the Dumont Network series The Adventures of Ellery Queen.
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The theatre's gala opening on August 15, 1936 featured a reading from Cyrano de Bergerac by the classical actor, Walter Hampden. Only two more productions were presented that summer but the following season Deertrees became a fixture on the straw hat circuit by presenting four different plays and a musical comedy with a cast of professional actors in repertory under the direction of Ms. Dillon. However, in 1938 the theatre failed to open and when Deertrees reopened in the summer of 1939 it was under the auspices of the noted Broadway producer Bela Blau Advertising "A New Play - A New Broadway A Star Every Week."Price, Cathy (June 25, 2006) "Summer theater spelled D-e-e-r-t-r-e-e-s".
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Summer stock started in 1919-1920s with a few theatres: The Muny, St. Louis, Missouri (1919) is the nation's oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre; Manhattan Theatre Colony, first started near Peterborough, New Hampshire (1927) and moved to Ogunquit, Maine; Gretna Theatre, Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania (1927) as part of the Chautauqua movement; the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Massachusetts (1927); and the Berkshire Playhouse, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (1928). Many of the theatres of the heyday, the 1920s through the 1960s, were in New England. Part of the "straw hat circuit," theatres also were in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, among other states. (There had been earlier summer theatres: the Gardens Theatre, Denver (1890) and Lakewood Playhouse near Skowhegan, Maine (1901 for summer), but they were established stock theatres that had then been used as a summer venue.)Wilmeth, p. 629 The structure was to present different plays in weekly or biweekly repertory, performed by a resident company, generally between June and September.
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