Sunday in New York (play)

❧

Wikipedia

Sunday in New York
Written byNorman Krasna
Date premiered29 November 1961
Place premieredCort Theatre, New York
Original languageEnglish
GenreComedy
SettingNew York City. The Present

Sunday in New York was a 1961 American romantic comedy Broadway play written by Norman Krasna, produced by David Merrick, directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Robert Redford. It ran for 188 performances.[1]

It was made into a 1963 film, Sunday in New York, starring Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor and Cliff Robertson. Krasna wrote the screenplay.

Productions

To afford a plane ticket to New York to audition for Sunday in New York, Robert Redford sold a plot of land he owned in California.[2]

Sunday in New York initially had a tryout in Washington, D.C., where it gained publicity when a high school class walked out of a performance after a teacher found the content inappropriate for children.[2] It also had a tryout at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia for one week in 1961.[2]

Sunday in New York opened on Broadway on November 29, 1961.[2] The show closed in May 1962 after 189 performances.[3] The play was estimated to have lost $35,000 on its $125,000 investment, even including sale of the film rights.[4][5] However subsidiary presentations may have helped push the production into the black.[6]

The play ran for two years in Paris, and had a successful run in Los Angeles in a production starring Marlo Thomas.[7]

Cast

Critical reception

The New York Times called it "inventive and chic. Only the substance is familiar and thin."[8] Walter Kerr called it a "sentimentalised farce... precisely the kind of echo chamber exercise that drives intelligent young theatregoers to complete despair."[9]

Variety wrote "the show has ribtickling lines and farcical situations."[10] Another review in the same magazine called it "a synthetic, frivolous, amusing comedy."[11]

Redford later said he liked the jokes but felt the play was "not up to the standard of a Kanin-Gordon script".[12] However the New York Times review was positive enough to ensure a semi-decent run and give Redford his first significant stage success.[13] He was given a Theatre World Award for his performance.[2]

Redford's appearance in the play would later help him be cast in Barefoot in the Park. It also contributed to George Roy Hill casting him in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid because it gave Hill confidence Redford could handle comedy.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sunday in New York original production Playbill". PlaybillVault.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Hopkins, Earl (September 17, 2025). "Years before he was the Sundance Kid, Robert Redford played an Inquirer music critic at Walnut Street Theatre". Inquirer.com. Retrieved October 21, 2025.
  3. ↑ Zolotow, Sam (May 9, 1962). "2 Shows Planned By Bloom Garden: '1,000,000 Bank Note' and 'How Much?' Due in '63 ANTA Has New Project Three Attractions to Close Eva Gabor Starts a Firm Bouwerie Lane to Open in Fall Merrick Negotiates". The New York Times. p. 45.
  4. ↑ "4 Respectable Broadway Shows Close". Variety. 16 May 1962. p. 61, 67.
  5. ↑ "Sunday has $76,328 to make". Variety. 31 January 1962. p. 65.
  6. ↑ "Sunday near payoff on subsidiary rights". Variety. 21 August 1963. p. 53.
  7. ↑ "'Sunday' Popular". The Los Angeles Times. June 4, 1963. p. C6.
  8. ↑ Taubman, Howard (November 30, 1961). "Theatre: Play by Krasna: Sunday in New York' Opens at the Cort". The New York Times. p. 40.
  9. ↑ Kerr, Walter (December 17, 1961). "Echoes and Unspoken Ideas". The Washington Post. p. G3.
  10. ↑ "Sunday in New York". Variety. 8 November 1961. p. 70.
  11. ↑ "Sunday in New York". Variety. 6 December 1961. p. 62.
  12. ↑ Callan 2011, p. 88.
  13. ↑ Callan 2011, p. 89.
  14. ↑ Spada, James (1978). The films of Robert Redford. The Citadel Press. p. 112.

Sources