Woollcott finally caught up with the show after two years of running, describing it in the New York Sun as “fair to average and unremarkable”, adding that he was baffled by its success. its merits, but also by the interest of its peers. Finally, he recognized its enduring work in nurturing audiences that often leave Broadway.
In other words, “’Abie’s Irish Rose’ doesn’t just please the public,” he writes. “It has create its publicity. ”
Today, the renaissance of this play, with its continuing ethnic effects, is few and far between. It is perhaps best known as part of a list of 20th century arcanas, along with Brenda Frazier and Beebe’s Bathysphere, in the Sondheim song “I’m still here” from “Follies.”
Interviews with leaders of the major Off Broadway theaters dedicated to unearthing America’s long-forgotten plays – the Mint, the Irish Repertory and the Metropolitan Theatre – determined that “The Rose” Abie’s Irish,” as artistic director Charlotte Moore of Representation Ireland aptly put it, “Not something we’re inclined to wear.”
However, Moore is a much bigger Nichols fan: “She was born in Georgia and came to New York City – alone! – become an actress. And she wrote the play in three days. I’m so jealous of her! ”
“Abie’s Irish Rose” finally closed in October 1927, and although Nichols (the main beneficiary of the show by having self-financed it) reinstated it twice on Broadway, the show did lasted a total of 66 performances compared to the original 2,327, a record that would not be appreciated until the 1939 play “Life With Father”.
The future kids of Lorenz Hart’s “Manhattan” will have to content themselves with “Bridget Loves Bernie,” “Chicken Soup,” and “Bob Hearts Abishola,” some of the many TV series that have tapped into the potential of multi-comedy. culture that Nichols – who devoted much of his later career to overseeing radio and film adaptations and touring companies of the show – exploited with such success in the 1920s.
By the time that initial run was over, “Abie” fatigue had stretched to a seemingly endless mini-review of Benchley’s Weekly Life:
“We have nothing to do with this. It may be running and it may not. Go to hell with it.”
