Since I last wrote, a lot has happened, but in the end it came out great! Our next production at Judson Theatre Company will be Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight (Angel Street). I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for thrillers, and particularly for this one, as it was the first show I ever saw at the community theatre where I grew up.
The play’s history has become more interesting in the last decade or so, with the denominalization of the title, turning the word “gaslight” into a verb. Supposedly that usage began in the 1950s, yet it has broadly seeped into the English lexicon since 2010.
Of course for a long time, American theatre audiences knew the play from its Broadway title, Angel Street. But the two film versions (one from Britain, one from MGM) plus the rise of use of “gaslight” seem to have put the original title much more forward in the mind of people today.
There are five choice roles in the play, and we’re pleased that Maxwell Caulfield will be Inspector Rough; Matthew Tyler will return to JTC to play Mr. Manningham; Jennifer Hope will also return to play Elizabeth.
Broadway flyer, with the title change from Gaslight to Angel Street.
The deep-dive on this play never ends, as it seems as virtually every first-class vintage actor (as well as plenty of lesser lights) has done the play somewhere. In America, it was Vincent Price on Broadway; and the MGM film has the star quartet of Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Angela Lansbury. There was a Broadway revival with Dina Merrill. And this incredibly well written 1938 one-set psychological thriller is still being produced by theatres large and small all over the world on a constant basis…including at Judson Theatre Company November 16-19!
Broadway revival from 1975 with Dina Merrill and Michael Allinson
Recent UK tour flyer.