Enter Laughing is a 1963 play by Joseph Stein .
20-450: A farce in two acts, it is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Carl Reiner . The action centers on the journey of young aspiring actor David Kolowitz as he tries to extricate himself from overly protective parents (who want him to be a married pharmacist) and two too many girlfriends, while struggling to meet the challenge of his lack of talent in 1930s New York City. The Broadway production opened on March 13, 1963, and ran for over
40-442: A greater phenomenon which the 21st century terms performance or enactment. The example of Cistercian nuns crowning Marian statues in their monastic enclosure at Wienhausen shows the limits of "liturgical drama". Caroline Bynum has shown that the crowning ceremonies included alternating clothing for Mary , even royal crowns were donated to the statues. The nuns, for their part, dressed and crowned themselves on given occasions in
60-400: A slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for the stage and film. The term farce is derived from
80-555: A sympathetic understanding of the nature of the Christian liturgy, we are not likely to get very far. Scholars argued against the over-determined term liturgical drama, calling to mind that just because the Mass often included dramatic exposition , commentary , and counterpoint, that did not make it a drama. There may be liturgy in drama and drama in liturgy, but there are several other options. While narrative structures abound in several part of
100-483: A year. It marked the Broadway directorial debut of Gene Saks . The cast included Alan Arkin , Vivian Blaine , Sylvia Sidney , Michael J. Pollard , and Alan Mowbray . Arkin won a Tony for his performance. In order of appearance: Enter Laughing opened March 13, 1963 at Henry Miller's Theatre and ran through March 14, 1964, for 419 performances. It was well received by critics and audiences. Howard Taubman wrote in
120-468: Is La Farce de maître Pathelin ( The Farce of Master Pathelin ) from c. 1460. Spoof films such as Spaceballs , a comedy based on the Star Wars movies, are farces. Sir George Grove opined that the "farce" began as a canticle in the common French tongue intermixed with Latin . It became a vehicle for satire and fun, and thus led to the modern Farsa or Farce, a piece in one act, the subject of which
140-427: Is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor ; the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense ; satire , parody , and mockery of real-life situations, people, events, and interactions; unlikely and humorous instances of miscommunication; ludicrous, improbable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances. Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least
160-461: Is extravagant and the action ludicrous. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain : Grove, Sir George (1908). Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians . New York, McMillan. Liturgical drama Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography . The term
180-565: The New York Times review that "the major complaint ... is that it doesn't provide enough rest periods between side-splitting laughs" and called Arkin's performance "a choice specimen of a shrewd actor ribbing his profession". In The Nation , Harold Clurman called it an example of how the "deterioration of the Broadway theatre may be discerned in the fact that inconsequential scripts are frequently done more competently than serious ones"; Clurman, too, singled out Arkin for praise. Arkin won both
200-541: The Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and the Theatre World Award for his performance. Reiner co-wrote the screenplay with Stein for the 1967 film version , directed by Reiner and starring Reni Santoni as David, José Ferrer as Marlowe, Shelley Winters as Mrs. Kolowitz, and Elaine May as Angela. The play served as the basis for the ill-fated 1976 musical So Long, 174th Street . Enter Laughing
220-522: The French word for "stuffing", in reference to improvisations applied by actors to medieval religious dramas . Later forms of this drama were performed as comical interludes during the 15th and 16th centuries. The oldest surviving farce may be Le Garçon et l'aveugle ( The Boy and the Blind Man ) from after 1266, although the earliest farces that can be dated come from between 1450 and 1550. The best known farce
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#1732876909668240-472: The Mass and its readings, liturgies may also convey visual impressions, solemn processional entries, complex tableaux or lyrics. Stories are not necessarily part of the classic elements of medieval liturgies, like visitatio sepulchri , Passion plays , Jesus descending the cross, shepherd's plays, sorrows of the Virgin Mary, or Corpus Christi plays. Liturgy and drama are, for today's standards, subcategories of
260-450: The life of the theater. By using the liturgical drama theory, authors like Young and Chambers had imposed the Darwinian model of evolution on medieval performance culture, argued O.B. Hardison in 1966. In the wake of Hardison's book, the evolutional theories were commonly considered to have been disproven. Critics argued that there is no logical or structural chronological development in
280-541: The popular books by Oscar Brockett , propagated the theory of "liturgical drama" even into the 21st century. In his 1955 book on the origins of theater, Benjamin Hunningher refuted the notion that plays developed out of the liturgy. He noted that the church setting of the Mass does not allow for entertainment, and Christian theologians had severely criticized theater artists for centuries. As McCall wrote in 2007: Western Europe
300-407: The texts themselves, Clifford Flanagan and, most recently, Michael Norton, have shown that the term liturgical drama is problematic. Flanagan wrote in 1974: [...] it has certainly become evident in the last few years that we are only beginning to understand liturgical drama; there is very much to be done yet, and there are probably surprises in store for us. Unless, however, we ground our efforts in
320-483: The various play texts that have survived from the Middle Ages. Using Darwinian precepts implied that "drama could develop only from a liturgy that was somehow already embryonically 'drama' itself." Yet no one was able to present a demonstrable "evolution" of simpler into more complex forms when it came to comparing liturgies and dramas. By examining factors such as "historiography, etymology, source study, and analysis" of
340-402: Was effectively without mainstream drama from the moment that Christianity gained political influence in the fourth century. As early as the second century, the decadence of late Roman drama and the reputed immorality of its practitioners had made the theater one of the professions that had to be abandoned before receiving baptism. Augustine , as is well known, prided himself for having left behind
360-432: Was revived Off-Broadway as a musical in 2008 by The York Theatre Company. With music and lyrics by Stan Daniels, the production starred Josh Grisetti for a limited run. The New York Times praised the revival as "hilarious" and Variety reviewer Steven Suskin wrote that "portions bordered on the hysterical". Like Arkin in 1963, Grisetti won the 2009 Theatre World Award for his performance. Enter Laughing: The Musical
380-589: Was revived again Off-Broadway by The York Theatre Company in 2019; running from May 7, 2019, to June 23, 2019. The 2019 revival featured: Raji Ahsan, Farah Alvin , Dana Costello, Ray DeMattis, Chris Dwan, Alison Fraser , Magnes Jarmo, Michael Kostroff , Paul Kreppel , Robert Picardo , Nathan Salstone, David Schramm , Allie Trimm and Joe Veale. Farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce
400-412: Was widely disseminated by well-known theater historians like Heinrich Alt ( Theater und Kirche , 1846), E.K. Chambers ( The Mediaeval Stage , 1903) and Karl Young . Young's two-volume monumental work about the medieval church was especially influential. It was published in 1933 and is still read today, even though his theories have been rejected for more than 40 years. Many college textbooks, among them
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