"Arsenic and Old Lace" at East Lynne Theater

“Absurdly gruesome yet gloriously funny.” - Cornelia Otis Skinner, actor and writer, from her book Life with Lindsay and Crouse (1976)
 
Murder!  Mayhem!  Madcap fun!  Meet the Brewsters!  Two charming sisters live in the family home in Brooklyn, offering rooms-to-rent, while populating their cellar with the remains of “acceptable” lodgers.  The nephew who lives with them thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, another nephew has a criminal record and is on the run, and the third nephew is a Broadway theater critic who is recently engaged to a lovely young woman.  Written by Joseph Kesselring, this 1941 Broadway comedy hit is family entertainment at its looniest!

The original production, produced by the famous playwrighting team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, ran on Broadway for 1,444 performances, and in London, 1,337 performances, making it the longest running American play in England at that time.  It also played in Chile, Argentina, Sweden, and in 1958 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where it drew more than 90,000 viewers.  The 1944 film, directed by Frank Capra, has become a comedy classic.