Upcoming Plays for June 2010

This month we note the beginning of the summer theatre season in New England. Go, and enjoy.

At the Arundel Barn Playhouse in Kennebunkport, Maine: The New England premiere of “Nunset Boulevard: Nunsense at the Hollywood Bowl” June 8th-26th.

More unholy hijinks from the Little Sisters of Hoboken as they bring us their 7th heavenly gig – this time in Tinseltown. The Little Hobos raise comic mayhem and tons of ‘Nun fun’ in this perfect 300 game! Nunsense is habit-forming, and it would be a sin to miss the latest Nunsense nonsense!

At the Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, Mass. from June 17, 2010 - July 17, 2010: “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond. Musical Direction by Darren Cohen, directed by Julianne Boyd.


At the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Massachusetts:

“Tea at Five” starring Stephanie Zimbalist as Katharine Hepburn, running June 7th through June 19th.

At the Gloucester Stage Company, Gloucester, Massachusetts: “Table Manners” by Alan Ayckbourn runs from June 17th through July 3rd. Directed by Eric C. Engel, the cast includes Steven Barkhimer, Lindsay Crouse, Paula Plum, and Richard Snee.


Hackmatack Playhouse in Berwick, Maine presents Rogers & Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella” runs from June 24th through July 10th.

At the Ivoryton Playhouse, Ivoryton, Connecticut, the perennial favorite, “Arsenic and Old Lace” by Joseph Kesselring, from June 9th through June 27th.

A delightful evening of murder and mayhem with eccentric aunts, crazy nephews and bodies in the basement!

At the Mt. Washington Valley Theatre Company in North Conway, New Hampshire: Meredith Wilson’s delightful “The Music Man” from June 30th through July 10th.

New Century Theatre in Northampton, Massachusetts: “Noises Off” by Michael Frayn, directed by Sam Rush, runs June 17th through 26th.

NOISES OFF peeks backstage at the ridiculous antics of the cast and crew of NOTHING ON. We follow the English company from dress rehearsal to the end of the ten week run, each act revealing more hilarious cast drama, missed cues, and slamming doors, while the show is constantly upstaged by the noises off in the wings. The 1982 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy winner, this is the ultimate backstage farce. Join some of the original cast as we kick off our 20th year with a sidesplitting comedy that must be seen to be believed.

At The Newport Playhouse in Newport, Rhode Island: “Suitehearts” runs June 24th through August 1st.

A young couple checks into a New York hotel for a romantic weekend. An older couple has inadvertently booked the same honeymoon suite! After they scuffle over the accommodations, no one is where or with whom they should be. With plenty of sight gags and one liners, this play will have you laughing all the way through!


The Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire presents:
“Once in a Lifetime” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman runs June 9th through 13th.

Ascending Stars Project - Some of the area’s best high school actors will work alongside professional actors and be directed by Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen. Once in a Lifetime is a rollicking tale of three down and out troupers who decide to head for Hollywood and try their luck with the newly invented talkies.


The Summer Theatre of New Canaan in New Canaan, Connecticut presents Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” in a “modern day highly charged adaptation in our new intimate outdoor protected theater.” Preview June 18, 7:30 pm, show runs from June 19th through July 11th.

At The Bushnell in Hartford, Connecticut, George Gershwin’s classic “Porgy and Bess.”

The drama of love, murder, and hope on Catfish Row springs to teeming life in a dazzling 75th anniversary tour of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess coming to The Bushnell June 8-13 in a brand new production with riveting choreography and glamorous costumes. Approved by the Gershwin Estate, produced by veteran opera impresario Michael Capasso, General Manager of New York’s Dicapo Opera Theatre, and in association with noted producer Willette Murphy Klausner, (Three Mo’ Tenors). Porgy is directed by the brilliant African American Charles Randolph-Wright (Mama I Want To Sing). Don’t miss this celebration of America’s most beloved opera, with a stellar all African American cast of sensational performers.


At The Huntington Theatre, Boston University, “Prelude to a Kiss” by Craig Lucas, directed by Peter DuBois running currently through June 13th.

A whirlwind romance. A storybook wedding. A kiss for the bride that suddenly changes everything. Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, Longtime Companion) explores the enduring power of love and the nature of commitment in this breathtaking and life-affirming comedy directed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois.


At The Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine “The Drowsy Chaperone” runs from June 9th through June 26th.

Be transported to a magical, wonderful world in this new musical comedy that was the darling of the Tony Awards, winning the most statues in 2006, including Best Sets and Costumes, which will be featured in the Ogunquit Production!

It stars Bravo’s top-rated celebrity, Carson Kressley along with Georgia Engel reprising her Broadway role! Georgia is best known as Georgette from the smash TV hit “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

The hilarious show-within-a-show begins when a die-hard musical fan plays his favorite cast album, a 1928 smash hit called “The Drowsy Chaperone” and the show magically bursts to life. Audiences are instantly immersed in the glamorous, hilarious tale of a celebrity bride and her uproarious wedding day, complete with thrills and surprises that take both the cast and the audience soaring into the rafters. Don’t miss the show critics announced as “delightful and sparkling entertainment!” You’ll be over the moon!

Emmy-winning television star, celebrity stylist, author and fashion designer, Carson Kressley is about to make his theatrical debut at the Ogunquit Playhouse, alongside twice-Emmy nominated actress Georgia Engel, in the multi-Tony Award winning musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone”. Kressley is cast as the “Man in Chair,” an obsessive fan of old musicals who imagines performers coming to life in his shabby apartment whenever he plays one of his favorite cast recordings. Throughout the show the musical bursts to life as the Man in Chair continuously brings the audience in and out of the fantasy.


At The Ridgefield Theater Barn in Ridgefield, Connecticut, “The Memory of Water”, written by Shelagh Stephenson, directed by Sherry Asch runs June 4th through June 26th.

After years of separation, three sisters come together for the funeral of their mother, finding that each of their memories of events in their lives are very different. These different recollections force them to confront their perceptions with introspection and humor. The play asks searching questions, such as who are we without our memories. While it remains firmly in the genre of family comedy, what makes this play so captivating, is the way it reveals emotional pain and complexity beneath the outward facade.


At The Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut - “Dinner With Friends”
runs June 1st to June 19th.

Karen & Gabe and Beth & Tom, couples who have been friends for years, participate in all the familiar and comfortable rituals of shared vacations, good conversation and great food—so when Tom abruptly walks out on Beth, it threatens more than just their marriage alone. A Pulitzer Prize-winning play that explores the difficulties of divorce, even when it isn’t your own.

At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, Massachusetts: “It’s Judy’s Show:
My Life as a Sitcom” runs from June 23rd through July 4th. Written by Judy Gold and Kate Moira Ryan, with original music by Judy Gold, lyric by Kate Moira Ryan and Judy Gold, additional material by Eric Kornfeld and Bob Smith. Directed by Amanda Charlton.

Building on the success of her show 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, funny-woman Judy Gold returns to the stage in this hilarious look at her amazing life through the lens of the classic sitcoms of her youth. With multimedia, original music, laughter, and love, Judy shows us how she balances family and ambition in a world where she sometimes does not fit.

At The Winnepesaukee Playhouse at Weirs Beach, New Hampshire - “Educating Rita” by Willy Russell runs June 23rd through July 3rd.

Tutor becomes student in this endearing comedy. Professor Frank Bryant withdraws from his students and passes his days in his stuffy office clutching a bottle of whiskey. That is, until the arrival of spunky hairdresser Rita whose thirst for knowledge turns his world upside down.


Theatre by the Sea in Matanuck, Rhode Island presents “A Chorus Line” June 4th through June 20th. Music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante, conceived by Michael Bennett.

On a bare stage, casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete.
It’s what they’ve worked for — with every drop of sweat, every hour of training, every day of their lives, it’s the one opportunity to do what they’ve always dreamed of - Not to be the star, but to get a job on the line. From funny to heartbreaking, these 17 dancers share the stories of their lives and when they’re done, so is the audition, and the final chorus line is chosen. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Musical.


If you happen to see any of these shows, come back and give us your review.

Nor'eastern Playwrights' Showcase - Vermont ART

Last week I was privileged to take part in the Nor’eastern Playwrights’ Showcase at the Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre in Rutland, Vermont. As any playwright can tell you, work-shopping a script directly with the input of the director and actors is an enormously beneficial and inspiring experience. We writers have a tendency to hole ourselves up in our caves too much. The creative and emotional stimulation of an experience like this is enough to make an introvert like me weep with the relief of an exile suddenly stumbling upon her lost tribe.

The intensive rehearsals were held Thursday and Friday, and the show was put on at the Paramount Theatre Brick Box in Rutland on Friday and Saturday. Along with my one-act play, “In Memory of Trixie Gazelle”, two other one-act plays were produced. These were “The Bad Habit” (soon to be published by Original Works Publishing) by Constance Humphrey Egan, and “The Revision” by Alan L. Steinberg. I was very impressed by the other two plays and so was the audience.

I’d like to thank ART’s producing directors for this opportunity: Ilene Blackman, Sandra Gartner, and Peter Marsh, and especially the director of my play, Bonnie Pritchard, whose insight was very important and truly helpful to me.

I’d like to acknowledge the cast, who were so kind, and so terrifically funny: Winnie Denis, Wheaton Squier, John Papais, Sandy Gartner, Tom Smith, and Laura Steere.

The Holiday Inn Rutland/Killington provided complimentary accommodations for the out-of-town playwrights, and many thanks to the staff and management for their support of the Vermont Actors' Repertory Theatre.

Thanks also to the audience, not only for their warm reception and their participation in the question-and-answer part of the evening, but just for risking a dime on something new and unknown. That’s a pretty brave thing these days.

If you happen to stumble upon an ad for some new play, musical, or one-acts at a theater, or community center, or barn in your hometown this summer, you might want to take a chance on something new and unknown, too. You and me, we need to climb out of our comfort zones once in a while. You never know. You might find your lost tribe.

Review: "The Fantasticks" at The Majestic Theater

The Majestic Theater of West Springfield, Massachusetts is currently featuring “The Fantasticks”, which runs through May 23rd. This unique musical, noted as much for its longevity on Broadway as for its simple staging, launched the careers of many young actors and actresses in its record-breaking 42-year run.

The simple allegorical story, featuring elements of traditional musical theatre, commedia dell'arte and vaudevillian gusto, begins and ends with the iconic “Try to Remember”, sung here by William Thomas Evans, who plays The Narrator and sometimes bandit, El Gallo. He has a smooth and reasonant baritone, and masterfully commands the stage with his voice and his sly comedic timing.

Emily Reed plays The Girl, and P.J. Adzima plays The Boy, who fall in love. Both Ms. Reed and Mr. Adzima are high school students, but display mature talent that promises a bright future. Ms. Reed’s high soprano, with a delightful vibratto effect, adds a distinctive sound to the otherwise all-male cast. Mr. Adzima’s dark-rimmed glasses, his haircut, and street clothes drew one in immediately to the era of the early 1960s that gave birth to “The Fantasticks.” His infectious grin seems innocence captured.

Mitch Giannunzio is The Boy’s Father, and James Emery is The Girl’s Father, at times comrades in a plot to trick their children into marrying, and other times enemies. The gentlemen play well off each other, as well as harmonizing, sharing with each other their frank irritation and expaseration with their children.

John Thomas Waite stands out at The Old Actor, a flamboyant, befuddled thespian, whose faithful sidekick is Roger Patnode as deadpan The Man Who Dies. Their slapstick episodes brought laughter from the audience, and also much guessing as to how they made their entrances and exits from a trunk.

Tom Knightlee plays The Mute, deftly on hand in all scenes to provide props and create the mood, or a wall, when needed.

The show is directed by Rand Foerster, with Amy Roberts-Crawford as the musical director. Set designer of the traditional minimalist set invoking a traveling actor’s wagon was Greg Trochlil. Costumes, particularly effective and evocative from pirate costumes to Shakepearan ensembles, to the color combinations of the fathers and their children, were by Elaine Bergeron.

For more on The Masjetic Theater and this delightful production, have a look at this website.

On the Boards and Riding the Rails

Playwright and Connecticut native Eugene O’Neill probably arrived in Provincetown, Massachusetts on the tip of Cape Cod by train when he first met up with the Provincetown Players. He wrote in his Nobel Prize autobiographical note that as the son of a stage actor:

First seven years of my life spent mostly in hotels and railroad trains, my mother accompanying my father on his tours of the United States….

In celebration of National Train Day this Saturday, we might observe that for much of the 20th Century, theatre was brought to most small towns and large cities by train. When Gertrude Lawrence played the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, or when Dion Boucicault played at the Boston Museum, they arrived by train. When Joseph Cotten played at the summer theater in Surrey, Maine, a young apprentice named Henry Fonda picked up his trunk at the railroad depot.

Much later on theaters which had been habitually been built close to train stations developed into large entertainment complexes built by interstate highways, but our formative years of theatre in this country have a lot to do with train travel.

Ruth Gordon, in her My Side - The Autobiography of Ruth Gordon (Harper & Row, NY 1976) recalls the amazement on first taking the ultra swank Twentieth Century Limited from New York to Chicago, a step up from the days of rattling train coaches and butcher boys hawking sandwiches in the aisle,

“Memories of damp linen handerkerchiefs on our faces to keep the cinders off were a thing of the past.”

We have another more whimsical episode on the train called the Twentieth Century Limited when John Barrymore rode the rails to his next gig (referred to last year in this Another Old Movie Blog post). Biographer John Kobler writes in his biography of John Barrymore, Damned in Paradise - The Life of John Barrymore (Athenaeum, NY 1977):

“Ensconced in his stateroom aboard the eastbound Twentieth Century, John sent for two Pullman porters, old friends from previous trips. Handing one of them a book, he explained, ‘Now, this is really the skull of Yorick and you are the grave digger.’ And to the other, ‘You are Polonius.’ Fed his cues in this fashion, he rehearsed himself all the way across the continent.”

This Saturday marks National Train Day, sponsored by Amtrak. For more on National Train Day, have a look at this website.

Baseball Fan Ethel Barrymore at the Court Square Theater

April 28th fell on a Wednesday in 1943, as it does this year. For one day only, Ethel Barrymore and the New York cast of “The Corn is Green” played at the Court Square Theater in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The play had been the triumph of the 1940-41 Broadway season. John Mason Brown of the New York Post described opening night, when “The bravos which filled the theater at the final curtain were deafening and prolonged. There was every reason for them because Ethel Barrymore gives the finest, most thoughtful and concentrated performance she has given in many years.”

Miss Barrymore played 461 performances in the role on Broadway before starting her nationwide tour, and by this time travel was subject to wartime restrictions.

After the war Ethel Barrymore returned to Hollywood and a busy second career as a character actress. Since baseball is a recurring theme on my other blogs this week, Another Old Movie Blog, and New England Travels, we might mention here that Ethel Barrymore was an avid baseball fan. Author Hollis Alpert in “The Barrymores” (The Dial Press, New York, 1964) notes that while on movie sets, in between takes she would “hurry to her dressing room, where she would listen to ball games on her radio. She rooted less for single teams than for individual players, and when there was not a major league game to listen to would settle for the Coast League games.”

At this stage of her life, she preferred freelancing rather than signing on with a single studio. Her reasoning was, “The first thing I know they would be lending me out for a lot of money and a couple of outfielders.”

Grace Kelly Tours in Boston

Grace Kelly appeared as an ingénue in the play “To Be Continued”, which opened in Boston April 8, 1952.

She began her auspicious acting career in summer stock and regional theatre, and eventually had a crack at the Great White Way. Her experience there was brief, and nothing compared to the meteoric rise in fame she would achieve in Hollywood.

Her first attempt at Broadway was in November of 1949, when she appeared at the Cort Theatre in a revival of “The Father”, which starred Raymond Massey. Her role was “The Captain’s Daughter”, but her nameless role earned her the praise of reviewer Brooks Atkinson, who noted,

“Grace Kelly gives a charming, pliable performance of the bewildered and broken-hearted daughter.”

The play did not run long, and her next big break at storming Broadway was “To Be Continued”, where she played the equally anonymous-sounding “A Young Woman”. After its tryout in Boston, the play moved a couple of weeks later to the Booth Theater in New York on April 23, 1952. (Have a look here for our recent post on Edwin Booth, for whom that theater was named.)

Here her performance again was noted as promising, but the play closed within weeks.

It was back to her hometown of Philadelphia that summer, where she played starring roles at the Playhouse in the Park. But, also that summer, "High Noon" was released, and in the autumn came her role in the film “Mogambo”, and the rest, as they say, is history. Her career as a stage actress never took off as she had hoped, but other achievements she could not have imagined were on the horizon.

Have a look here at Grace Kelly's performance in "The Country Girl" (1954) from Monday's post on my Another Old Movie Blog.

Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth

Ford's Theater, April 1865, Library of Congress, in the public domain.

On this day, April 14, 1865, Good Friday, Edwin Booth, who came to be one of the most famous and important American actors of the 19th century, was in his dressing room at the Boston Theatre putting on his makeup for that evening’s sold out performance.

Edwin Booth, Libarary of Congress, public domain.

He was 31 years old, rising in his profession, heir to his famous actor father, Junius Brutus Booth, in the family trade. Only the previous Sunday Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse and the horrific Civil War was close to an end. It seemed that week as if the nation, both bloody, torn halves, were taking a much needed deep breath, and relishing a moment of peace. The North was celebratory, and in Washington, D.C., like the fans of Edwin Booth in Boston, President Abraham Lincoln was going to take a diversion from his troubles at the theatre.

Playbill for "Our American Cousin", original in the collection of the Libarary of Congress, reprinted National Park Service.

Laura Keene’s troupe staged the popular comedy, “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre. She was a notable stage actress of her day, had toured in previous years with Edwin Booth, and managed her own theater, one of the first American women to do so.

A former member of her acting company, Edwin’s younger brother John Wilkes Booth, showed up at the theater that night as well, entered the President’s box, and shot him in the head.

Much has been written about the tragedy, but for the moment let’s turn our attention to Edwin Booth in his Boston dressing room, focusing himself on his upcoming performance, completely unaware that his life had changed forever because of his brother’s crime.

An interesting account of this event, and the rivalry of both brothers, is discussed in the book “Good Brother, Bad Brother - The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth” by James Cross Giblin (Clarion Books, NY, 2005).

The morning after the show, Edwin was woken by his valet with the heart-stopping newspaper headline.

The manager closed the theater, partly out of respect for the deceased President, and partly for the safety of Edwin Booth and the cast. Actors, always considered on the fringes of respectable society, were now suddenly suspect as anarchists. Edwin was chief suspect of them all, for being the brother of an assassin.

The New York Herald front page, April 15, 1865.

Edwin had intended to return to his home in New York, but federal marshals detained him in Boston for questioning about his brother’s activities. They continued to forbid him to leave the city until several prominent people, including the Governor of Massachusetts, vouched for him. On Easter Sunday afternoon, he was allowed to leave, and took the five and a half hour train trip to New York City.

Edwin, who as a boy accompanied his father on tour and spent a fair amount of time dragging him out of saloons as his nursemaid, made his own debut just before turning 16 years old in 1849, in Boston, when his father was playing at the Boston Museum. Have a look at this earlier post about the Boston Museum.

Junius Brutus Booth, Library of Congress, public domain.

His father Junius encouraged Edwin to take small roles, and in a couple of weeks that September Edwin graduated to a larger role in “Othello” opposite his father in Providence, Rhode Island. A couple of years later, he took over his ailing father’s role in “Richard III”.

It was a long, arduous apprenticeship in small theaters, saloons, and open air performances in mining camps out west. When Edwin returned to Boston, the city of his debut, in April of 1857 playing the villain Sir Giles Overreach in the melodrama “A New Way to Pay Old Debts”, he was again, just as in his Shakespearean roles, treading on a path his father had already made famous. Junius Brutus Booth cast a long shadow.

But Edwin, through diligence, and a new way of performing that was more natural and less dramatic and showy than men of his father’s generation, won over dubious audiences and critics.

The Boston Transcript noted that the play was “Quite a triumph for young Booth…It brought back the most vivid recollections of the fire, the vigor…which characterized the acting of his late, lamented father.”

Louisa May Alcott, future famous author of “Little Women” went one better when she wrote in her journal, “Saw young Booth in Brutus…and liked him better than his father.”

Boston audiences were enthusiastic. They were less so when Edwin’s younger brother John Wilkes Booth arrived in town in 1862. Author Mr. Giblin quotes a Boston drama critic:

We have been greatly pleased, and greatly displeased…In what does he fail? Principally, in knowledge of himself -- of his resources, how to husband and how to use them…He ignores the fundamental principle of all vocal study and exercise: that the chest, and not the throat or mouth, should supply the sound necessary for singing or speaking.

John Wilkes Booth played the Boston Museum as Romeo on May 3, 1864, with Kate Reignolds as Juliet. Orchestra seats went for 50 cents. John Wilkes Booth was apparently not the accomplished actor that his brother Edwin was, but he cut a dashing figure. Both brothers were likely uncomfortable with comparisons, but comparisons were always made, against their father and against each other.

In November 1862, Edwin played a month-long engagement in Boston, and the Boston Post offered this comparison of the acting style of the brothers:

Edwin has more poetry; John Wilkes more passion; Edwin has more melody of movement and utterance, John Wilkes more energy and animation; Edwin is more correct, John Wilkes more spontaneous; Edwin is more Shakespearean, John Wilkes more melodramatic; and in a word, Edwin is a better Hamlet, John Wilkes a better Richard III.

From the end of September 1863 to the end of November, John Wilkes Booth toured in Boston for two weeks, then to Providence, Rhode Island, then to Hartford, Connecticut, briefly to New York, and then back to New Haven, Connecticut. At this point he was plotting against the Union and smuggling drugs like quinine to the South.

In April of 1864 he returned for a four-week run in Boston in 34 performances in 18 different plays, the lead in them all. He began to have vocal strain, which would contribute to a downslide in his acting career, but was more interested in revenge at this point in his life.

In March, 1865, John Wilkes Booth played Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. for the last time in the melodrama “The Apostate.” He played the villain, Pescara, and received an enthusiastic reception from the audience. According to author Giblin, “Apparently the warm welcome did not make much of an impression on John. At the end of the play, he ignored the crowd’s applause and declined to make a curtain call.”

That same night, Edwin performed Hamlet in New York City, then headed for Boston. The brothers were on the outs with each other at this time, not over their acting rivalry, but over politics. Edwin supported the North, and John Wilkes, supporting the Confederacy, avoided his brother.

Laura Keene, Library of Congress, public domain.

There is a famous quote by film actor Spencer Tracy to the effect that actors should stay out of politics and pointing to John Wilkes Booth and the assassination of Lincoln as an example. Remembered less is the fact that it was an actress who provided the first comfort to the dying President, when Laura Keene, star of “Our American Cousin”, still in her costume and stage makeup, brought a pitcher of water up to the box where Lincoln was being attended, and held Lincoln’s head so the doctor could give him a sip of brandy.

Her act of compassion did nothing to rehabilitate the almost poisonous hatred for the acting profession in the wake of the Lincoln assassination. After the funeral, Edwin was back in New York City, kept under house arrest in his home by the police.

John Wilkes Booth was killed when captured resisting arrest on April 26th. Edwin continued to receive death threats and hate mail, with the same unreasonable hatred that spurred his brother to murder the President.

Then as now, political convictions seem to be the only excuse some people need to reveal their inner thug.

Edwin took ads out in newspapers in Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia denouncing the assassination and proclaiming his own innocence, “bearing a heavy heart, an oppressed memory, and a wounded name.”

Front page Harper's Weekly, April 29, 1865.

Edwin was subpoenaed as a potential witness in the government investigation of the crime after an initial interview, but was later dismissed. His older brother, actor Junius Booth was held for questioning at the Old Capitol prison, and the entire Booth family came under suspicion, but nobody really knew much about John Wilkes Booth’s political activities, and nothing about the conspiracy to murder.

Edwin finally returned to the stage the following year, in January 1866 at New York’s Winter Garden as Hamlet. Police were stationed outside in case of an expected riot.

Edwin got a standing ovation on his entrance, but as gratifying as this must have been, he took no curtain calls, to avoid the possibility of becoming a target for someone with a gun. He took this play to Boston, and all performances were sold out. He refused ever again to play in Washington, D.C.

In the early 1880s, long after this sad period ended for the country, if not for him personally, Edwin Booth maintained homes in Boston and in Rhode Island. He died in 1893, and is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts beside his first wife, actress Mary Devlin.

In a coincidental twist of fate, Edwin had rescued Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert, from injury or possible death when he pulled him from harm’s way on a train platform in Jersey City at least a year before the assassination. Edwin Booth in later years felt a little consoled that if his brother had murdered the father, at least he himself had saved the son.

For more on Edwin Booth, have a look at Monday’s “Another Old Movie Blog” for a discussion of Richard Burton’s portrayal of him in “Prince of Players” (1955).