1614000 1940 Shakespeare
10319.
1940 BROADWAY PLAYBILL FOR ROMEO AND JULIET,
SIGNED BY LAURENCE OLlVIER, VIVIEN LEIGH,
AND FOUR 0THER CAST MEMBERS
Original playbill for the notorious 1940 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet directed by Laurence Olivier. playbill is signed by Olivier, who played Romeo, and fellow cast members Vivien Leigh (Juliet), Halliwell Hobbes (Capulet), Frank Downing (Paris),Jack Merivalc (Ballhasar), and Joseph Tomes (Gregory).
This elaborate production, designed ;rnd bankrolled by Olivier himself: flopped in New York. His Romeo was considered
mannered, and Leigh's Juliet was inaudible. Audiences were distracted by the personal lives of the leads, real-life lovers well past their teen years, who were al Lite lime still married lo other people. Back iu Hollywood, producer David 0 . Selznick fretted at the potential damage to the film careers of Olivier, who had just finished filming Rebecca, and Leigh, who had jusl won her first Oscar for Gone with the Wind. Romeo and Juliet closed afler only 35 performances.
The playbill features notes on the Broad,vay cast, framed by entertaining vintage advertisements for liquor, cigarettes, and the latest fashions. The siguatures on the front wrapper iudude that of English actor Jack Merivale, who would become Leigh's companion for the last decade of her !ife, after her divorce from Olivier.
Very Good