Invitation to a March

Invitation to a March
Name	Invitation to a March
Writer	Arthur Laurents
Characters	Cora Angelique, Norman Rose, James Daly, Jane Fonda, Madeleine Sherwood
Setting	A beach house on Long Island
Premiere date	October 29, 1960
Premiere venue	Music Box Theatre
Place	Broadway, New York City
Genre	Comedy-drama
Subject	Conformity, individuality, time

Invitation to a March. A 1960 comedy-drama play by American playwright Arthur Laurents, known for his work on West Side Story and Gypsy. The play premiered on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre, exploring themes of nonconformity and societal expectations through a fantastical premise. Its production featured an early Broadway performance by Jane Fonda and was directed by the playwright himself.

Background and context

Arthur Laurents wrote the play following his successes with the book for Gypsy and the screenplay for The Turning Point. The work emerged during a period of shifting social mores in the United States, on the cusp of the countercultural movements of the 1960s. Laurents’s experiences in Hollywood and on Broadway, alongside the influence of contemporaries like Tennessee Williams and Lillian Hellman, informed his examination of personal authenticity. The play’s metaphysical elements reflect a post-World War II American interest in existential themes, distinct from the gritty realism of Arthur Miller or the Southern gothic of Williams.

Plot summary

The story centers on Cora Angelique, a wealthy, eccentric widow living in a Long Island beach house who believes she can stop time. She uses this power to protect her idealistic daughter, Norman Rose, from a conventional marriage to a dull suitor approved by her pragmatic sister, Madeleine Sherwood. Instead, Cora Angelique orchestrates the arrival of two potential grooms: a cynical United States Air Force pilot, James Daly, and a nonconformist artist. The narrative unfolds as a surreal comedy of manners, with characters wrestling with the decision to embrace safe normality or risky individuality. The climax involves a literal and metaphorical “march” toward an uncertain future, leaving the resolution ambiguously poised between fantasy and reality.

Characters

* Cora Angelique: The mystical matriarch who orchestrates the central conflict from her Long Island home. * Norman Rose: Her daughter, caught between societal expectation and personal desire. * James Daly: The pragmatic pilot representing worldly cynicism and conventional success. * Jane Fonda: Portrays a free-spirited friend, in one of her first major Broadway roles. * Madeleine Sherwood: The stern sister advocating for traditional values and security.

Production history

The play premiered on October 29, 1960, at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Arthur Laurents directed the production, with scenic design by David Hays and costumes by Theoni V. Aldredge. The cast featured Cora Angelique in the lead, supported by James Daly, and introduced a young Jane Fonda in a featured role. Despite its creative team, the production had a modest run, facing competition from other notable plays of the season. It has rarely been revived professionally, though it is occasionally studied in academic contexts focusing on Laurents’s body of work or early 1960s American theater.

Critical reception

Initial reviews were mixed, with critics divided on the play’s blend of whimsy and serious themes. Some praised its ambition and the performances, particularly noting Jane Fonda’s Broadway debut. Others found the allegory heavy-handed and the fantasy elements unconvincing, comparing it unfavorably to more grounded works by Neil Simon or the psychological depth of Eugene O’Neill. Over time, the play has been reassessed as a curious period piece that reflects the tensions of its era, often discussed in analyses of Arthur Laurents’s career alongside his more enduring hits like Gypsy.

Themes and analysis

The central theme is the conflict between conformity and individuality, examined through the metaphor of stopped time and a forced choice of suitors. Laurents critiques the materialistic values of postwar America, akin to social observations found in the works of Sloan Wilson or John Cheever. The fantastical premise allows for an exploration of existential freedom, reminiscent of European influences like Jean-Paul Sartre. The play also delves into familial control and the American class system, set against the specific backdrop of Long Island affluence. Its structure as a modern fairy tale invites comparisons to the magical realism later seen in plays by Tom Stoppard or Tony Kushner.

Category:American plays Category:Broadway plays Category:1960 plays