Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace (1941), a comedy by Joseph Kesselring. [Fulton Theatre, 1,444 perf.] Abby Brewster ( Josephine Hull) and her sister Martha ( Jean Adair) are two nice, sweet old ladies who murder nice, sweet, lonely old men by offering them elderberry wine laced with arsenic. The sisters' crazy but harmless brother Teddy ( John Alexander), who sports a large mustache and a pince‐nez, believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and often charges up the flight of stairs as if it were San Juan Hill. Teddy digs graves in the Brewster cellar, burying the sisters' victims whom he believes are yellow fever casualties working on the Panama Canal. Complications set in when their nephew Mortimer ( Allyn Joslyn) learns of the sisters' activities; and matters get more farcical when another Brewster nephew, the criminal Jonathan ( Boris Karloff) on the lam, and a strange Dr. Einstein ( Edgar Stehli) arrive with the body of their latest victim. As next of kin, Mortimer arranges to commit the entire family to a mental institution, but before they leave, the sisters inform Mortimer that he is adopted; he is thrilled and announces to his fiancée that he's a bastard. The play ends with Abby and Martha offering the old gentleman from the mental home a glass of their special elderberry wine. Richard Lockridge of the Sun described the play as “a noisy, preposterous, incoherent joy,” adding, “You wouldn't believe that homocidal mania could be such great fun.” Legend has it that the play, originally called Bodies in Our Cellar, was conceived as a serious thriller and that producers Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse were responsible for turning it into a comedy. A 1986 Broadway revival with familiar television faces managed a healthy run despite mixed notices. Joseph KESSELRING (1902–67) was a New York‐born teacher, actor, author, and playwright. This was his only success.