Light up the Sky

Light up the Sky (1948), a comedy by Moss Hart. [Royale Theatre, 216 perf.] Just before the opening of a new play in Boston, the leading figures involved in the show assemble in the Ritz‐Carlton suite of the leading lady, Irene Livingston ( Virginia Field). The others include the coarse‐mouthed producer Sidney Black ( Sam Levene); his brassy wife, Frances ( Audrey Christie); the swishy, lugubrious director Carleton Fitzgerald ( Glenn Anders); and the young playwright Peter Sloan ( Barry Nelson). They are gushily sweet and loving to each other until they return from the first performance, which they believe to be a flop. Then a screaming, name‐calling session ensues. When the reviews prove encouraging, the sweetness and camaraderie return. The show was originally written by Hart as a more philosophic comedy, but after a Boston tryout that mirrored the fictitious events in the play, it was rewritten as a slam‐bang farce. Insiders recognized that the vain, effusive Irene was a send‐up of Gertrude Lawrence; the Blacks, of Billy Rose and his wife, Eleanor Holm; and Fitzgerald, of Guthrie McClintic. The play was Hart's only successful solo venture, aside from the wartime Winged Victory (1943), but appearing in a season of exceptional competition it didn't enjoy the longer run it deserved.