Time of the Cuckoo, The

Time of the Cuckoo, The (1952), a play by Arthur Laurents. [Empire Theatre, 263 perf.] A lonely American spinster, Leona Samish ( Shirley Booth), comes to Venice to look at the sights of the Old World and, not incidentally, to look for romance. She finds it with a suave, handsome Italian, Renato de Rossi ( Dino Di Luca). But the idyll is shattered when Renato proves both a sponger and a married man, yet Leona returns home with a better sense of herself. Louis Kronenberger saw this small but delicately made play as “one with shrewd comments and effective scenes, one where, in terms of love, there is much to be said on both sides; or where—in line with Hebbl's requirement for sound drama—all the people seem in the right.” A beautifully staged and acted revival at Lincoln Center in 2000 featured Debra Monk as Leona. Laurents later adapted his play into the musical DO I HEAR A WALTZ? (1965), making few changes to the story or characters. Richard Rodgers (music) and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), in their only collaboration together, provided a lovely score, but the tale did not play as well this time around, much of the blame being put on Elizabeth Allen, whose Leona did not compare favorably with Booth's or Katharine Hepburn's (who had played it in the 1955 film Summertime). The musical managed a run of 220 performances in the 46th Street Theatre; it was Rodgers's only show in the theatre that was later named after him. Notable songs: Do I Hear a Waltz?; Moon in My Window; We're Gonna Be All Right; Someone Like You.