Barry, Philip (1896–1949), born in Rochester, N.Y., graduated from Yale (1919), and studied in the 47 Workshop of G.P. Baker at Harvard, where he wrote
You and I (1923), in which a father, trying to guide his son into an artistic career, reveals his own thwarted ambition. Following
The Youngest (1924), a satirical play concerning the revolt of a youngest son from the bourgeois standards of his family, and
In a Garden (1925), a sophisticated comedy, he wrote
White Wings (1926), an ironic fantasy. His next play,
John (1927), based on the life of John the Baptist, was unsuccessful, but
Paris Bound (1927) was a popular comedy concerned with contemporary moral standards. After collaborating with Elmer Rice in writing a fanciful mystery play,
Cock Robin (1928), Barry returned to his earlier theme of a child's revolt against the standards of her parents in
Holiday (1928).
Hotel Universe (1930) was a mystical play, and he further showed his interest in psychological investigation in
Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1931) and in
The Animal Kingdom (1932), plays concerned with modern marital relations. After two unsuccessful plays,
The Joyous Season (1934) and
Bright Star (1935), and
Spring Dance (1936), an adaptation, he wrote
Here Come the Clowns (1938), also published as a novel,
War in Heaven (1938), in which an “illusionist's” hypnotic powers reveal the inner tragedies of a group of vaudeville actors.
The Philadelphia Story (1939) is a drawing‐room comedy about a young heiress and an author;
Liberty Jones (1941) is an allegory of the threats to democracy in the modern world;
Without Love (1942) is a comedy of platonic marriage; and
Second Threshold (1951) is a play left in manuscript and revised by Robert Sherwood.
