Join Ten Chimneys Foundation as we welcome the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre's Artistic Intern Company for a book-in-hand reading of Arms and the Man.
Monday, March 25th at 7pm
$20 in advance/$25 at the door
Call (262) 968-4110 for reservations
In 1925, the Lunts were coming off of their star turn in the Theatre Guild’s production of The Guardsman, and were looking to add to their already very full repertory. Thirty-one years before, George Bernard Shaw’s comedy Arms and the Man had become Shaw’s first commercial success, and seemed the perfect complement to the Lunts’ sensibilities. As they did with every role, the Lunts threw themselves into creating boundary-pushing characters, worthy of Mr. Shaw’s imagination, and then, in September 1925, took the stage, Alfred in the role of Captain Bluntschli to Lynn’s Raina. With the Lunts in the lead, Arms and the Man ran for a very respectable 180 performances and earned both critical and financial successes. Over the next decades, other famous faces would inhabit Shaw’s Arms and the Man characters, including Laurence Olivier in 1944 and Marlon Brando in his final stage appearance in 1953, but for the Lunts and for their careers, this play and their turn in it kept their stars rising.
About Play Readings at Ten Chimneys
Laurence Olivier, Uta Hagen, Montgomery Clift, Carol Channing, Dick Van Patten - each was a protégé of the Lunts, and all credited the Lunts with helping them "get their start." Mentoring the next generation of artistic leaders was a role the Lunts valued, and continues to be a cornerstone of the programs Ten Chimneys Foundation nurtures, including our longstanding collaboration with the Milwaukee Repertory Theater's Artistic Internship Program as we present Play Readings at Ten Chimneys. We invite guests to come hear a play as these contemporary protégés offer book-in-hand readings of the celebrated plays from the Lunts' era.