Books published by Samuel French Inc

ComedyCharacters: 3 male, 8 femaleInterior SetAllan Felix has this thing about Humphrey Bogart. If only he had some of Bogart's technique... Bookish and insecure with women, Allan's hero, Bogey comes to the rescue, with a fantastic bevy of beauties played out in hilarious fantasy sequences. Fixed up by friends with gorgeous women, he's so awkward that even Bogey's patience is tried. Allan mostly resembles a disheveled, friendly dog and this is what ultimately charms his best friend's wife, Linda into bed. It's a tough life, making it in the world of beautiful people but if you can't be a hero it helps to have one... "Hilarious...a cheerful romp. Not only are Mr. Allen's jokes and their follow ups, asides and twists audaciously brilliant, but he has a great sense of character."-The New York Times "A funny, likeable comedy that has a surprising amount of wistful appeal."-New York Post

Genre: Comedy Characters: 2 males and 2 females Heidi Bishop is a wide-eyed dramaturgy intern, eager to better American drama. What she encounters instead is an endless stream of bad scripts by desperate playwrights and an office filled with cynicism and turf battles, led by her bitterly hilarious boss Jim Foley. When Heidi's efforts to improve things run into unintended consequences, she is forced to confront idealism with reality to save her career, reputation, and relationsh

Full Length, Drama Characters: 1 male, 6 femaleUnit set This is a powerful, true drama of six women who went to Viet Nam five nurses and a country western singer booked by an unscrupulous agent to entertain the troops. The play portrays each young woman before, during, and after her tour in the war torn jungle and ends as each leaves a personal token at The Wall in Washington.A Piece of My Heart premiered in New York at Manhattan Theatre Club, and now has enj

Don Nigro ComedyCharacters: 4 male, 5 female Single SetRosey Snow is trapped in a fairy tale world that is by turns funny and a little frightening, with her stepsisters Goneril and Regan, her demented stepmother, her lecherous father, a bewildered Prince, a fairy godmother who sings salty old sailor songs, a troll and a possibly homicidal village idiot. This play investigates the archetypal origins of the world's most popular fairy tale, contrasting the famili

Dramatic Comedy CharacterS: 2 male, 2 femaleMultiple SetsKatha and Ryu have become allergic to their 21st-century lives. After they meet a charismatic man from a community of 1950s re-enactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and Tupperware parties. In this compulsively authentic world, Katha and Ryu are surprised by what their new neighbors - and they themselves - are willing to sacrifice for happiness. "Piquantly funny, cleverly executed and darkly playf

Featuring the words and music of Noel Coward. Devised by Gerald Frow, Alan Strachan and Wendy Toye. Chracters: 6 male, 6 femaleRevue style setting. An immense success in London. An imaginative and innovative presentation of Noel Coward's words, music, sketches, which also shows us something of the man himself. Cowardy Custard contains not only those classic medleys and duets, but also previously unpublished material, snippets of plays and dialogues, material from his autobiographi

Characters: 4 male, 2 female DramaWhen a wrongfully imprisoned man is exonerated by DNA evidence after seventeen years in prison, he is forced to re-assimilate into a cold, foreign world of toothbrush shopping, doggy day care, and a friendship with an anxious young woman with secrets of her own."A compassionate portrait of a man struggling with the challenges of socializing . . . and the anger he still feels for having his youth unjustly destroyed. " - The New York Times

Characters: 7 male, 3 female Comedy, AdaptationUnit setThe Miser is a new adaptation of Molière's most famous prose play by celebrated Moliere adaptor Freyda Thomas (The Learned Ladies, Tartuffe: Born Again). This side-splitting, comedicclassic has all the hilarious elements of the original and is set in a pre-20th Century period, where marriages could be forced upon one's children.In The Miser, the elderly Harpagon obsesses over the feeling th

A Slave Ship emerges out of the Hudson River in front of the Statue of Liberty sending NYC into a frenzy. Emergency is an intricately woven, urgent, witty and moving exploration of our shared humanity and what it means to be free. An explosive play where rhythm, rhyme and remembrance rise."Daniel Beaty is a name to remember, as is this vivid portrait of the African- American experience in present day New York." -TheaterMania.com"Daniel Beaty's explosive, affecting solo play Emergency may b

Comedy Drama / 13m, 4f / Int. w. inset. Kirk Douglas played on Broadway as a charming rogue who contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather in a prison. This, he learns, was a mistake. He clashes with the head nurse, a fierce artinet. Quickly, he takes over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for twelve years; he makes a presumed deaf and dumb Indian talk. He leads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the world series on television, and arranges a rollicking midnight party with liquor and chippies. For one offense, the head nurse has him submit to shock treatment. The party is too horrid for her and she forces him to submit to a final correction a frontal lobotomy. Winner of the 2001 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Revival. "Cuckoo is captivating." - the New York Post "Scarifying and powerful." - the New York Times

Dark SatireCharacters: 5 male, 3 female (Some doubling possible) Modular sets In Purity, a refined and prominent African-American English professor's life is turned upside down when a new, 'more black' professor is hired in his department and challenges his authenticity, his marriage to a white woman, and his entire way of life. This way of life consists of literature, booze, cocaine binges, and pedophilia. From realism to fantasy, Purity takes us on a journey from the

Bertolt Brecht scholar Dick Fig has been terminated by his university and is having an excruciating exit interview with Eunice - a decidedly droll administrator. Downs' witty play ricochets through Brechtian interludes, a pair of politically-radicalized cheerleaders, a pompous newsman, communiques from God, and debates on religion, science and politics before reaching its surprising conclusion.

A new play from critically-acclaimed young playwrights Clara Mamet and Jack Quaid. In The Solvit Kids, Bradley Phillips and Annie Wyatt are the stars of the world-renowned "Solvit Kids" movies - a series based off the popular children's books, the author of which dies just as he is finishing the last installment. Annie and Brad are then left with the rights to release it. However when something goes horribly wrong it is up to the former "Solvit Kids" to come up with a solution.

A pivotal meeting between a daughter and her father. "Paris is the work of a writer entirely deserving of exposure. I can hardly wait to see what Clara Mamet comes up with next." - Backstage Paris premiered at The Ruskin Theater in 2011, originally directed by Paul Sand and starring Clara Mamet and John Pirruccello.

Comedy/Drama Jean Lenox Toddie Characters: 3 female Bare stage. It's October. The beach is deserted. A woman appears, flowered parasol raised and long skirt sweeping the sand. She has come to make a decision, but will she make it alone? The middle aged matron she was argues for the comfort of a retirement home. The child she was urges her to sit again and eat blackberries, to lie under the brambles and study ants, and to arise at long last and go to Innisfree.

Ken Ludwig. Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Lyrics by William S. Gilbert. Characters: 8 male, 4 female Various interior scenes, or one unit set. This clever show takes place at the Savoy Theatre in 1890. Gilbert and Sullivan, who have been feuding for years, are forced to work together one more time: Queen Victoria commands a performance of their most popular songs. Part docu drama, part period comedy, and part "Gilbertt and Sullivan's Greatest Hits," this is a delightful r

Characters: 4 male, 1 female with doubling Unit Set Winner! LA Weekly Award for Best New Play Award-winning playwright Jim Leonard's latest, Battle Hymn, is the story of 16-year-old Martha's epic pregnancy and her incredible search for motherhood, meaning, and love in a war-torn American landscape. After being abandoned by her father, losing her true love and witnessing the horrors of the Civil War firsthand, Martha settles on one incontrovertible fact: She

One of Manhattan's most established play festivals, the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival fosters the work of emerging writers, giving them the exposure of publication and representation. The festival resulting in this collection was held July 19th-24th, 2011 at Theatre Row on 42nd Street in New York City. From the initial pool of over 850 submissions, the Final Forty plays were chosen to be performed over a period of one week. A panel of judges comprised of celebrity pl

Alfred is happy about his life. He's happy with his job. He's happy with his marriage. He's even happily raising his special needs daughter. However, when his best friend invites him to meet the latest woman in his life, things spin out of control.

DramaCharacters: 5 male, 5 female Unit set. Based on the classic story that helped to establish Edith Wharton as the first great American woman novelist, this moving play vividly brings to the stage Lily Bart's flamboyant progress through the glorious whirl of New York's high society, circa 1905, and her tragic fall. The satirical love story is staged as a series of flashbacks over her coffin. Faithful to Edith Wharton's distinct style of dialogue, this dramatic version open

Drama Friedrich Durrenmatt, adapted by Maurice Valency Characters: 25 male, 5 female, 2 children Drop and wing; frags.The Lunts chose this unforgettable play for their swan song. A wealthy woman returns to her debt ridden home town and offers a sum greater than they have ever imagined to help out. But there is a condition: she wants the life of a villager who years ago had caused her to be expelled from town in disgrace. Ringing denial of this absurd demand is followed by the gradual corruption of everyone in town. He is murdered and money is passed over his body to the town. The lady leaves with a fantastic entourage and with the coffin of her old lover. Voted best foreign play of the year by N.Y. Drama Critics Circle. "Stinging.... (with) astonishing power." N.Y. Herald Tribune. "A devastating drama." N.Y. Times.

Drama Characters: 2 malesSet Requirements: Unit set "Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori", facetiously penned British poet Wilfred Owen, who was soon to die in the Great War. It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. This moving play is about the poetic life and the inter relationship between two of the finest Great War poets: Owen who died and Siegfried Sasson who didn't. Told by means of letters and poetry, Not About Heroes paints a vivid picture of the war. It was staged to