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But it was the following decade that brought even more controversy to Broadway. As notions of Victorian decorum gave way to the liberality of the 1920’s, shows such as Sex, The Shanghai Gesture and Lulu Belle reflected the change – and stirred up quite a storm. Actresses Olga Nethersole and Mae West were arrested for the impropriety of their performances! West’s trial resulted in the Wales Padlock Law, which held writers and producers, but not actors, responsible for obscenity.
The 1920’s were also the era of Eugene O’Neill, who made headlines with his productions including the 1931 play Morning Becomes Electra and his Pulitzer-Prize winning shows Beyond the Horizon, Anna Christie and Strange Interlude. While O’Neill was the star behind the scenes, Eva LeGallienne shined on stage.
The elaborate New Theatre, an attempt at a national theatre, was built on Central Park West with funds from John Jacob Astor, Henry Clay Frick, Arthur Vanderbilt, John Hay Whitney and J.P. Morgan. Its failure is blamed on poor acoustics. But after this project collapsed, the young LeGallienne took matters into her own hands, leasing the 1,100-seat Fourteenth Street Theatre and creating Broadway’s first repertory theatre, a non-profit venture financed by donations. Tickets cost as little as 50 cents, and LeGallienne herself starred in shows at the Civic Repertory Theatre. When Broadway ticket sales sank after the stock crash of 1929, LeGallienne’s project flourished through numerous donations from students, women’s groups and other private individuals.
Yet most of Broadway wasn’t as lucky, and as a result of the Depression it has been estimated that 25,000 people in the theatre community lost their jobs, with the majority of the unemployed located in New York. Playwright Rachel Crothers organized The Stage Relief Fund, which helped actors pay their living expenses, and Actress Selena Royle set up the Actor’s Dinner Club, which served meals each night and charged only those who could afford to pay. LeGallienne successfully lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the creation of the Theatre Works Project. Six chapters of the national program were established in New York, each of which included a school for training actors and production staff. The Project, which existed from 1935-1939, distributed $46 million to the industry and financed more than 1,200 productions, many of them extremely socially progressive.
The theatre of the 1930’s and 1940’s focused on comedy and farce as a counterpoint to the difficulties of the Depression and World War II -- although many shows did use the War as a theme, and many actors left town for Hollywood. The theatre community again rallied around the second War effort. The American Theatre Wing War Service opened The Stage Door Canteen where Broadway stars provided free food and entertainment to members of the military, and also traveled to war plants performing Lunchtime Follies to boost the spirits of the workers.
The 1940’s were the era of Tennessee Williams and Rodgers and Hammerstein, who combined the elements of song, dance, comedy and drama in the 1943 smash-hit Oklahoma! This began the era of the musical, a phenomenon truly born of American theatre. In 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific became the second Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, and in 1957 Jerome Robbins’ West Side Story, with music by Leonard Bernstein, electrified audiences at the Winter Garden Theatre.
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