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The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

The Rainmaker by N. Richard Nash

Directed by Bonnie J. Monte

Know-the-Show Audience Guide researched and written by the Education Department of

Artwork by Scott McKowen The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

In this Guide – The Rainmaker: Director’s Notes...... 2 – The Life of N. Richard Nash...... 4 – The Selected Writings of N. Richard Nash...... 6 – The Rainmaker: A Short Synopsis...... 7 – Who’s Who in the Play...... 8 – A Dream of Rain (and Con Men)...... 9 – Commentary & Criticism...... 10 – In This Production...... 11 – Explore Online...... 12 – Famous Adaptations...... 13

The Rainmaker is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

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FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

“When drought hits the lush grasslands of The Rainmaker: the richly fertile West, they are green no Director’s Notes more and the dying is a palpable thing. What happens to verdure and vegetation, Last summer, two of the gifted apprentices in our Summer Professional I decided, then and to cattle and livestock can be read in Training Program performed a scene for one of our late-night there, that I wanted the coldly statistical little bulletins freely presentations that made me cry. It brought tears to my eyes not because to direct it this season issued by the Department of Agriculture. it was sad, but because it was so moving and beautiful. It was a simple and bring it to life What happens to the people of the West scene – a sweet encounter between two people, but it was so pure and for our audience. I — beyond the calculable and terrible tender that it felt like I had suddenly encountered a clean place – one wanted to share what phenomena of sudden poverty and loss unencumbered by the dirtiness and the constant bombardment of the I had experienced in of substance — is an incalculable and trash “noise” of our modern world. It was a scene from The Rainmaker. reading it with you, febrile kind of desperation. Rain will onstage and in full never come again; the earth will be sere I had never read the play, nor seen the film version. The very next life. forever; and in all of heaven there is no morning, I searched my bookcase for a copy, and to my delight, I had promise of remedy.” one; I sat down immediately and read it. When I got to the end, to my After working on it surprise, I burst into tears – not just little tears, but a sudden burst of for a year now, I have -N. Richard Nash sobbing – the kind of bursting into tears that we do when we are little been further surprised from the Introduction to The Rainmaker and something scares us or startles us, though by the depth of the I was certainly not scared. But, I think the play and its layers of play did startle me; it filled me with a kind complexity. It is too of odd elation. Looking back now, I suspect often dismissed as a romantic comedy, indeed, the author himself labeled that what I was feeling was the ever-elusive it as such. It certainly is romantic in the classical sense, it does contain catharsis that we yearn to feel when we some romancing, and it has many funny moments, but it is an intense experience a piece of theatre. It felt so great drama ­— one that is often brutal in its honesty and in the pain to have been swallowed up by a tale of such that its characters are going through. It operates on so many basic, true, emotional universality that it filled archetypal, symbolic, and iconic levels that it fits any and me with an overwhelming wave of emotions. all humans like a glove. It is poetic, yet domestically Bonnie J. Monte, Director. 2 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

familiar, and I suspect that given what has occurred in the world since it One final note – for as simple a tale as The Rainmaker is, it is a very was written that it carries far more weight than it did back in the 1950s. difficult play to perform. It requires brave actors who are willing to be deeply vulnerable with each other and in front of an audience. I have It is a play about yearning, about desire, about a dire thirst for things been blessed with a cast of great skill, courage, and generous spirit. seemingly beyond our grasp, about family, about love and pain and Working on this play has been a joy because of them, because of the loneliness, and it is, for me, most of all, a play about hope. In a time story, and most importantly, because it is a play about decent, good of great drought, a con man arrives in a small western town and brings people who manage to reveal, in the two hours we share with them, with him the promise of rain. Like so many archetypal bearers of gifts, the vast, complicated, beautiful, luminous caverns of the human heart. he is part snake-oil salesman, part shaman, part dreamer, wanderer, These simple, struggling people show us how we can help each other get poet, weaver of tales, conduit, and showman. And while he is indeed through the droughts in our lives – both the real ones and those that are a grifter and con artist, he is a good man, a lost man, and a man with a metaphorical. heart as big as his boasts and as vast in its yearnings as the western sky. -Bonnie J. Monte, Director And with him, he brings hope, and while hope may be the biggest con of all, it is one we all embrace, for it keeps us all going.

Just a quick note about the time and place of the play: the author simply says that it takes place in the American West in a time of great drought. I do not think it is about the Dust Bowl era; I think rather that it was inspired by the great drought that plagued a ten-state region in the American West and South – most notably Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas from about 1950 to 1957. It was, by many accounts, far more damaging than the effects of the Dust Bowl drought. It certainly changed the landscape of Texas forever. [You can read more about this drought by following the links in the Explore Online section of this Audience Guide.] I also think that so many references in the play indicate the world of the early 1950’s, and so we decided that our production of the play is set on a cattle ranch on the Texas/Oklahoma A dust storm in Texas during the 1930s Dust Bowl. border in 1953. Credit: NOAA. From livescience.com

3 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide The Life attended the University of Pennsylvania. There and at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges he taught drama, inspiring at least one of his early N. Richard Nash plays, The Young and Fair. In 1935 he married Helena Taylor, an actress, and with her had a son, ofN. Richard Nash, was born Nathan Richard Nusbaum in , Cristopher. In the late 1930s Nathan Nusbaum’s success attracted interest PA, on June 8,1913. He was the youngest and only boy of 6 children. by the movie studios, so he and his young family moved to . His father, Sael, a bit of a dreamer, convinced a German newspaper It was in Hollywood that Nathan R. Nusbaum became N. Richard Nash. to send him to the U.S. as a stringer to cover a famous actress of the Cristopher remembers several conversations about how the name should time, Eleanor Duse. Sael Nusbaum insisted on continuing to follow be chosen; one evening at the kitchen table, the family gathered around a and report on her long after the newspaper had lost interest... and fired telephone book. He recalls his father saying, “Nash, yes, that’s it.” him. As a boy, Nathan was taken by his father to nightly meetings of local political groups where he would curl up under the table, listening Nash created many screenplays for Hollywood and was soon also writing to the barnstorming rhetoric of the activists of the time. Sael died when for the Broadway stage during what came to be referred to as the Golden Nathan was 16. Age of Television. He was also often called upon by Broadway producers

Nathan’s mother, Jenny Nusbaum was a tough, resourceful woman who managed the family grocery store through the Depression, finding ways to feed neighbors and passersby when they were down on their luck. Jenny didn’t have much time or attention for Nate especially after his father’s death. While his older sisters were marrying or getting jobs, Nathan held to his dream of becoming a writer, earning prizes and acclaim — but not much money — in school and through writing opportunities as a young man. He attributed some of his early courage and success to the care and protection, in the family, of his older sister, Mae, who was, in part, the model for the enduring character Lizzie in his most famous work, The Rainmaker.

With a full scholarship to the college of his choice but unable to afford to leave Philadelphia in the midst of the Great Depression, Nathan N. Richard Nash, from the N. Richard Nash Facebook page. 4 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

to serve as a “play doctor” — a behind-the-scenes consultant and often In the 1970s, as theatrical styles were changing, Nash adopted a new writer and editor of foundering plays readying for production. voice under the pseudonym, John Roc. As Roc, he wrote two very dark works, Fire! a play, and Winter Blood, a novel. Nash was convinced that When Cristopher was 16, Nash and his wife divorced and Nash moved no one would take these works seriously if written under his own name to . There, he met and soon married Janice Rule, an actress. and managed to keep the secret from almost everyone but his immediate That marriage was short-lived and soon after, Nash met and married family until his memorial service in the spring of 2001. After he died, Katherine Copeland, an actress and television host. They had two friends discovered two other pseudonyms under which, as far as one can children, Jennifer and Amanda. tell, he never published. But there’s always a mystery.

N. Richard Nash continued to write for Hollywood where he worked *Biography from nrichardnash.com with, among others, Samuel Goldwyn at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Nash had many stories about Goldwyn, including Goldwyn’s now famous habit of calling Nash after reading one his scripts to say, “Richard, it’s perfect! Now come and fix it.” Katherine Nash also recalled a warm OTHER CAREERS relationship with Goldwyn who seated her at his right at one of his many big dinner parties. At the time, Katherine was pregnant with Very early on, though, long before Nash got established as a her first child and unaccustomed to managing her bulk. Apparently, dramatist, he also did a stint at the advertising agency NW Air, she spilled a glass of wine directly into Goldwyn’s lap. Graciously, he where he is said to have originated a number of very successful did not budge, but all the neighboring dinner guests tossed her their campaigns, including the “A diamond is forever” slogan for napkins. De Beers. He also told a story of having saved NW Air from embarrassment when the agency was on the verge of launching a Over the course of his life, Nash wrote for the theater and the screen. new toothpaste, Dreck, which means “excrement” in Yiddish. Later, Nash wrote fiction, and two of his novels found their ways to bestsellers list: East Wind, Rain, and The Last Magic. In the early 1960s during a lull in his career and in an effort to acquire a full wood-working shop, he also created and operated a Missing the experience he’d had at the beginning of his career teaching successful mail-order company, Country Crafts, through which he at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and the University of Pennsylvania, Nash sold reproduction furniture that he made and marketed himself. returned whenever he could make time to teach at many academic He closed the business when he received an order so large from drama departments including Yale, Princeton. and Brandeis Universities. Bloomingdales than he felt uncomfortable about being able to fill He loved teaching and was a warm, engaging, but firm instructor. His it. single, most consistent admonishment to young writers: “Finish it!”

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MUSICALS: The Selected Writings -Wildcat, 1960 -110 in the Shade (1963) a musical adaptation of The Rainmaker. -The Happy Time, 1968 N. Richard Nash -Sarava, 1979 of SELECTED SCREENPLAYS: PLAYSCRIPTS: Nash penned over a dozen screenplays (1946–1959), including: As N. Richard Nusbaum: -“The Rainmaker” (based on Nash’s play), 1956 -So Wonderful! (In White) (one-act), 1937 -“Porgy and Bess” (adapted from Gershwin’s folk opera), 1959 -Incognito (three-act), 1941 -Parting at Imsdorf (one-act), 1941 TELEPLAYS: -Sky Road: A Comedy of the Airways (three-act), 1941 For NBC: “House in Athens,” “The Rainmaker,” “The Brownstone,” “The Happy Rest,” “The Young and Fair,” “The Arena.” As N. Richard Nash: For ABC: “Welcome Home” and “The Joker.” -Second Best Bed, 1946 He also contributed to the teleplays for programs such as: -The Young and Fair, 1948 “Philco Playhouse,” “General Electric Theater,” “U.S. Steel Hour,” -See the Jaguar, 1952 “Television Playhouse,” and “Theater Guild of the Air.” -The Rainmaker, 1954 -Girls of Summer, 1956 -Handful of Fire, 1958 BOOKS: -Echoes, 1973 As N. Richard Nash: -Rouge Atomic, date unknown Cry Macho, 1975 East Wind, Rain, 1977 -Selected Plays (1997) with following plays, most still unproduced: The Last Magic, 1978 Aphrodite’s Cave, 1980 The Rainmaker Everybody, Smile! Breaking the Tie Radiance, 1983 Alchemy Yes, Tom, Yes! The Green Clown As well as two books on philosophy: The Loss of D-Natural Bluebird of Happiness The Athenian Spirit The Wounds of Sparta

As John Roc: As Jon Roc: -Fire!, 1969 Winter Blood, 1971

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matchmaking intentions right away and he declines the invitation. The The men return home and inform Lizzie. Disappointed, they are about to sit down to dinner, when a stranger appears at their door.

Rainmaker: Enter Bill Starbuck, a “rainmaker” who claims that for a mere $100 he can bring rain and end the drought. His fast-talking style does not work A Short Synopsis on Lizzie or Noah, but H.C. and Jim seem eager to take a chance on this

Please note: Below is a partial summary of the play. If you prefer not to spoil traveling man. Against Noah’s advice, H.C. agrees to pay Starbuck the the plot, consider skipping this section. $100. Starbuck asks the men in the family to assist in his endeavor. Jim is to beat a big bass drum to call up the thunder, H.C. paints a large white The play opens in the home of the Curry family. It is a scorching, arrow on the ground pointing away from the house to ward off potential drought-ridden August morning. This prosperous ranching family now lightning strikes, and Noah is sent to tie the hind legs of a mule together. faces the crisis of a dwindling herd, as their cattle succumb to the drought. Of possibly greater import to the family however is Lizzie. Alone with Starbuck, Lizzie rages, claiming that he is not just content to She is the only daughter of H.C. Curry, and she takes care of all things steal their money, but he is also making fools of them. Before leaving domestic for her father and her two brothers, Noah and Jim. The ever- the house, Starbuck targets Lizzie’s insecurities and calls her out for present concern on all their minds is that Lizzie, now well into an age not believing in anything — not even herself. When her father tries to when her peers are married, has no marriage prospects. comfort her, Lizzie maintains that she would be better off if she was just an empty-headed flirt. As she is flouncing around the room to prove her As H.C. cooks up breakfast, we discover that Lizzie returned late the point, File shows up at the door. previous evening from a visit to nearby Sweetriver, where it was hoped she may have found a beau among some of her eligible cousins. As As tensions and the heat begin to spike, each of the characters in the they wait for Lizzie to come down stairs, Noah, the eldest, looks over play is forced to confront truths about themselves and the ways in the financial and feed ledgers and reprimands his younger brother Jim which they perceive themselves, others and the world. In the end, each for chasing after a local girl whom Noah considers “fast.” When Lizzie are profoundly changed by their encounter with the diviner known as comes down, she reveals that the trip to Sweetriver was a bust. Starbuck.

The Curry men then decide to go into town to invite the local deputy, File, over for dinner, and they convince Lizzie to prepare a hearty supper. When they meet with File, however, he catches on to their

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Costume rendering of H.C. Curry by Costume Designer, Hugh Hanson ©2019.

Who’s Whoin the Play her beautiful. And yet, ironically, it is this one unfulfilled part of Lizzie that is the most Character descriptions are from N. Richard Nash’s script. Characters are listed potentially beautiful facet of the woman — in order of appearance. this yearning for romance — this courageous searching for it in the desert of her existence.” H.C. CURRY – “He is in his mid-fifties, powerfully set, capable, a good man to “I don’t want a man to keel over! I take store in. But he’s not all prosaic efficiency — there’s a dream in him.” want him to stand up straight — and “If you let ‘em live — people pay off better than cattle.” I want to stand up straight to him! Without having to trick him! Isn’t that NOAH CURRY – “His eldest son...He is somewhat like his father, without possible with a man?! ” H.C.’s imagination. As a matter of fact, he has little imagination at all — a somewhat self-righteous man, rigidly opinionated.” FILE – “He is a lean man, reticent, intelligent... He “I’m tryin’ to keep this family goin’! I’m trying’ to keep it from smiles wryly at the world and at himself. Perhaps he is a little bitter; if so, his breakin’ its heart on one foolishness after another! And what do bitterness is leavened by a mischievous humor.” I get for it?! Nothin’ but black looks and complaints!” “There’s one thing I’ve learned! Be independent! If you don’t ask for things — if you don’t let on you need things — pretty soon you don’t JIM CURRY – “Jim is the youngest in the family, in his early twenties — but he’s need things.” big and broad shouldered and looks older until he opens his mouth; then he’s a child. He isn’t very bright and this is a great cross. He is filled with SHERIFF THOMAS – Sheriff of the town; seems fond of the people he works with inchoate* longing.” and serves. *inchoate (in - KOE - ut): adj. rudimentary; just begun, not fully formed or developed. “It ain’t right for you to shack up all by yourself...Especially after you “People want to get together — they oughta get together. It don’t been married. When you lose your wife, the nights get damn cold.” matter how, does it?” BILL STARBUCK – “He is a big man, lithe, agile — a loud braggart, a gentle LIZZIE CURRY – “She seems a woman who can cope with all the aspects of dreamer. He carries a short hickory stick — it is his weapon, his pointer, his her life. She has the world of materiality under control; she is a good magic wand, his pride of manhood.” housekeeper; pots and pans, needles and thread — when she touches “You gotta take my deal because in your life you gotta take a them, they serve. She knows well where she fits in the family — she is chance on a con man! You gotta take my deal because there’s dying daughter, sister, mother, child — and she enjoys the manifold elements calves that might pick up and live! Because a hundred bucks is only a of her position. She has a sure ownership of her own morality, for the hundred bucks—but rain in a dry season is a sight to behold! You gotta tenets of right and wrong are friendly to her — and she is comfortably take my deal because it’s gonna be a hot night—and the world goes forthright in living by them. A strong and integral woman in every life crazy on a hot night—and maybe that’s what a hot night is for!” function — except one...no man outside the family has loved her or found 8 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

his healthy $10,000 fee — San Diego officials assured him that he could claim responsibility for the rainstorm only as long as he also claimed A Dream of responsibility for the city’s $6,000,000 in lawsuits - but the spectacle Rain (and Con Men) made him a national celebrity. Beyond its associations with con men and confidence tricks, the practice America’s tradition of traveling rainmakers dates back to the old west, of rainmaking in America also has its modest, community-based roots: though it saw its greatest burst of activity amidst the dust bowl drought these include rain dances employed by some Southwestern Native of the 1930s. In the beginning of the 20th century, Charles Hatfield American tribes, who tracked weather patterns and offered to perform became an especially prolific rainmaker, traveling the country with a rainmaking ceremonies for settlers in exchange for trade items, and self-concocted blend of 23 chemicals “guaranteed” to attract water. As traditions of rain prayers in Christian farming communities. rain appeared to follow wherever he set to work, Hatfield gathered such a large and confident following that he was able to secure contracts with government agencies and municipalities across Southern LEFT: PUBLIC DOMAIN/JIM LEE: Hatfield (pictured here) went around dried up Southern California to California, his fees ranging from $50 (today, around $14,000) to offer his help. $10,000 (the equivalent of a staggering $282,000). Contrasting BELOW: Charles Hatfield (on the ladder) and his with the bold personalities and colorful braggadocio of Midwestern younger brother with one of their rain towers, in rainmakers, Hatfield’s style was marked by a clean, professional Coalings, Calif, circa 1915. Reprinted in the LOS ANGELES TIMES, 2015. demeanor and a solid base of scientific knowledge, which he used to infuse his pitches with impressive, technical-sounding phrases.

While he employed most of the strategies typical among rainmakers — building large “evaporating tanks” in the center of town to create the appearance of a man hard at work, planning his visits so that they fell precisely at the desperate end of a dry season, establishing long contracts meant to conveniently spill into the rainy season — Hatfield was unique in that he almost never failed...and that in some cases, his “successes” were near-biblical in their scale. In 1915, San Diego officials signed a $10,000 contract with Hatfield, and less than one month later, the city was bombarded with weeks- long torrents of rain powerful enough to break the Otay dam, leave thousands homeless, and cause several deaths. Hatfield never collected 9 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

Costume research and rendering for Jim Curry, by Commentary Costume Designer & Criticism Hugh Hanson. “[The Rainmaker] is a pre-feminist, old-fashioned three-act presentation of a time when women stayed at home and did all of those wifely things like cooking and cleaning.” Talking Broadway

“What is most fantastic about this bolt of moonshine is that an or any of Williams’ histrionic impressive amount of it strikes home. This is partly due to a slightly heroines. But in his own way, Nash skeptical grin that author and characters persist in keeping on their is just as concerned as Williams and faces. Nobody believes in the rainmaker. Nobody pretends that the Miller about the effect of dreams — deferred and otherwise — as they girl of the house is really pretty. Nobody strives to kid the audience begin to dry up with age, or at least go into hiding behind weathered into anything they;re not ready to believe on their own. As a result, a wooden walls.” lot of long-standing guards go quickly down; there’s room for jubilant -Kerry Reid, The Chicago Tribune nonsense, and moonlit sadness, to slip through.” Walter Kerr, NY Herald Tribune in a “Despite its sometimes antiquated surfaces and sounds, the subtext of review of the original 1953 production the play is solidly rooted in home truths: Love is never easy to find or keep, it is as hard to live with dreams as it is to live without them, and the “Nash’s 1954 play about Lizzie Curry, a woman just this side of power to heal wounds the world inflicts mostly resides in our own hearts spinsterdom whose romantic hopes are reignited when grifter/dreamer and minds. There’s a heap of poetry in this plain-spoken tale of a woman Starbuck shows up on the parched cattle ranch owned by her father and whose beauty only receives its tribute when she believes in it herself.” run by her two brothers, occupies its own cozy niche in mid-century -Charles Isherwood, Variety American drama. Despite the backdrop of economic and environmental hardship, it’s not an Arthur Miller-like exercise in realism and social “Nash’s play is really about the tricky — and very American — balancing commentary. Nor is it as fraught with psychosexual tension as Tennessee act between pragmatism and idealism.” Williams — no one would mistake sensible Lizzie for Blanche DuBois -Kerry Reid, The Chicago Tribune 10 The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2019 THE RAINMAKER: Know-the-Show Guide

this Production In RIGHT: Digital Rendering of the set design and paint elevation for the stage floor.

BELOW: Research boards and costume renderings by Costume Designer Hugh Hanson ©2019.

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Explore Online

Examine the reality of the devastating drought that rocked Texas in the 50s in the NPR article by John Burnett (2012). https://www.npr.org/2012/07/07/155995881/ how-one-drought-changed-texas-agriculture-forever

Explore the realities life during a drought and the American Dust Bowl in this 9-minute PBS American Experience documentary. https://www.pbs.org/video/surviving-dust-bowl-chapter-1/

Texas Monthly’s article “When the Sky Ran Dry” looks at the Texas drought through first-hand accounts from those who lived through it. https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/when-the-sky-ran-dry/

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THE RAINMAKER (1956 film) In 1956, N. Richard Nash’s play The FamousAdaptations Rainmaker was adapted into a film directed by Joseph Anthony. It starred Burt Lancaster 110 IN THE SHADE (1963 & 2007 Broadway musical) as Starbuck and Katharine Hepburn as Lizzie. Musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by , and The film was nominated for two Academy music by . The original Awards —­ Katharine Hepburn for Best Actress Broadway production, directed by Joseph and Alex North for Best Music. The film was Anthony and choreographed by Agnes de also nominated for four Golden Globes, Mille, opened on October 24th, 1962 at including: Golden Globe for Best Motion the . The show ran for Picture (Drama), Golden Globe for Best two previews and 330 performances. The Actor: Burt Lancaster, Golden Globe for Best cast included Robert Horton as Starbuck, Actress: Katharine Hepburn, and Earl Holliman Inga Swenson as Lizzie, Stephen Douglass (Jim Curry) won the Golden Globe for Best as File, and Will Geer, Lesley Ann Warren, Supporting Actor. Gretchen Crywe in supporting roles. The show was nominated for four . THODASA ROOMANI HO JAAYEN (1990 Bollywood film) In the 2007 Broadway Revival, Audra McDonald played Lizzie Curry, This Hindi film adaptation was directed by Steve Kazee as Bill Starbuck, and Amol Palekar and starred Anita Kanwar as as H.C. Curry. Audra McDonald won the Binni (Lizzie) and Nana Patekar as Natwarlal for Outstanding Actress in a (Starbuck), with a name drawn from an Musical and was nominated for a Tony Award. infamous Indian conman. Its title, taken from Ben Brantley of the New York Times wrote on one of the film’s songs, translates to “let us all McDonald’s performance: “Is it possible for a be a little romantic”. Shriram Iyengar wrote performance to be too good? Audra McDonald of it, “The film continues to raise that most brings such a breadth of skill and depth of Austenian question: Why is society more feeling to the Roundabout Theater Company interested in a girl’s life than she herself is? Is revival of 110 in the Shade that she threatens to it more important than a drought threatening the town? [...] Palekar has burst the seams of this small, homey musical.” succeeded in raising questions about the freedom of choice enjoyed by (New York Times, May 10th, 2007) women in Indian society.” (Cinestaan, 2015). 13