Miss Lulu Bett

In 1920 Zona Gale’s comedy Miss Lulu Bett premiered on Broadway, and faced immense controversy. So much, in fact, that Gale rewrote its ending after the play had run only a week. They play went on to garner her the first ever Pulitzer Prize for a female playwright, but her rewrite was seen as pandering to her audience, and her prize was tainted.

Miss Lulu Bett tells the story of a resigned middle-aged woman, destined to become a spinster, who serves as the maid in her sister and brother-in-law’s home. She’s snapped out of her surrender by the arrival of her brother-in-law’s brother, who sweeps her off her feet and runs away with her. Shortly after their marriage, though, he tells her that he was already married, and she returns to her old arrangement. Here the story splits. In the original ending, Lulu sets off on her own, unable to bear her indentured servitude and boldly (if fearfully) decides that she will take her chances alone. In the rewrite, her beau returns to inform her that his first wife is dead, and Lulu and he live happily ever after.

Rogue will stage both endings, alternating them nightly. “Each ending has its merits,” says the play’s director Nate White, “and it’s pretty fascinating what offended the American audience 86 years ago. The rewrite came in part, I think, because the audiences wanted a happy ending, and in part because of its feminist themes. Here is a woman, tame by today’s standards, who just wants to make a life for herself, and people had a lot of trouble with that. The rewritten ending is very funny and well done, but that she had to rewrite it at all is very telling about American society in the age of prohibition and women’s suffrage.”

The play’s cast of characters is extremely colorful and funny, and the show’s comic sensibility is way ahead of its time. Its themes align perfectly with Rogue’s mission to produce gender-balanced plays about rogues, rebels, misfits, and outcasts. The play marks the beginning of Rogue’s fifth season, its first in the new Rogue Theater.

WHAT: Zona Gale's Miss Lulu Bett

WHEN: September 15-October 14
Thursdays - Saturdays 8 pm, Sundays 3 pm

HOW LONG: 2 hours (with one intermission)

TICKETS: $15, $12 for students and seniors, call 773-561-5893 to make reservations.

THE CAST:
LISA STRAN WHITE	Miss Lulu Bett
CHRIS MARCUM	Dwight Deacon
CONNIE ANDERKO	Ina Deacon
SARAH FINEOUT	Di Deacon
MELISSA SIENICKI	Monona Deacon
KEITH NEAGLE	Ninian Deacon
AMANDA LANIER	Mother Bett
DAVID ALBRIGHT	Cornish
PHIL WACKERFUSS	Bobby Larkin
NATE WHITE	Director