Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940

by Robert Benchley

Book by Benchley, Robert

Genres: Criticism, Humor, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Essays

220 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

Works, including How to Sleep , the film of 1935, and My Ten Years in a Quandary , the book of 1936, of Robert Charles Benchley, humorist, critic, and actor, often pitted an average American against the complexities of modern life.

People best knew Robert Charles Benchley as a newspaper columnist. He began at the Lampoon and meanwhile attended Harvard University and wrote many essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker.
From New York City and his peers at the Algonquin Round Table, short style brought acclaim, respect, and success to Benchley to contemporaries in the burgeoning industry.

Benchley contributed best remembered influential topical or absurdist essays to The New Yorker. He also made a name in Hollywood, when his popular success won best short subject at the academy awards of 1935, and his many memorable appearances in such as Foreign Correspondent of Alfred Joseph Hitchcock and a dramatic turn in Nice Girl? . He wrote his legacy in numerous short appearances.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Benchley on the mostly Broadway theater and shows between 1920 and 1940: what can go wrong? Nothing! The Benchley wit that is in his little fictional pieces are placed in his critique of shows, that are now classic. Even "Three-Penny Opera is reviewed and I wasn't aware that the show was in New York during the 1930s. Nevertheless, it's an interesting read in 2020 - and mind-twisting that some of this writing is from 100 years ago. It reads like messages from the past, but also aware that someone will read this in the future. Beautifully written with great character and wit.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Bentley's theater writing and reviews - often witty (sometimes aggressively so - like a lot of the Algonquin Round Table, he has moments that are razor sharp and genuinely funny and others where it feels he is working very, very hard at being clever), sometimes caustic or insightful, and, for anyone interested in the theater of the period, his criticism can be illuminating (he has definite opinions, and he's often quite even-handed - some plays or artists get praised to the heavens, others get eviscerated, but he's far more thoughtful than I expected from a writer whose reputation rests on being 'clever').

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are two genuine joys to be found in reading "Benchley at the Theatre"--the first is to rediscover an old friend whose gentle humor always made us laugh, the second is revel in Robert Benchley's discoveries of great (and not so great) moments on Broadway from 1920 to 1940 as he reviewed them for "Life" and "The New Yorker." While we think of that as a Golden Age for the theatre, Benchley reminds us in one review that it's all a matter of perspective; that is, reviewers always look back on the past as a "Golden Age." Granted, the collection was edited by Charles Getchell to publish those pieces that were either little comic masterpieces (see his three reviews of attending the circus) or reviews of actors whose fame have stood the test of time-- Hepburn, the Lunts, Durante, Merman, the Marx Brothers, Hope. Benchley is a generally kind critic, willing to reexamine his own feelings about a play if he stands alone, but he's no pushover. For example, "the general effect of the performance is that of a lot of Ohioans who have been over-trained in acting Yankee." The overall tone of the reviews is unlike that of present day reviewers; it's more of a close confessional among friends: "the amount of valuable criticism of the Drama which has been lost to posterity through my inability to read it myself the next morning would fill a book..." Read it and enjoy.