I_Am_a_Camera

<i>I Am a Camera</i>

I Am a Camera

1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten

This article is about the play. For the associated film, see I Am a Camera (film). For the song by Yes and The Buggles, see Into the Lens. For the song by Gentle Giant, see Civilian (Gentle Giant album).

I Am a Camera is a 1951 Broadway play by John Van Druten[1][2] adapted from Christopher Isherwood's 1939 novel Goodbye to Berlin, which is part of The Berlin Stories. The title is a quotation taken from the novel's first page: "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking."[3] The original production was staged by John Van Druten, with scenic and lighting design by Boris Aronson and costumes by Ellen Goldsborough.[1] It opened at the Empire Theatre in New York City on November 28, 1951 and ran for 214 performances before closing on July 12, 1952.[4]

Quick Facts Written by, Characters ...

The production was a critically acclaimed success for both Julie Harris as the insouciant Sally Bowles, winning her the first of five Tony Awards of her career for Best Leading Actress in a play, and for Marian Winters, who won both the Theatre World Award and Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play. The play also won for John Van Druten the New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best American Play (1952).[4] It also earned the famous review by Walter Kerr, "Me no Leica".[5][6]

Original Broadway Cast (1951)

Adaptations

References

  1. [1]
    Van Druten, John (1951). I Am a Camera. Random House, Inc.
  2. [2]
    Van Druten, John (1998). I Am a Camera. Dramatists Play Service, Inc. ISBN 0822205459.
  3. [3]
    Isherwood, Christopher (1963). The Berlin Stories: the Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin. New Directions. ISBN 0811200701.
  4. [4]
    Playbill Vault. "I Am a Camera on Broadway". Retrieved October 27, 2013.
  5. [5]
    Botto, Louis."Quotable Critics" Playbill, May 28, 2008
  6. [6]
    Friedman, M. (1989). "Commercial expressions in American humor: an analysis of selected popular-cultural works of the postwar era". Humor – International Journal of Humor Research. 2 (3): 265–284. doi:10.1515/humr.1989.2.3.265. ISSN 1613-3722. S2CID 145418943.
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