His Bridal Night

His Bridal Night is a three-act play originally written by Lawrence Rising and significantly revised by Margaret Mayo. Producer A. H. Woods staged it on Broadway in 1916. The play is a farce about a newlywed who is unsure which of two identical twins he has married. The roles of the twins were originally played by the Dolly Sisters, who were popular vaudeville performers, and the play was crafted to make use of their skill as dancers.^[1]

Rózsika Deutsch (later known as Rose or Rosie) and Janka Deutsch (later known as Yancsi or Jenny) were identical twin sisters born in Hungary in 1892. In 1905 their mother brought them to the United States, where they trained as dancers and began performing in vaudeville shows on the Orpheum Circuit. One of the traveling shows they performed in was an ensemble called The Strolling Players, which was developed by producer A. H. Woods.^[2] In 1908 they left Orpheum and moved to the Keith Vaudeville Circuit, which had venues primarily in the eastern US, including New York City.^[3] In 1910 producer Lew Fields and theatre owners the Shubert brothers recruited the pair to join the already-successful Broadway show The Midnight Sons.^[4] In the following years the sisters continued to be popular on tour and on Broadway, where they appeared in revues such as the Ziegfeld Follies and more traditional musicals such as A Winsome Widow.^[5]

In 1915, Woods approached the Dolly Sisters with a proposal for them to star in a production designed specifically for them,^[6] where they would have leading roles as actors in addition to performing dance numbers. They were initially reluctant to accept, because while they had danced in many shows, they were not actors and had almost never spoken on stage.^[7] Once they agreed, the sisters were coached to minimize their Hungarian accents, and writer Margaret Mayo – a former actress – revised lines that they had difficulty delivering.^[8]

After previews at the Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City,^[9] the Belasco Theatre in Washington, D.C.,^[10] and at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia,^[11] the play premiered at the Theatre Republic on August 16, 1916. It ran for 77 performances and closed on October 21, then went on tour across the United States.^[12][13] For touring companies that did not include the Dolly Sisters, the production was modified to replace their dance routines with musical comedy songs. Frederick V. Bowers, who also acted in one of the companies, wrote the music.^[14][15][16]Edward Madden and Arthur J. Lamb provided lyrics.^[17]

The characters and cast from the Broadway production are given below:^[18]

Reviews for The New York Clipper^[18] and The Washington Post^[10] both said the play made an effective vehicle for showcasing the Dolly Sisters' dancing skills.

Basándose en su premisa y título, ^{[ 19 ]} algunos críticos esperaban que la obra fuera obscena, pero la encontraron menos transgresora que otras farsas de alcoba de la época. En Munsey's Magazine , Matthew White Jr. dijo que la obra no era particularmente atrevida, aparte de unas pocas líneas "que podrían omitirse fácilmente". ^{[ 20 ]} En Theatre Magazine , Arthur Hornblow dijo que la obra estaba "calculada a veces para aburrir tanto como para escandalizar". ^{[ 21 ]} The Washington Post dijo que el guion lograba "deslizarse con... perfecta seguridad sobre hielo peligrosamente delgado". ^{[ 10 ]} El crítico del New York Times , en cambio, pensó que His Bridal Night iba aún más allá en el "hielo delgado" que otras obras y, por lo tanto, "no era una obra para los quisquillosos". ^{[ 22 ]}

Varios críticos comentaron sobre la idea central de la historia: la confusión de identidades entre gemelos idénticos. El crítico de teatro George Jean Nathan cuestionó varias críticas comunes a las tramas de confusión de identidades, afirmando que no eran más improbables, inverosímiles o anticuadas que muchas otras tramas cómicas, pero criticó la obra por ser una presentación indiferente del recurso. ^{[ 23 ]}

El 14 de julio de 1919, Select Pictures estrenó una adaptación cinematográfica muda de cinco rollos , también titulada His Bridal Night . Kenneth Webb dirigió la película; Alice Brady protagonizó el papel de ambas gemelas. ^{[ 24 ]}

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