John Van Druten

John William Van Druten (1932), Carl Van Vechten photo

John William Van Druten (1 June 1901 – 19 December 1957) was an English playwright and theatre director, known professionally as John Van Druten. He began his career in London, and later moved to America becoming a U.S. citizen. He was known for his plays of witty and urbane observations of contemporary life and society.

Biography

Van Druten was born in London in 1901, son of a Dutch father, Wilhelmus van Druten and his English wife Eva. He was educated at University College School and read Law at the University of London. Before commencing his career as a writer he practised law for a while as a solicitor and university lecturer in Wales.

He first came to prominence with Young Woodley, a slight but charming study of adolescence, which was produced in New York in 1925. However, it was initially banned in London by the Lord Chamberlain's office due to its then controversial portrayal of a schoolboy falling in love with his headmaster's wife. In England, it was first produced privately (by Phyllis Whitworth's Three Hundred Club) and then at the Arts Theatre in 1928. When the ban was lifted, it had a successful run at the Savoy Theatre in the West End with a cast including Frank Lawton, Derrick De Marney and Jack Hawkins. The play was filmed twice. It was revived at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2006.

He was one of the most successful playwrights of the early 1930s in London with star-studded West End productions of his work including Diversion (1928), After All (1929), London Wall (1931) with Frank Lawton and John Mills, There's Always Juliet (1931), Somebody Knows (1932), Behold, We Live (1932) with Gertrude Lawrence and Gerald du Maurier, The Distaff Side (1933) and Flowers of the Forest (1934).

He later emigrated to America where he wrote Leave Her to Heaven (February 1940), a drama set in London and Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, which was shortly followed by major successes with Old Acquaintance (NY December 1940 – May 1941) and The Voice of the Turtle (1943), which ran for three seasons in New York and was filmed with Ronald Reagan. In 1944, he became a naturalised citizen of the United States. His play, Make Way for Lucia (1948), based on the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson, was premiered in New York and had its first professional British production in 1995.

His 1951 play I Am a Camera, together with Christopher Isherwood's short stories, Goodbye to Berlin (1939), formed the basis of Joe Masteroff's book for the Kander and Ebb musical, Cabaret (1966). When I Am a Camera opened on Broadway in 1951, The New York Times drama critic Walter Kerr wrote a famous three-word review: "Me no Leica."

He died at Indio, California, on 19 December 1957. He is buried in the Coachella Valley Public Cemetery.

Plays

• The Return Half (1924)
• Chance Acquaintance (1927)
• Young Woodley (NY 1925, London 1928)
• Diversion (1928)
• The Return of the Soldier (from Rebecca West's novel, 1928)
• After All (1929, NY 1931)
• London Wall (1931)
• Sea Fever (with Auriol Lee, from the French, 1931)
• There's Always Juliet (1931, NY 1932)
• Hollywood Holiday (with Benn W. Levy, 1931)
• Somebody Knows (1932)
• Behold, We Live (1932)
• The Distaff Side (1933, NY 1934)
• Flowers of the Forest (1934)
• Most of the Game (1935)
• Gertie Maude (1937)
• Leave Her to Heaven (1940)
• Old Acquaintance (1940, NY 1941)
• Solitaire (adaptation, 1942)
• The Damask Cheek (with Lloyd Morris, 1942)
• The Voice of the Turtle (1943), which ran for three seasons in New York
• I Remember Mama (adaptation of Kathryn Forbes' family memoir, Mama's Bank Account, 1944)
• The Mermaids Singing (1945)
• The Druid Circle (1947)
• Make Way for Lucia (1948)
• Bell, Book and Candle (1950; filmed in 1958 starring James Stewart and Kim Novak)
• I Am a Camera (1951) from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin stories. New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for 1951–52
• I've Got Sixpence (1952)

Other work

Van Druten directed the last nine productions of his own plays (see above).

At the St. James Theatre, New York in March 1951 he directed the first production of The King and I (1,246 performances). He also restaged this production at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in London, October 1953 (946 performances).

At the Theatre Royal, Brighton in November 1954 he staged a production of The Duchess and the Smugs.

Van Druten wrote two autobiographies:

• The Way to the Present (1938)
• The Widening Circle: Personal Search, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York (1957)

He also published two novels: a version of Young Woodley (1928), and The Vicarious Years in 1955.

He also published a book on his work Playwright at Work just after World War II.

Sources

• Who's Who in the Theatre, Twelfth edition, ed John Parker, Pitman, London (1957)
• The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed Phyllis Hartnoll, Oxford (1985) ISBN 0-19-211546-4
• The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, ed Gerald Bordman, Oxford (1992) ISBN 0-19-507246-4

External links

• John Van Druten at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Van Druten at the Internet Movie Database
• John Van Druten papers, 1901–1957, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• John Van Druten papers, circa 1920–1957, held by the Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library
• 1953 Best Plays adaptation of "There's Always Juliet" at Internet Archive
• 1952 Theatre Guild on the Air radio adaptation of "The Damask Cheek" at Internet Archive
• I Remember Mama, by Van Druten, John; 1945, New York, : Harcourt, Brace and Company at the Internet Archive