Eddie Dowling as Joe in the original Broadway production of The Time of Your Life (1939), which he also directed
Main characters
Joe, a loafer with money and a good heart
Tom, his admirer, disciple, errand boy, stooge and friend
Kitty Duval, a young streetwalker who longs for a better life
Nick, owner of Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace
Arab, an Eastern philosopher and harmonica-player
Kit Carson, a teller of tall tales who looks like an old Indian-fighter
McCarthy, an intelligent and well-read longshoreman
Krupp, his boyhood friend, a waterfront cop who hates his job but doesn't know what else to do instead
Harry, a natural born hoofer who wants to make people laugh but can't
Wesley, a young colored man who plays a mean and melancholy boogie-woogie piano
Willie, a marble-game maniac
Dudley, a young man in love
Elsie, a nurse, the one he loves
Lorene, an unattractive woman
Mary L., an unhappy woman of quality and great beauty
Blick, a heel
Minor characters
A Newsboy
A Drunkard
Nick's Ma
Sailor
Killer, a streetwalker
Killer's sidekick
Society Gentleman
Society Lady
Cops
Plot
The play is set in Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace, a run-down dive bar in San Francisco. Much of the action of the play centers around Joe, a young loafer with money who encourages each of the bar's patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry, and sets up his flunky, Tom, with a prostitute, Kitty Duval. The bar is frequented by a number of colorful characters, including a frenetic young man in love, an old man who looks like Kit Carson, and a wealthy society couple.
Nick's saloon is based on the café operated by Izzy Gomez in San Francisco, which Saroyan frequented.[1]
Productions
The play was produced by the Theatre Guild. It premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on October 25, 1939, closed on January 27, 1940, and re-opened at the Guild Theatre on January 29, 1940 to April 6, 1940 and September 23, 1940 to October 19, 1940, for 249 performances.[2] Direction was by Eddie Dowling, who also starred as Joe, and William Saroyan. The cast featured Julie Haydon (Kitty Duval), Celeste Holm (Mary L.), Charles De Sheim (Nick), and Gene Kelly (Harry).[2][3]
The Time of Your Life has been revived three times on Broadway: in 1940 with Dowling and Saroyan directing again, in 1969 directed by John Hirsch and in 1975 directed by Jack O'Brien.
