The Time of Your Life
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Time of Your Life, a three-act play by American playwright William Saroyan that opened in 1939. This play was the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City. It was produced by the Theatre Guild and with staging by Eddie Dowling and William Saroyan.
The play is set in a decrepit bar called Nick's Pacific Street Saloon, Restaurant and Entertainment Palace in San Francisco owned and operated by Joe (Eddie Dowling). He encourages each of his patrons in their eccentricities. Joe helps out a would-be dancer, Harry (Gene Kelly) and sets up his sidekick, Tom with an prostitute, Julie.
Critic John Brown Mason described this modern morality play as "gleeful and heartbreaking, tender and hilarious, probing and elusive."
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 1975 with directed by Jack O'Brien.
