Variety is reporting that the Roundabout Theater Company held a reading in Los Angeles of THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, directed by BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON's Alex Timbers. Starring in the reading were MAD MEN's Jon Hamm, THE OFFICE's John Krasinski and Tony-winner Scarlett Johansson. Naturally, readings are not a guarantee that productions will move forward and/or that these stars will remain attached. 

Philip Barry wrote THE PHILADELPHIA STORY in 1939 specifically for Katharine Hepburn, who ended up backing the play, and foregoing a salary in return for a percentage of the play's profits. Co-starring with Hepburn on Broadway were Joseph Cotten, Van Heflin, and Shirley Booth. The play opened in late March 1939 and ran for a full year with more than 400 performances and a nationwide tour. The play was a great success on Broadway, and the subsequent movie with Carey Grant and James Stewart was Hepburn's first great triumph after several movie flops had led to movie theater owners including her on a list of actors viewed as "box office poison." The movie garnered 6 Academy Award nominations and won two.

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is an intelligent, sophisticated, classic romantic comedy (part screwball) of love and marriage, human growth and class distinctions. The setting of the play is among the privileged upper class society in Philadelphia. Haughty divorced socialite Tracy Lord is preparing for her second marriage to a dull, self-made businessman. Enter C.K. Dexter Haven, her dashing first husband, and Macaulay Connor, a cynical tabloid reporter with a distrust of the wealthy. What follows is a rapid-fire war of words as the two men try to help Tracy discover the heart beneath her holier-than-thou exterior.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos

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