Sunrise at Campobello (play)

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Sunrise at Campobello
Written by Dore Schary
Characters Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Sara Delano Roosevelt
Date of premiere January 30, 1958
Country of origin United States
Subject FDR's battle with polio
Setting New Brunswick, Canada

Sunrise at Campobello is a Tony Award-winning stage play by American producer and writer Dore Schary based on U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's struggle with polio. The film version was released in 1960.

Contents

The original Broadway production was presented at the Cort Theatre by The Theatre Guild and Dore Schary and directed by Vincent J. Donehue. It opened on January 30, 1958 and closed on May 30, 1959 running for 556 performances. It starred Ralph Bellamy as Roosevelt. Bellamy won a Tony Award for Best Actor. Others in the cast included Henry Jones as Louis McHenry Howe; Mary Fickett as Eleanor Roosevelt; Anne Seymour as Sara Delano Roosevelt and, in his Broadway debut, James Earl Jones.

The production won three other Tonys including Best Play (producers were Lawrence Langner, Theresa Helburn, Armina Marshall and Dore Schary), Best Director of a Play (Vincent J. Donehue) and Henry Jones won for Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.. Mary Fickett was nominated for Best Supporting or Featured Actress in a Play.

Campobello Island was Roosevelt's summer home in New Brunswick, Canada. Most of the play's actions take place there, where we see Roosevelt struggle to overcome the paralyzation of his legs. The play ends with the 1924 Democratic National Convention speech, which catapulted him back into politics after an absence of several years.

Main aricle, see Sunrise at Campobello

The film version, released by Warner Bros., in 1960, starred Bellamy again with Greer Garson as Eleanor and Hume Cronyn as Louis Howe. The film also starred Jean Hagen, Tim Considine and Lyle Talbot. Ann Shoemaker who played FDR's mother, also played that role on Broadway after the original actress left the show.

Schary, who began his career in Hollywood wrote, directed and produced the film.

Despite it being perhaps Bellamy's most famous role, it was Greer Garson who received the critical attention. She won the Golden Globe and National Board of Review Award for Best Actress. The film received four Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Garson), Art Direction, Sound and Costume Design.

In 2005, HBO premiered an original production called Warm Springs, which was also based on FDR's struggle to overcome polio. It too, had a big ending at the 1924 convention. It starred Kenneth Branagh as FDR and Cynthia Nixon as Eleanor.

  • Eleanor Roosevelt said of the play: "A good play, but as much like the Roosevelt family as some people from Mars."[citation needed]
  • There has never been a Broadway revival of the play.
  • Anthony Quayle was considered as Roosevelt, but it was decided that it had to be an American actor.
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