Plays About Business

A few days ago, my student Gregory Cohan (to be seen in the Gallery Players' upcoming Lend Me a Tenor) asked me to suggest plays about business for him to read, since he's writing one himself.  Since then, my friend James Robinson and I have had a great time assembling the list.  One or both of us has seen or read each of these plays.  I think one of my favorites is Pinter's Trouble in the Works.  Very short, and hilarious.

Plays About Business, or set primarily in a workplace

What Price Glory?  Maxwell Anderson & Lawrence Stallings-  World War I Marines.  1924.

Tea and Sympathy.  Robert Anderson.  Prep school.  1953.

The History Boys.  Alan Bennett.  Prep school.  2004.

The Three Penny Opera.  Brecht & Weill.  (Mack’s crime gang and Peacham’s beggar syndicate).  1928.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Abe Burrows, Frank Loesser & 3 other guys. 1961.

R.U.R.  (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Karel Capek.  1920.

Serious Money.  Caryl Churchill.- London stock exchange.  1987.

Offices.  Ethan Coen. 2009.- offices

Anna in the Tropics.  Nilo Cruz.  2004.-  cigar factory

Butley.  Simon Gray.  Academia in London.  1971.

“New York Actor.”  John Guare.  1992.  –actor/waiter

Steel Magnolias.  Robert Harling.  1987.-  beauty shop

The Dresser.  Ronald Harwood.  1982.-  theatre

The Memorandum.  Vaclav Havel.  1965.

Pravda. David Hare & Howard Brenton-  basically about Rupert Murdoch and the press.  1985.

Racing Demon.  David Hare.  1996.- Anglican clergy 

Mr. Roberts.  John Heegan & Josh Logan.  About the Navy, in an entrepreneurial way.  1948.

They Knew What They Wanted.  Sidney Howard.-  California vineyard.  1924. 

Once in a Lifetime.  Kaufman & Hart.- Hollywood. 1930.

The Cocoanuts.  Kaufman & Ryskind- the Florida land boom in the 1920s.  1925.

Parfumerie. Miklos Laszlo. (if you can't find it in English, rent the movie "The Shop Around the Corner").  1940?

Side Man.  Warren Leight. 1999. – the jazz world

American Buffalo.  Mamet.  1975.- small time business

Glengarry Glen Ross.  Mamet.  1984.-  real estate

Speed-the-Plow.  Mamet.  1988.- Hollywood

Little Shop of Horrors.  Menken & Ashman.  1982.- florists

All My Sons.  Miller.  1947.- weapons manufacturing

Death of a Salesman.  Miller.  1949.- sales

Waiting for Lefty.  Odets.  1935.- cab drivers

 “Body Shop.” Phelan. 2003.  In  Best Ten-Minute Plays for Three or More Actors

2006. Smith & Kraus.- replacement parts

“It’s Called Development.”  2005. The Best 10-Minute Plays for 3 or More Actors,

Smith & Kraus.  2007.-  philanthropy

“Our Dolls.”  Phelan. 2010.  In Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2011.  Smith & Kraus.-  doll factory

“They All Know Me.” Phelan. 2012.-  overseas employment agency 

The Hothouse.  Pinter- mental institution.  1958.

“Trouble in the Works.”  Pinter.  1959.- factory

Enron. Lucy Prebble.  2009.- Enron

The Winslow Boy.  Terrence Rattigan. Military school.  1946.

The Adding Machine.  Elmer Rice.  1923.- the corporate world

Working.  Stephen Schwartz & Nina Faso.  1977.- combo

Doubt:  A Parable.  John Patrick Shanley.  Parochial school.  2004.

Four Dogs and a Bone.  John Patrick Shanley. 1993.-  Hollywood

Major Barbara (Shaw)- munitions.  1905. 

Other People's Money (Jerry Sterner)- corporate takeover 

“Interview” (part of America, Hurrah!).  Jean-Claude van Itallie.  1964.-  the hiring process

Fiorello!  Jerome Weidman & George Abbot.  NY politics.  1959.

Jitney.  August Wilson. 1979.- cab drivers