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The Honeys

Sections: Information | Description | Cast/Crew | Reviews | Fun Stuff | Programs

Information

  • Three-act play written by Roald Dahl
  • Productions:
    • Broadway’s Longacre Theater, April 28, 1955
      • Only ran for 36 performances
      • Closed on May 28, 1955
      • Toured before the Broadway premiere:
        • Boston’s Plymouth Theater, March 14, 1955
        • Also played in New Haven and Philadelphia
    • UK production as “Your Loving Wife” in Autumn 1956
      • Dahl rewrote some of the script
      • Toured before London premiere:
        • Oxford’s New Theatre, September 24, 1956
        • Nottingham’s Theatre Royal, October 1, 1956
        • Bournemouth’s Pavilion, October 8, 1956
        • Birmingham’s Theatre Royal, October 15, 1956
      • Cancelled before London opening
  • Recent news: 

Description

“Early in 1955 he [Roald Dahl] wrote a play called The Honeys. Based on some of the stories from Someone Like You, the play revolves around two sisters who decide to murder their husbands. The Honeys opened on Broadway on 28 April 1955 and starred Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, and Dorothy Strickney. Although it received some good notices, it ran for only 36 performances. Its short run, combined with the difficulties that Dahl had with the play’s director, convinced Dahl to stick to short-story writing.”

– From Roald Dahl, by Mark I. West

“So more than a year after its New York debacle, under the new title Your Loving Wife, Roald had to go through the humiliation of failure all over again. The year 1956 was an inauspicious time to be premiering a tightly constructed, essentially artificial piece of drama. … Gritty realism was all the rage, and even in the provinces, Dahl’s clever escapist satire failed to synchronize with the popular critical pulse. … [Dahl] was tired of the play, but desperate not to squander the time he had already invested in it. Emile Littler eventually settled the issue when he cancelled the London run… Apart from one or two amateur revivals, it has never been professionally produced again.”

– From Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl, by Donald Sturrock

Cast/Crew

  • Broadway Cast:
    • Jessica Tandy as Mary (Mrs. Bennett Honey)
    • Dorothy Stickney as Maggie (Mrs. Curtis Honey)
    • Hume Cronyn as Bennett Honey
    • Christopher Labatt as Curtis Honey (Bennett’s twin brother)
    • Mary Finney as Nellie Fleischman
    • Hale Broun as Maloney Heywood
    • Len Doyle as O’Dwyer
    • Paul Lipson as Inspector White
  • Broadway Crew:
    • Director: Reginald Denham
    • Playwright: Roald Dahl
    • Producer: Cheryl Crawford
    • Set designer: Ben Edwards
    • Costumes: Motley
    • Stage Manager: Paul A. Foley

Trivia: “Christopher Labatt”, the actor who played Curtis Bennett, didn’t actually exist. It was a pseudonym for Hume Cronyn, who played both Curtis and Bennett.

  • UK Cast:
    • Hermione Baddeley as Maggie (Mrs. Curtis Honey)
    • Agnes Lauchlan as Mary (Mrs. Boris Honey)
    • Meredith Edwards as Boris Honey
    • Joyce Barbour as Nellie Fleishmann
    • Meredith Edwards as Curtis Honey
    • Dermot Palmer as Sergeant Potts
    • Henry Scarsdale as Patrolman O’Shaunessy
    • John Marquand as Patrolman Leibowitz
    • Peter Bailey as Patrolman Smith
    • John Mytton as Travel Agent
  • UK Crew:
    • Director: Gerald Savory
    • Playwright: Roald Dahl
    • Producers: Emile Littler and Tom Arnold
    • Decor: Paul Mayo

Reviews

  • Review by Elinor Hughes (The Boston Herald) – March 1955
  • “Theatre: Demise of Two Blackguards” by Lewis Funke (The New York Times) – April 1955
  • “‘The Honeys’ Has Murder, Mayhem And Hilarity” by Walter F. Kerr  (New York Herald-Tribute-Post-Dispatch Special Dispatch) – May 1955
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Oxford Mail – Sept 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Wiltshire Herald & Advertiser – Sept 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Oxford Times – Sept 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Nottingham Guardian Journal – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Derby Evening Telegraph – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Nottingham Evening Post – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Nottingham Evening News – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Birmingham Evening Despatch – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Birmingham Post – Oct 1956
  • Review of “Your Loving Wife” from The Birmingham Gazette – Oct 1956

Fun Stuff

Programs

This program was from the initial try-out run in Boston. By the time the show premiered on Broadway a month later, the director Reginald Denham had resigned and the roles of Paul Lipson and Heywood Hale Broun were cut.

This program was from the Broadway production at the Longacre Theater in 1955. For more info, see Playbill’s Vault.

This program was from the rewritten version called “Your Loving Wife” in 1956. This production was from the try-out run in Nottingham.