Archive

Identifier: CONSTANTWIFE2005

Inclusive Dates: 2005

Extent:

Production files documenting the 2005 production of W. Somerset Maugham's "The Constant Wife" at the American Airlines Theatre.  Directed by Mark Brokaw with set design by Allen Moyer, costume design by Michael Krass, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger, sound design by David Van Tieghem and Jill BC Du Boff, original music by David Van Tieghem and hair and wig design by Paul Huntley.

The production starred Kate Burton as Contance Middleton, Michael Cumpsty as John Middleton, John Dossett as Bernard Kersal and Lynn Redgrave as Mrs. Culver, Constance Middleton's mother.  With Kathryn Meisle as Marie-Louise, Enid Graham as Martha, Constance's sister, John Ellison Conlee as Mortimer Durham, Marie-Louise's husband, Denis Holmes as Bentley the butler and Kathleen McNenny as Barbara Fawcett.  Understudies included Tara Falk, Lucy Martin, Tony Carlin, Bob Ari, and Kathleen McNenny for Constance.

2006 Award Nominations:
Tony Award, Best Revival of a Play (nominee)
Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play, Kate Burton (nominee)
Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play, Lynn Redgrave (nominee)
Tony Award, Best Costume Design of a Play, Michael Krass (nominee)
Drama Desk, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, Lynn Redgrave (nominee)
 

The Constant Wife centers on Constance Middleton, the self-possessed and intelligent wife of a successful London doctor, and her reaction to his carrying on an affair with her best friend. After first feigning innocence about the infidelity, she then decries the institution of marriage rather than turning on her husband.  Resolved to establish her own economic independence outside of marriage, she starts an interior decoration business with a friend.  Once she can afford to, she pays her husband for room and board and then jaunts off on a fling of her own to Italy with an admirer. At first shocked, her husband ultimately capitulates to her hard-won independance, strength and charm.

The play premiered in Cleveland Ohio in 1926, with Ethel Barrymore playing such a successful Constance Middleton that Maugham dedicated the first published edition of the play to the actress.  This production starring Barrymore transfered to Broadway for nearly 300 performances and then subsequently toured the US.

Production Files span 2 Hollinger boxes consisting of 18 folders, two playbills and two marketing flyers.

The digital "Constant Wife" holdings on the Archives 1 server include folders for:
Costume Sketches (including scans of the original sketches, the bible and portfolio)
Media (video recording of a performance, and B-roll marketing video footage)
Playbill (19 scanned pages)
Press (Archive-scanned selects)
Production Photographs (11 jpeg and tiff files which appear to be selects only)
Show Art (2 jpeg and tiff files, poster and show art)

There is a related collection of Constant Wife marketing materials on the Marketing shelves.  Contracts have been removed and housed in the Contracts cabinets; these are confidential and access is restricted.

Access Restrictions: Open and available to approved researchers by appointment only. See folder details for specific restrictions.

Preferred Citation: The Constant Wife 2005, Roundabout Theatre Company Archive