Synopsis
The scene is the New York City boarding house of Mrs. Orcutt which occupies an entire brownstone house in the West 50’s in NYC. Here the hopes and ambitions of sixteen wanna-be actresses who have come there to pursue careers are hilariously revealed.
The play features the lives of young actresses as they try to make it on the stage in the world of Broadway in the 1930’s. They all live together in The Footlights Club, a house exclusively for female performers, trying to negotiate the business of theatre. The hopes and ambitions of these sixteen young women are revealed in scenes of entertaining comedy. Contrasted with this are the cases of the girl without talent and the elderly actress whose days are over. The central plot has to do with courageous Terry Randall, who fights against discouragement to a position in the theatre. One of her fellow aspirants gives up in despair, one gets married, and one goes into pictures, but Terry, with the help of idealistic producer, David Kingsley, sticks to her guns. Other characters include Mattie, the maid; Frank her husband; a few young men callers; a movie magnate; and young Keith Burgess, the playwright who “goes Hollywood.”
The show explores success, failure, love, comradeship, and perseverance. Emerging amid The Great Depression, this show serves as a love letter to the American Dream and the persistence of all starving artists.