Potash and Perlmutter is a three-act play written by Montague Glass and Charles Klein, based on earlier short stories written by Glass. Producer Albert H. Woods staged it on Broadway, where it opened at the George M. Cohan Theatre on August 16, 1913. The play is a comedy featuring the characters Abe Potash and Mawruss Perlmutter, who are business partners in the garment industry.
The play was a hit and ran for 441 performances on Broadway. A production on London's West End opened on April 14, 1914, at the Queen's Theatre starring Augustus Yorke and Robert Leonard. By the fall of 1914, Woods had eight road companies presenting the show on tour.
The play was adapted as a 1923 movie, also called Potash and Perlmutter. Woods produced several theatrical sequels, including Abe and Mawruss (1915), Business Before Pleasure (1917), His Honor: Abe Potash (1919), Partners Again (1922), and Potash and Perlmutter, Detectives (1926), all written by Glass with various co-authors.
Cast and characters
The characters and opening night cast from the Broadway production are listed below:
Cast of the Broadway production| Character | Broadway cast3 |
|---|---|
| Abe Potash | Barney Bernard |
| Mawruss Perlmutter | Alexander Carr |
| Marks Pasinsky | Lee Kohlmar |
| Henry D. Feldman | Joseph Kilgour |
| Boris Andrieff | Albert Parker |
| Mozart Rabiner | Leo Donnelly |
| Henry Steuerman | Stanley Jessup |
| Senator Sullivan | Edward Gillespie |
| Book Agent | Arthur J. Pickens |
| Sidney | Russell Pincus |
| Expressman | Dore Rogers |
| U.S. Deputy Marshal | James Cherry |
| U.S. Deputy Marshal | Melville Hecht |
| Felix Schoen | Edward Mortimer |
| Ruth Snyder | Louise Dresser |
| Mrs. Potash | Elita Proctor Otis |
| Miss Cohen | Gertrude Millington |
| Irma Potash | Marguerite Anderson |
| Miss Levine | Grace Fielding |
| Miss O'Brien | Doris Easton |
| Miss Potchley | Dorothy Landers |
| Miss Nelson | Marie Baker |
External links
References
"A Play to Cheer All New York". The New York Times. August 17, 1913. p. 9. https://www.nytimes.com/1913/08/17/archives/a-play-to-cheer-all-new-york-potash-and-perlmutter-proves-to-be-an.html ↩
Fields, Armond; Fields, L. Marc (1993). From the Bowery to Broadway: Lew Fields and the Roots of American Popular Theater. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 339. ISBN 0-19-505381-8. 0-19-505381-8 ↩
"A Play to Cheer All New York". The New York Times. August 17, 1913. p. 9. https://www.nytimes.com/1913/08/17/archives/a-play-to-cheer-all-new-york-potash-and-perlmutter-proves-to-be-an.html ↩