A Comedy in Three Acts
By Anne Nichols     Directed By Mick Kenna

The Play

This play was first produced in New York on May 23, 1922 by the author Anne Nichols. It was a great hit with audiences and ran for more than 2,300 performances. The play deals with two families, one Jewish and one Irish. Solomon Levi lives in New York with his son Abie; together they run a successful business. Patrick Murphy is a successful contractor living in California with his daughter Rose Mary. The young couple met in Europe during the war where Abie was serving in the army and Rose Mary was an entertainer. They planned to be married when they returned to the US.

When the play opens you meet Levi’s neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Cohen, you won’t forget them. You also meet Dr. Jacob Samuels who is Mr. Levi’s rabbi. We learn that Abie and Rose Mary were secretly married by a Methodist minister over a week ago now and Abie has a plan to get his father to like Rose Mary so he presents her to his father as a young, charming, orthodox Jewish girl and not the Irish Catholic girl that she is. The plan works and his father becomes entranced by the girl so much that he starts preparations for a Jewish wedding. He is determined that Abie will marry this Jewish girl that he calls “Rosie” In the meantime Patrick Murphy gets a call in California to say his daughter is to be married in New York to an Irish Catholic. With his priest Father Whalen, who is to perform the wedding ceremony, Patrick arrives late at the Levi house just as Dr. Samuels is completing the wedding ceremony and then Patrick Murphy and Solomon Levi realize the truth. Both fathers are furious at the deception, and vow to annul the marriage. Just to be sure Father Whalen celebrates the marriage for the third time. The wedding feast consists of ham and kosher trimmings.

It’s now Christmas Eve and more than one year later and each grandfather knows that Abie and Rose Mary have a baby (their grandchild). Since they have had no contact with their kids since the wedding they don’t know if the baby is a boy or a girl; Solomon arrives bearing gifts for a boy while Patrick arrives with gifts for a girl. See some slapstick shenanigans going on between the two grandparents and find out who choose correctly or did Abie and Rose Mary have a surprise for both of ’em?

The Cast