Bus Stop (play)
| Bus Stop | |
|---|---|
| Written by | William Inge |
| Date premiered | March 2, 1955 |
| Genre | Drama |
| Setting | Kansas |
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film of the same name is only loosely based on it.
Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 25 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take shelter. The characters are:
The play is set in a diner about 25 miles west of Kansas City in early March 1955. A freak snowstorm has halted the progress of the bus, and the eight characters (five on the bus) have a weather-enforced layover in the diner from approximately 1 to 5 a.m. Romantic or quasi-romantic relationships ensue between Grace and Carl, Professor Lyman and Elma and Cherie and Bo. Virgil and Will are the older authority figures outside the relationships.
Bus Stop opened on March 2, 1955 and closed on April 21, 1956, running for a total of 478 performances. The opening night cast starred Albert Salmi as Bo and Kim Stanley as Cherie and was directed by Harold Clurman.
The play was nominated for four Tony Awards in 1956: Best Play (written by William Inge; produced by Robert Whitehead and Roger L. Stevens); Best Featured Actress in a Play (Elaine Stritch); Best Scenic Design (Boris Aronson); and Best Director (Harold Clurman).
In 1996 there was a short-lived revival of the play that ran for 29 performances.
There was also a musical, again involving Logan, entitled "Cherry" (1972).
In 2010 and 2011 Bus Stop received three productions in Great Britain including an acclaimed production directed by James Dacre that played at the New Vic and Stephen Joseph Theatres. The Guardian wrote of this production that "there is something beguiling about this forlorn slice of Americana, which mediates on the distances between towns and the distances between people, like an Edward Hopper painting with dialogue."
...
Wikipedia