The Scarecrow (play)

The Scarecrow is a play written by Percy MacKaye in 1908, and first presented on Broadway in 1911. It is based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, "Feathertop", but greatly expands upon the tale. Mackaye himself stated that he hoped that the play would not be taken as a dramatization of "Feathertop", since the intentions of the two works are so different: "The scarecrow Feathertop is ridiculous, as the emblem of a superficial fop; the scarecrow Ravensbane is pitiful, as the emblem of human bathos."

Frank Reicher, known to modern audiences for playing the ship's captain in the original King Kong and its sequel Son of Kong, starred in the title role in the original 1911 Broadway production. The play had what would now be considered an extremely short run in New York (23 performances). In 1923 it was filmed as a silent movie, Puritan Passions, starring Mary Astor. The play was revived twice in New York (most recently in 2005), has been made into an opera, and has become a favorite in regional theatre in the United States. A 1972 television production, first telecast on PBS, is now available on DVD. It stars Gene Wilder, Blythe Danner, Pete Duel, Norman Lloyd, and Will Geer.

"Feathertop", the Nathaniel Hawthorne story on which the play is based, has been presented in two television productions - one of them an adaptation on the General Electric Theater starring Natalie Wood and Carleton Carpenter, the other a musical starring Hugh O'Brian in the title role and Jane Powell as Julie Balfour (rather than Rachel). It has also been made as a silent film twice.

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