East Lynne Theater Company’s To the Ladies!

“Nearly every man that ever got any place has been married, and that couldn’t be just a coincidence,” says Elsie, a young bride from Mobile, Ala., newly married to Leonard Beebe of Nutley, New Jersey in To the Ladies!, written by Pulitzer Prize-winners George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly.
Once more, the Equity professional East Lynne Theater Company, being true to its mission of presenting classic American plays that speak to audiences of today, is producing another comic gem, from Sept. 17 through Oct. 18, every Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., where the company is in residence at The First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes Street, Cape May.
This production was selected by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as part of the American Masterpieces Series in New Jersey, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
To the Ladies! was on Broadway in 1922 starring Helen Hayes, and ELTC’s artistic director Gayle Stahlhuth hasn’t been able to find another production since 1926.
In fact, George S. Kaufman’s daughter, Anne, has never seen the play but will be spending time in Cape May to see the show, meet the cast, and field questions from the audience at an after-show Q&A on Friday, Sept. 26.
Kaufman became America’s most successful playwright in the 1920s and ’30s. He collaborated with Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, Ring Lardner, Morrie Ryskind, Moss Hart, and Howard Teichmann.
The talented cast of To the Ladies! includes two ELTC favorites, Ken Glickfeld and Robert LeMaire, with ELTC newcomers Tiffany-Leigh Moskow, John Morton, Suzanne Dawson, Morgan Nichols, and Terry Harris, under the direction of Stahlhuth, who is also in the play.
The part of Elsie is played by Tiffany-Leigh Moskow, who graduated this past May from Syracuse University with a BFA in Acting. Leonard is played by John Morton.
Ken Glickfeld plays the part of John Kincaid. Glickfeld last appeared with ELTC in the critically acclaimed “Why Marry?”
Suzanne Dawson is his clever wife, Myrtle. Leonard and Elsie’s upstairs neighbor, Chester, who dreams of performing in the vaudeville circuit, is played by Morgan Nichols, a recent graduate of Adelphi University. Rounding out the cast are Robert LeMaire, Terry Harris, and Stahlhuth.
Since becoming ELTC’s artistic director, Stahlhuth is has produced 48 different productions, including 12 world premieres and seven New Jersey premieres, and this marks her 25th ELTC production as director.
There is an opening night party after the show on Sept. 17 at Aleathea’s Restaurant at the Inn of Cape May, an after-show discussion with the cast on Friday, Sept. 19, and an American Sign Language Interpretation on Friday, Oct. 10.
On Friday, Sept. 26, one-half of the box office proceeds will be shared with the Donald L. Perry Foundation for Cancer Research.
For information and reservations, call 609-884-5898 or visit eastlynnetheater.org.