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Philip Bartholomae (July 3, 1880 - January 5, 1947) was an American playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, and theatre director. He wrote many plays and musicals which were staged on Broadway in the 1910s and 1920s, several of which were adapted into films with screenplays by Bartholomae. His first successful play was Over Night (1911) which was also the first play he adapted into a film in 1915. His best known stage work, Very Good Eddie (1915), was a musical adaptation of Over Night which Bartholomae created in collaboration with Guy Bolton and composer Jerome Kern. It was a Broadway hit when it premiered, and enjoyed long running revivals on Broadway and the West End in the 1970s. That work received several nominations at the 30th Tony Awards and the 1976 Laurence Olivier Awards.

Life and career

Philip Henry Bartholomae was born in Chicago on July 3, 1880.^[1] He graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute prior to his career as a playwright.^[2]

Bartholomae's first success in the theatre was the play Over Night which was produced on Broadway by William A. Brady.^[3] It premiered at Hackett Theatre on January 2, 1911.^[4] Bartholomae later adapted this play in collaboration with Guy Bolton into the hit Broadway musical Very Good Eddie (1915) which featured music by Jerome Kern.^[5] Prior to this Bartholomae had penned the book and lyrics to the Broadway musicals When Dreams Come True (1913) and Miss Daisy (1914) with composer Silvio Hein. His other early stage works on the New York stage include the plays Little Miss Brown (1913) and Kiss Me Quick (1913), and the musicals Over the Top (1917), Girl o' Mine (1918), and The Greenwich Village Follies of 1919.^[6]

For his 1921 musical Tangerine, Bartholomae collaborated with Guy Bolton once again to create a book out of an earlier play he had created with the playwright Lawrence Langner.^[7] This was followed by the plays Personality (1921) and Barnum Was Right (1923), and his final musical, Kitty's Kisses (1926).^[6] His last new stage work to appear on Broadway was the play To-Morrow (1928).^[8] A Broadway revival of his musical Very Good Eddie starring Charles Repole in a Tony Award nominated performance had a long run at the Booth Theatre in 1975–1976.^[9] The musical also had a long running production in the West End at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1975 starring Prue Clarke. The 1975 West End production was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical; making Bartholomae a posthumous nominee for that award.^[10]

Bartholomae died on January 5, 1947, in Winnetka, Illinois.^[1]

Musicals

All Night Long starring Madge Kennedy

Partial filmography

Citations

^ ^a ^b Gänzl, p. 119
^ "STAGE FRIGHT SEALS YOUNG AUTHOR'S LIPS; Bartholomae Is Dumb Before Plaudits Marking the Success of "Overnight" at Hackett". The New York Times. January 3, 1911. p. 12.
^ Fisher & Hardison, The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism, p. 49
^ Sturgis, p. 138
^ Fisher & Hardison, Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism, p. 68
^ ^a ^b Fisher & Hardison, Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism, p. 69
^ Hischak, p. 361
^ "Philip Bartholomae". Playbill. Retrieved June 14, 2023.
^ Dietz, p. 278-279
^ John Stewart (2012). Broadway Musicals, 1943-2004. McFarland & Company. ISBN 9781476603292.