A Preliminary Inventory of the Collection in the Performing Arts
Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Creator:
The Deep Blue Sea
Title:
The Deep Blue
Sea Collection
Dates:
1949-1955
Extent:
1 document box (0.42 linear feet)
Abstract:
Clippings, correspondence, financial and legal
documents, maps, notes, programs, and scripts document the 1952 American production
of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea. The
collection primarily relates to the financing of the production through a group
of
private investors. In addition, there are two original scripts, one annotated
by
Rattigan.
Call Number:
Performing Arts Collection PA-00198
Language:
English
Note:
This brief collection description is a preliminary inventory. No indexes are
available in this inventory.
Clippings, correspondence, financial and legal documents, maps, notes, programs, and
scripts document the 1952 American production of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea. Producers Alfred de Liagre, Jr. and
John C. Wilson brought Sea, a critical and commercial
success in London in 1952, to New Haven for a brief try-out and to Broadway on
November 5, 1952, with Margaret Sullavan in the starring role. This collection
primarily relates to the financing of the production through a group of private
investors.
The clippings document Wilson’s earlier work on the 1949 production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Nearly all of the
correspondence is with investors or would-be investors, arranged alphabetically
by
last name, according to the original order of the collection. Financial statements
for the investors, legal agreements with them, and various informal notes, such
as
lists of investors and box office receipts, illuminate the financial history of
the
production.
The collection also contains a map of the Morosco Theatre in New York, and programs
from the production at that theater and from a short engagement at New Haven’s
Shubert Theatre in 1952. Finally, there are two scripts belonging to Wilson, one
annotated by Rattigan and one finished script that incorporates those
annotations.
Related Material
Photographs of the 1952 American production of The Deep Blue
Sea can be found in the Bob Golby Collection in the Performing Arts
Collection. The Manuscript Collection holds the papers of director Frith Banbury
and
a small collection of Rattigan manuscripts, as well as correspondence with Rattigan
in various collections. The B. J. Simmons Collection in the Performing Arts
Collection includes a production portfolio for the 1952 London production, and
a
caricature drawn for this production can be found in the Ronald Searle Collection
in
the Art Collection.
