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The Mint Theater Unearths So Help Me God!
The celebrated company gives life to a 1920s work by Chicago writer Maurine Dallas Watkins
Kristen Johnston starring in the Mint Theater Company’s production of So Help Me God!
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Until it’s staged, a play is just words on a page. But in the gifted hands of The Mint Theater Company, “worthy but neglected” voices from the past are brought to life. Since 1997, the troupe’s invaluable mission has been to discover, produce and preserve past treasures. The celebrated company has given life to obscure works by A.A. Milne, Thomas Wolfe and Edith Wharton, whose powerful dramatization of The House of Mirth, seen on Broadway for only two weeks in 1907, earned a praised revival.
Next up is the biting backstage comedy So Help Me God! running November 18 – December 20. Directed by Jonathan Bank, the farce pits a crazed diva against her naïve but ambitious understudy. Heading up the cast is Kristen Johnston a two-time Emmy winner for Third Rock from the Sun and last seen in New York in The Women and Anna Chlumsky, whose film work includes My Girl and My Girl 2, as the understudy. All the behind-the-scene personalities—the scheming producer, frightened playwright, Lothario male lead, romantic ingénue—are parodied with glee.
The comedy was originally slated to hit Broadway in the fall of 1929, but the stock market crash prevented its move from the “Subway Circuit” of Queens and Brooklyn theaters. Playwright Maurine Dallas Watkins was undaunted. She headed to Hollywood, where her talent spanned several genres. Whether writing the first film for Humphrey Bogart, John Ford’s Up the River or penning the Oscar-nominated screwball Libeled Lady, Watkins’s screen work was stellar.
Of particular note, however, is her stage and screen adaptations of true-crime tales. A Chicago newspaper reporter, she covered the sensational 1924 murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaetner, who Watkins transformed into the murderers-turned-celebrities Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly of Chicago fame. The play debuted on Broadway play in 1926, directed by the formidable George Abbott. So compelling is the story, it was spun into a silent, a talkie and an Oscar-winning musical film. The latter was originally created for Broadway by the musical team of Kander and Ebb, with a healthy dose of classic Bob Fosse choreography. This month, Chicago celebrates 13 years of giving The Great White Way its own brand of razzle-dazzle.
That same panache is part of the Mint’s charge. It carefully selects plays the public hasn’t seen for decades but merit attention. Two of their finds have won Pulitzers and many received glowing reviews when first produced. The inexhaustible research and theater-worthy discernment of The Mint’s team have garnered a special Drama Desk Award and an Obie for “combining the excitement of discovery with the richness of tradition.”