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BYU Studies Quarterly BYU Studies Quarterly
Volume 12 Issue 2 Article 8
4-1-1972
Mormonism and the Commercial Theatre Mormonism and the Commercial Theatre
Lael J. Woodbury
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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Woodbury, Lael J. (1972) "Mormonism and the Commercial Theatre," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 12 : Iss. 2 , Article 8. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol12/iss2/8
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mormonism and thecommercial theatre
LAEL J WOODBURY
polygamy is an attempt to get more out of life than thereis in it said actress mary shaw in a curtain speech at the
fewnewnew york playhouse following the opening performance ofpolygamy or A celestial marriage on 1 december 1914written by harriet ford and harvey ohiggins and found-ed on the mormonscormons secret practices the play was a scurrilousattack upon the church of jesus christ of latter day saints itepitomized the commercial world s practice of depicting in artonly the most sensational aspects of mormonism
at the same time however art a metaphor for thoughtand feelingfeel ing documents how much society s attitude haschanged inin the last fifty years particularly do the voicedlanguage and lifelike action of theatre present especially clearevidence of those changes and it is possible there to trace theevolution from rejection to respect of the nation s posture to-ward the church
polygamy was not the first play about mormonism a num-ber of turn of the century dramatists exploited its troubled his-tory several scenes in an aztec romance presented at themanhattan opera house early in the century treated mormonthemes the girl from ulabutahulah was essentially a romantic melo-drama which did not even attempt to analyze the church or itsproblems the canitesdanitesDanites written by joaquin miller for actormckee rankin depicted the mormonscormonsMormons alleged thirst for ven-geance against those who had abused them an effective dramait was popular for several seasons de wolf hopper briefly
dr woodbury is assistant dean of the college of fine arts and communica-tions brigham young university A recipient of the karl G maeser creativearts award from BYU he has lectured and published extensively on thetheatre and its history
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turned the humorous possibilities of polygamy to his profit inone hundred wideswivesvives a comedy written by william youngbut the production did not endure
it was however the 1914151914 15 production of polygamy awell mounted well acted major broadway production thatsummarized america s prevailing negative view of mormon-ism and inin turn no doubt reinforced and confirmed that viewon the other hand its hostility was so intense its structure soflamboyant and its charges so inflated that it very likelyserved the church to some extent by inviting rational minds totake an objective look at mormonism s real history and doc-trine
polygamy presents the thesis that a quarter century after theeschewal of the plural marriage doctrine the church still re-garded polygamy as a divine institution and command which itvigorously enforced in secret while its wealth was used sub-versivelyversively to control state and national legislation
the plot is complex it depicts daniel whitman and zinahis wife who are devoted to each other and to the churchzina s brother brigham kemball is an apostate who openlydefies the church and its supposed hypocrisy and who lovesannie grey a young lady who was compelled by the churchto marry an elderly apostle against the backdrop of a powerstruggle within the church hierarchy and brigham kemball staunts that polygamy is still practiced by the church in spite ofstatements to the outside world that it is not annie now awidow is ordered by the prophet to marry zina s husbanddaniel daniel and zina despair at this order but fearing thefinancial ruin of her husband by the church and her separa-tion from him in the next world if she refuses zina gives herconsent
annie and daniel are married but agree not to live to-gether but annie can find no other shelter in salt lake cityit is emphasized to her that polygamy must be lived it is notmerely a nominal sealing annie runs away but is broughtback by an apostle s first and oldest wife bathsheba a practi-cal woman and a shrewd politician who observes that thereis no way out for annie because all men are naturally polygapalygamists but seeing the despair of annie bathsheba gives hersavings of twenty years to the apostate brigham kemball sothat he can escape with annie from their persecutors
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the play s style is highly melodramatic one critical sceneends when after the marriage zina approaches the closed bed-room door and thinking dan and annie are within fallsshuddering to the floor the production s climactic scene occursin the temple when the apostle is confronted by his wife bath-sheba who turns on him and threatens to appear before thecouncil of the twelve and accuse him of breaking his oath asan apostle and plotting to succeed the prophet if he does notlet annie and brigham go
the play had impact inin precisely the way the authors in-tended in an unidentified 1915 newspaper clipping in thenew york public library dr frank crane wrote after seeingthe play
A great passion that once showed itself inin terms of religionof intense moral conviction aroused by superstition has turn-ed into a fearful system hardened into an organizationwhich to save mens souls in the mass crushes them one byone the american people have rather lost interest inthe mormonscormonsMormons most of us think that they are no longer ac-tive no longer a menace and that their peculiar practice ofpolygamy has ceased the only change however is that fromgbeingeing poor and defiant they have become rich and craftythey have learned the devious ways of the corporation theyknow how to crush and kill without getting the blood allover their cuffs
although polygamy formed the main subject of the dramaa second indictment was that the church had become a ruthlesspower successfully compromising the financial and political in-terests of the nation even dr crane was astonished at themagnitude of that thesis
and who can believe that polygamy is today a compact or-ganization with unlimited funds controlling eastern banksmaintaining an active lobby at washington pushing its tenta-cles everywhere by subtlest politics and holding in its irongrip devoted women whose sublime faith lifts them fromheartbreak to loyalty and men who move as surely and assecretly as the agents of the spanish inquisition or of thecouncil of ten in venice
equally defaming was the playwright s characterization ofthe church as a national frankenstein and his charge thathe could not get conventional financial backing for productionof the play because managers told him that the mormonchurch would ruin them financially if they put such an expoekpo
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sure on the stage we had to organize an anonymous produc-ing company whose assets could not be uncovered and de-stroyedst
an unidentified reviewer in the new york post of 2 de-cember 1914 related a scene that purports to take place in thesalt lake temple it appears that the prophet seated on histhrone in the temple not only exercises an illimitable des-potism over the families of all the saints and the apostlesthemselves but like some imperial chancellor receives the re-ports of his diplomatic agents from all parts of the unitedstates and the civilized world and issues mandates which states-men and financiers at home and abroad must obey if theywould avoid defeat or ruinruin the reviewerreviewer found this scene andits suggestion thoroughly unbelievable however and observedthat the affairs and aims of Mormonmormondomdorn are not altogethera closed book to the intelligent public and nothing can begained by making them the subjects of grotesque misrepre-sentationsen tation
it is apparent that polygamy was not entirely successful asantichurchanti church propaganda despite its handsome production andits manifest intent to persuade the audience that the play por-trayed mormonism s actual practice other reviewers expressedreservations about its structure and its logic inasmuch as brig-ham kemball and annie resolved their problem simply byleaving utah the question was raised why they did not es-cape at the beginning of their conflict rather than afterwardhector turnbull writing in the new york tribune of 2 de-cember 1914 observed
like most plays however that are built primarily to exposean evil practiceac ice or a social sore the dramatic value of the
suffirserswork suffers somewhat from the eagerness of the authors tobring home their message an elaborate web is built aroundthe central figures in rebellion and after it has been shownin all its menacing impregnability for three acts which aresometimes tense and always interesting the play ends with therebellious characters freed to love and be happy by the sim-plest of devices escape which method of course with allthe material and religious sacrifices itt entails has always beenthe refuge of people who found their adopted faith to be-come incompatible with a stronger human love such an end-ing to so engrossing a situation cannot fail to cause a letdown in the interest of the audience and therefore weakenedthe effect of the entire play and all the shrewd and clever ob-servationsservations on conditions made by the authors throughout the
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course of their arraignment of the mormonscormonsMormons one would in-finitely rather forego the conventional happy 11 ending to sounusual a work than see its force tempered by such a com-monplacemon place expedient
the new york journal of the same date observed itsomehow reminds one of the old story of the wretched pris-oner who pined in solitary misery in a solitary cell for twentyyears until one day when he had a happy inspiration openedthe door and walked out the whole play is more or less inthe nature of a childish bugaboo
such criticism apparently motivated one of the authorsharvey ohiggins to defend his play before the drama so-ciety of new york there he gave a romanticizedromanticizes descriptionof his encountering a man having a most remarkably deadface the man was short portly erect and dignified with ahead of white hair like mark twain s his face said ohigg-ins was absolutely colorless absolutely composed and hespoke as from a great distance of thought this man wasfrank J cannon the son of president george Q cannonpresident cannon had played an important role in reconcilingthe church with the federal government and frank cannonhad been the first united states senator from utah but ac-cording to ohiggins senator cannon had become disaffectedbecause of the church s alleged political practices and clandes-tine polygamy and had eventually left the church and hadtaken a position as an editorial writer on the rocky mountainnews inin denver ohiggins had printed cannon s story ineverybodys magazine with the title under the prophet inutah and it was interest inin this piece which had promptedhim to write polygamy although the play had not been an at-tempt to dramatize cannon s alleged experience
we commonly think of the artist as a creator it is moreaccurate however to see him as a reflector one who mirrorsthe perceptions and values of his society this play merelyimages the dark view and the pathetic misunderstanding aboutmormonism which prevailed in the east a half century ago itis useful to contrast polygamy with the view of mormonismnow reflected by the commercial theatre and with the degree ofparticipation in it by contemporary artists
no pro mormon drama has yet achieved commercial suc-cess although a number of young LDS writers such as dougstewart louise hansen don oscarson gerald and carol lynn
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pearson and scott card show promise of reaching that goalbut remarkably successful attempts to give a more balancedview of the church and its history have been produced themovie brigham young was criticized as essentially inaccuratebut I1 find its general tone laudable and I1 believe that it hasfavorably modified public opinion the typical american s con-ception of mormonism derives from several paragraphs in ahigh school history text from the beliefs and experiences of hisrelatives and from the news media to him the brighamyoung moviemovlemoviemovle presents a more factual description of our people
obviously a dramatization of church history and principlesacceptable to latter day saints will probably be done only by abeliever but it isis easy to underestimate the magnitude of hisproblem how can the playwright picture that is to say makeconcrete which is theatre s purpose the warmth and opti-mism that characterize our culture our problems are inherentlydramatic yet how does he make our serenity sufficiently dradra-matic to command the interest of non mormonscormons I1 believe thatthe task will be done it has been done by others as in themovie the bells of saint mary but wickedness always at-tracts a larger audience than does goodness and so we need notwonder that world literature is not replete with positive state-ments of our people and our values
however in 1966 christie lund coles and larry bastianwrote a musical play entitled the red plush parlor it depicteda man having several wives who rivaled his son for the affec-tion of a woman whom both wanted to marry unlike polyg-amy it emphasized the high mindedness the dignity and thechristian love which these mormonscormons held for each other andit painted a portrait more compatible with christ s principlesthan any other play ever written about plural marriage it istrue that the red plush parlor has little commercial value inits present form but its premier production was unusually pop-ular and it encourages the hope that writers will yet success-fully express our values in dramatic forms
equally significant is the welcome which commercial theatrenow extends to capable latter day saint performers techni-cians and administrators because of their attractiveness andthe public exposure given them these subtle ambassadors forthe church generate good will more than sufficient to over-come propaganda like polygamy I1 believe that their success isa fruition of the church s traditional cultivation beginning in
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the children s primary association of the performing artshazel dawn sandi and salli melva niles patty peterson theking family the nathan hales robert peterson gordonjump vera miles tina cole and laraine day are some ofthe mormonscormons who enjoy professional approbation in holly-wood and new york this spring keene curtis a mormonfrom bountiful utah won the tony award for his perfor-mance in the rothschilds on broadway their acceptance isanother indication of how far the theatre s attitude has changedsince polygamy
an additional measure can be seen in the ledges play-house a professional summer theatre in lansing michiganunder the co ownership and direction of harold I1 hansen andmyself we produced there a series of more than thirty com-mercial plays for reasonably sophisticated non mormon audi-ences we did not advertise as a mormon company but thepress so characterized us for we featured a company of LDSperformers and hewed to LDS production standards the com-munity welcomed us into its homes and society and our audi-ences encouraged us to exercise taste in selecting plays lan-guage costumes and action the venture was profitable thereare now multiple LDS companies of performers in utah idahowyoming and california
the contrast between polygamy or A celestial marriageand the red plush parlor or the ledges playhouse is salutaryand absolute it shows how far we have come it is a favorableomen for the spreading of the gospel and its acceptance by ourworld
BYU HISTORY WEEK
in conjunction with history week at brigham young university thedepartment of history will present
march 28 1972 1200 noonreligion in america the past thirty years
dr sidney E mead university of iowa foremost authority on ameri-can protestantismmarch 29 1972 120012001230 noon
contemporary catholicism and its prospectsdr philip gleason notre dame university nationally known authorityon catholicismmarch 30 1972 1200 noonpresent day mormonism problems programs and prospects
dr leonard J arrington newly appointed church historianalsomarch 28 1972 200 pmpanel discussion prospects for the future of religion in americadrs mead gleason and arringtonvarsity theater rm 221 ernest L wilkinson centerpublic invited
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