Bøger udgivet af SAMUEL FRENCH TRADE

Stepping Out is a warm and very funny play about the lives laughs and loves of a group of women (and one man) attending a weekly tap-dance class in a dingy North London church hall. There is ex-professional dancer Mavis who runs the class; cheerfully overweight Sylvia; Andy a plain do-gooder with no confidence; snobby but well meaning Vera; timid Dorothy who works in Social Security; Maxine attractive sharp and very shrewd; fat plain Lynne; Rose the self-styled "token spade" and Geffrey the lone male. As the play progresses the class's dancing improves to such an extent that by the climax a grand charity show performance they have been transformed into triumphant tappers worthy of any chorus line.

Young audiences are invited to take an active role and their reactions become an important element in the development of the play-- an adaptation of the much loved Grimm tale. A lively "country hoe down" and a fantastic stately court dance enhance the tale of a magic fish with the power to grant any wish to the old fisherman and his wife.

The day before Christmas finds the Burgess family busy with preparations and poignantly aware that this is the first year the members of the family will not be together; son Johnny is in Chicago and Grandpa had died last summer. But the Burgesses do not feel sorry for themselves; they realize how happy and well off they are. In humorous and touching scenes we see sixteen year-old Julie falling in love for the first time; eighteen year-old Emily receiving a proposal of marriage; twelve year-old Janet learning the real meaning of Christmas.

A bittersweet comedy by the author of Play it Again Sam, Don't Drink the Water and other favorites, premiered on Broadway at Lincoln Center starring Beatrice Arthur as long-suffered Enid matriarch of the Pollack clan. Errant husband Max, 13-year-old Steve and Paul, amateur magician and narrator of the story. Set in 1945 Brooklyn (Canarsie section), The Floating Light Bulb is an evocative drama of a family in crisis leavened by wit, charm and hope.

The authors of The Tangled Snarl and The Attempted Murder of Peggy Sweetwater turn their manic imaginations loose in the Wild West in this hilarious spoof about a banker who fears losing his mail order bride to a desperado so he impersonates the outlaw. Things really get rolling when the rhyming cowboy and his faithful friend Talking Boar arrive to capture the badman.

This delightful retelling of the classic story set in New Orleans during the Civil War had adults and children laughing at the American Stage Children's Theatre. Anne Marie Luise deVille helps win a battle for the Confederacy and then disappears. The governor announces a ball to celebrate the victory. The fairy godmother a Jamaican woman flies in and does a sprightly calypso number.

Hilarious sequel to Exit the Body. Crane Hammond suspense mystery writer and her country hating secretary Kate rent the same house as before in Vermont only to find it is the exchange point where a missing microdot containing plans of military installations is to be picked up by a spy at midnight. One of our agents arrives to capture the spy but when he suffers amnesia it is left to Crane and Kate to find the spy and the microdot. The focal point of the set is two way closet which also opens into a library and the entrances exits and surprises in it take farce to a new height. Who is the spy? The very Vermont sheriff Vernon Cookley the society writer for the paper the famous recluse who has come out of hiding to obtain rights to Crane's new book the forgetful and distracting older neighbor the rugged country cook or the CIA agent himself? The finding of the microdot as well as the pinpointing of the spy is laced with Carmichael's witty dialogue and confused situations. The two female leads are supported by a cast of characters to make this a sure fire evening of hilarity.

Two plays which can be performed either separately or as a double-bill.

The title is the question father asks himself when he learns his son has hand cuffed himself to the dean to protest censorship and as a consequence been expelled. And when the son appears with a scroungy group of mods beards and a girl from out of nowhere the impact to a parent can be overwhelming. Father reasons that if you can't beat them join them; and accordingly gets his own beads guitar and such and goes the kids one better. He burns his checkbook in front of the bank and threatens to ignite himself on the steps of Lincoln Center. It's enough to make even the younger generation realize a thing or two.

Two women sit in a funeral parlor with the corpse of a recently deceased loved one saying things like "Doesn't he look like himself " when the corpse sits up and asks for Betty. Who is this Betty they wonder? God certainly works in mysterious ways.

"Hench is sixteen, Bobbie is thirteen. They live alone with their dog, Taliban, playing PlayStation, watching porn; surviving. Sometimes their chaotic mum, Maggie, visits; occasionally she passes out on the front lawn. But when Jenny knocks on the door, the boys discover a world far beyond what they know, a world full of love, possibility, and danger."--Page 4 of cover.

Based on one of the timeless story of one of the best-selling books of the nineteenth century this stage adaptation condenses the epic tale so that it can be told by just four actors (or it can be expanded for a cast of up to twenty-six). The story follows an amateur theatre troupe as they produce the massive tale of the fictional Jewish prince and merchant Judah Ben-Hur. He falls to galley slave and rises to champion charioteer within Jerusalem during the life of Jesus Christ while the act

A famous artist invites her old friends to her luxurious new home. For one night only the group is back together. But celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers an horrific accident. As the victim lies in a coma an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: could her suffering be their next work of art? Pool (No Water) is a visceral and shocking new play about the fragility of friendship and the jealousy and resentment inspired by success.

Rosie the sassiest kid on her block of Brooklyn's Avenue P entertains herself and her friends by acting out showbiz fantasies notably directing and starring in an Oscar-winning movie. Written by the author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and other popular children's books Really Rosie is a jewel for children and adults. Author Maurice Sendak is the winner of a Caldecott Medal National Book Award and a National Me

From the writers of the smash hit Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins comes a comic look at one of our country's most beloved voices who captured the frustrations of her generation by asking "If life is a bowl of cherries what am I doing in the pits?" Discover the story behind America's beloved humorist who championed women's lives with wit that sprang from the most unexpected place of all - the truth

Eugene de Kock was a paid white political assassin nick-named "Prime Evil" for his crimes against anti-apartheid activists. While serving his two life sentences black psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela went to interview him hoping to seek humanity and forgiveness within the government-sanctioned monster. The thought-provoking interogation moves from clinical to intimate in a cell where fear and compassion coexist.

"Inspired by the Christmas story by Charles Dickens."

Hoping for a quiet weekend in the country with some guests David Bliss a novelist and his wife Judith a retired actress find that an impossible dream when their high-spirited children Simon and Sorel appear with guests of their own. A housefull of drama waits to be ignited as misunderstandings and tempers flare. With Judith's new flame and David's newest literary 'inspiration' keeping company as the children follow suit the Bliss family lives up to its name as the 'quiet weekend' comes to a

Cecily Harrington's fiance is traveling in the Sudan when she wins a big prize in a sweepstake and decides to postpone the wedding to spend a portion of the money on a European trip. During her travels she meets Bruce Lovell who sweeps the romance-craving Cecily off her feet marries her and takes her to his out-of-the-way cottage in the country. However Lovell is not the charming gentleman he appears to be. Instead he is a homicidal maniac of the most eerie repulsive type and is resolve

An unhappy game of romantic follow-the-leader explodes into murder one weekend at The Hollow home of Sir Henry and Lucy Angkatell. Dr. Cristow is at the center of the trouble when his mistress Henrietta ex-mistress Veronica and wife Gerda simultaneously arrive at The Hollow. Also visiting are Edward (who is in love with Henrietta) and Midge (who loves Edward). Veronica ardently desires to marry Cristow and succeeds in reopening their affair but is unable to get him to divorce his wife. Vero

Rule of Three is a collection of the three short plays Afternoon At The Seaside The Rats and The Patient.

"An assorted group of travelers are staying at a Jerusalem hotel: Lady Westholme and her companion, a young English doctor and her French colleague, a debonair American and a pugnacious Lancashireman. Another guest, Mrs. Boynton, is a domineering American invalid with four stepchildren whose facade of devotion masks enough hatred to murder her as could the doctor whose affection for Raymond Boynton is being obstructed by the old lady. When Mrs. Boynton is found dead, all are suspects even though she was ill enough to die a natural death. Just when the tension becomes unbearable, the doctor discovers essential evidence about Mrs. Boynton's devilish plan to possess and torment the children in death as in life."--Page 4 of cover.

Clarissa the second wife of Henry Hailsham Brown is adept at spinning tales of adventure for their bored diplomatic circle. When a murder takes place in her drawing room she finds live drama much harder to cope with especially as she suspects the murderer might be her young stepdaughter Pippa. Worse still the victim is the man who broke up Henry's first marriage! Clarissa's fast talking places her in some hair raising experiences as she comes to learn that the facts are much more terrifying

A thriller as well as a puzzler set in a foggy estate in Wales this mystery opens as a stranger walks into a house to find a man murdered and his wife standing over him with a gun. But the woman is dazed and her confession is unconvincing. The unexpected guest decides to help her and blame the murder on an intruder. Later the police discover clues that point to a man who died two years previously and a Pandora's box of love and hate suspicion and intrigue is opened in the night air.

Leonard Vole stands in the dock accused of murder. His wife can prove his innocence but when she takes the stand she denies his alibi. Can he escape the hangman's noose? Winner! New York Critics Circle Award

George lives on a farm managed by his mother and father. Their lives are thrown into disarray by the arrival of Grandma who behaves appallingly. George tries to make her 'better' by creating a marvelous medicine which has the most extraordinary effect on Grandma who grows and grows until she bursts through the ceiling. George's father realizes that the magic medicine could work on his farm animals providing extra food to help feed a hungry world. But attempts to make more medicine lead to h

Harry Thaw Hates Everybody is a genre-bending high-speed turn-of-the-century romp in four acts - each in a different theatrical style: vaudeville living newspaper courtroom farce and post-modern collage. Set against a backdrop of gilded-age opulence and accompanied by authentic period songs the play takes as its starting point the real-life 1906 murder of New York's architectural eminence Stanford White at the hands of deranged coal baron Harry Thaw his rival for the affections of B

"A new interpretation of the l965 Broadway musical"--Cover, p. 3.

Comedy Tom Stoppard from an original play by Ferenc Molnar Characters: 5 male 1 female The co authors the composer and most of the cast of a comedy destined for Broadway are simultaneously trying to finish and rehearse the play while crossing the Atlantic on an ocean liner. Tom Stoppard's hilarious play has been freely adapted from Ferenc Molnar's classic farce Jatek a Kastelyban. "Adaptation in Stoppard's terms means finding a sympathetic text and using it as a s

Little Theatre Farce Ray Cooney Characters: 6 male 2 female Never has this master of farce been frenetically funnier. Henry A. Perkins a mild mannered C.P.A accidently picks up the wrong briefcase one full of money. Henry assumes it is illicit cash and he decides to keep it. Knowing that the former owner must have his briefcase he rushes home to book one way fares to Barcelona. He tells his confused wife to leave everything behind; if she doesn't like Barcelo