The Blue Flame (play)

Plot

In the first of the play's four acts, irreligious scientist John Varnum has developed a device to bring the recently dead back to life. His sweet, religious fiancée, Ruth Gordon, does not approve of his experiments and hopes to reform him. However, when she is struck by lightning and killed, she becomes the first person to be revived by his machine. Before she is reanimated, the audience sees her soul visibly leave her body as the "blue flame" of the title. With no soul, the revived Ruth has an entirely different personality. Upon waking, she asks John for a kiss, then suggests they marry immediately so they can begin having sex.

In the second and third acts, Ruth seduces a young man named Larry Winston and steals him away from his own fiancée. She takes Larry to New York's Chinatown, where she gets him hooked on cocaine and steals an emerald from an idol. She seduces Ned Maddox and kills him for insurance money, framing another man for the murder. In the final act, Ruth's death and revival is revealed to be a dream John Varnum was having. Upon waking he now understands the importance of the soul; he embraces religion and destroys his life restoration device.

Cast and characters

The characters and cast from the Broadway production are given below:

Background and development

The first version of The Blue Flame was written by Leta Vance Nicholson, a movie scenario writer. She sold it to theatrical agent Walter C. Jordan, who had it rewritten by George V. Hobart and John Willard. Jordan paid the three writers $10,000 for their work (about $665,000 in 2015 dollars), then resold the play to producer Albert H. Woods for $35,000.

Actress Theda Bara was one of the most popular stars of silent films. From her first leading role as "the Vampire" in the 1915 movie A Fool There Was, Bara had been typecast as a "vamp", playing femme fatale roles, with her characters seducing and ruining innocent men. Although she sometimes performed in films playing other types of roles, these were not as successful commercially as her "vamp" films. She played dozens of similar roles while contracted with Fox Film from 1915 to 1919.

After Bara's contract with Fox ended, Woods approached her about appearing in a play. She had performed on stage early in her career, working with touring companies and in summer stock, but had not performed on Broadway. Bara told a reporter she was offered a few scripts to consider, and chose The Blue Flame (at that time titled The Lost Soul) because it allowed her to play two versions of the character, one good and the other bad. She also hoped moving to the stage would bring her new career opportunities. Woods gave Bara a lucrative contract. Each week she received a salary of $1500. This was considerably less than the $4000 per week she had earned in her last year with Fox, but Bara was also promised half the production's net profits. Additionally, Woods provided a finely appointed private railroad car to take her from city to city when the show toured.

Productions and legacy

Woods brought in two directors, J. C. Huffman and W. H. Gilmore, to assist with the production. The production began with a series of preview performances in February 1920, appearing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; Stamford, Connecticut; and Chicago, Illinois. The final performances before the Broadway premier were in Boston in early March.

While the show was still in previews, writer Owen Davis claimed the story had been lifted from his earlier play Lola, which had appeared briefly on Broadway in March 1911, then was adapted as a movie in 1914. He filed a lawsuit, but by the end of May it was settled with a cash payment to Davis.

The show opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on March 15, 1920. It had a run of 48 performances and closed in late April. The show then continued to other cities on tour. The play was further promoted with the release of sheet music for a theme song, with Bara's image featured prominently on the cover. The song had music by William Frederic Peters and lyrics by Ballard MacDonald, and was published in April by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.

The tour closed on January 1, 1921. The Blue Flame was Bara's last Broadway performance and her last acting tour. She did a season of vaudeville touring, but did not act in it; instead she talked with audiences and told stories about her career. Her only subsequent stage acting was in a Little Theatre production of Bella Donna in 1934. Bara's film career was also waning. She acted in only one feature film after The Blue Flame ended, the 1925 drama The Unchastened Woman.

Critical reception

The play received overwhelmingly negative reviews. Biographer Eve Golden described the reviews of Bara's acting as "nothing less than vicious", but the commentary about the play as a whole was even more negative. Variety said opinions in the daily press were united about how bad the play was. The theater critic for Munsey's Magazine quoted several negative reviews and compared Bara's acting unfavorably to that of drama school students.

In The New York Times, Alexander Woollcott mocked the dialog, which included lines such as, "Have you brought the cocaine?" and "You make my heart laugh and I feel like a woman of the streets." Delivered seriously, this dialog drew laughter from the audience. Woollcott highlighted one particular line: "I'm going to be so bad, I'll be remembered always." He said Bara was bad, but not bad enough to be memorable. He credited her for speaking clearly and for not losing her composure when the audience laughed at her. Other reviewers gave Bara similarly faint praise: she had "average competence" or "was not so bad". Some complimented her looks or her glamorous wardrobe.

Other reviewers were even more negative. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle said she fulfilled the promise to be unforgettably bad, calling her acting "freakish". The Sun and New York Herald said Bara's acting was disappointing and the play was "abysmal in intelligence and all that touches the art of the theatre". In Ainslee's Magazine, Dorothy Parker said the play's authors had taken the line about being remembered for badness "as their working motto", and suggested the crowds at the performances were there to attack the playwrights. In the New-York Tribune, Heywood Broun suggested that the entire production company should fear the wrath of God for such a terrible play.

Historians and critics looking back on the play have affirmed the negative assessment. Biographer Ronald Genini called the play "painfully bad" and described the reviews as "a panning orgy". Theater historian Ward Morehouse described it as "one of the worst plays ever written". Literary critic Edward Wagenknecht said Bara's participation helped end her acting career. Golden wondered why Bara took the role, speculating that only "desperation and incredibly poor judgement" could justify her participation.

Box office

Financially the play was a tremendous success, with the previews breaking attendance records. In Boston, the show was sold out, even after adding extra matinees. Despite the strongly negative reviews, the first week on Broadway took in nearly $20,000, close to the maximum the Shubert Theatre could generate at normal prices. The show continued to pack the theater for two months, averaging $15,000 per week, before heading back to the road.