DVDs: Another Hot Day

A con man claiming he can bring rain to a drought-stricken Western community transforms and instills confidence in a woman terrified of being a spinster in N. Richard Nash's warm-hearted comedy-drama The Rainmaker.

It was first seen on Broadway, at the Cort Theatre in October 1954, with Joseph Anthony directing a cast that included Geraldine Page as Lizzie, the young woman afraid of becoming an old maid, Darren McGavin as braggart Starbuck, and Cameron Prud'homme as the father of Lizzie and her two brothers.

The play ran only 125 performances, but the property was more widely seen in the 1956 film version, also directed by Anthony and written by Nash and recently released for the first time on DVD. This Rainmaker is not to be confused with the novel by John Grisham and its subsequent film version. With Prud'homme repeating his Broadway role, the film cast included Lloyd Bridges and Earl Holliman as the brothers and Wendell Corey as deputy sheriff File. For a time, Elvis Presley was to have played the younger brother.

It's the stars that count here. As Starbuck, Burt Lancaster has one of his better roles, and offers a preview of his Oscar-winning performance in Elmer Gantry.

Throughout her career, Katharine Hepburn appeared in many film versions of Broadway plays, from Holiday and The Philadelphia Story through Summertime based on The Time of the Cuckoo, Desk Set, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Suddenly Last Summer, The Lion in Winter, The Trojan Women, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Glass Menagerie, The Corn is Green, and A Delicate Balance.

Hepburn got yet another Oscar nomination for her performance as Lizzie in The Rainmaker. It can be argued that she's too mature for the role, and that the cadences of her speech are those of New England rather than those of the West. Then too, Lizzie is a somewhat uncharacteristic role for the star, as she tended to play independent women, and Lizzie wants only to be a wife.

But Hepburn convinces, and Anthony brings out the charm and humor of a piece that could easily turn maudlin. With a cast of seven, the stage play took place entirely indoors, mostly in the family parlor, with a couple of scenes in their "tack room" and in the sheriff's office. Opening up the action only slightly to include such locations as a train depot and farm exteriors, the film is stagey, staying indoors most of the time. Still, the potency of the play and the stars makes it work.

In the play, rainmaker Starbuck doesn't enter for forty minutes. The film begins with Starbuck conning the folks in another town, then arriving in Three Point, where the action is set. And the film brings on a character only referred to in the play in Snookie, girl friend of the younger brother.

In 1982, HBO produced a new television version of The Rainmaker, an off-the-stage taping featuring Tuesday Weld, Tommy Lee Jones, and James Cromwell. Directed by John Frankenheimer, this version is darker and more painful, with Cromwell's older brother more of a heavy. While Weld gives a fine performance, there is simply no way to make her look plain.

Mixed reviews greeted the Roundabout's 1999 Broadway revival of the play, which played the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, directed by Scott Ellis and starring Woody Harrelson and Jayne Atkinson. But while The Rainmaker remains a viable stage piece, it has been partly supplanted by its musical version, 110 in the Shade, which played almost a year on Broadway beginning in the fall of 1963. Like the original play and film, the musical was written by Nash and directed by Anthony. Having already directed the Lizzies of Page and Hepburn, Anthony was able to elicit a magnificent musical performance from Inga Swenson, who was ably backed by Robert Horton as Starbuck, Stephen Douglass as File, and Lesley Ann Warren as Snookie.

Featuring choreography by Agnes de Mille, the musical had a superb score by lyricist Tom Jones and composer Harvey Schmidt. Many of Jones' lyrics came directly from Nash's original play. Nash's musical script was faithful to his original, with one notable alteration: All of the scenes that were interiors in the play were moved outside in the musical, to public places like a depot, picnic grounds, a pavilion, and the strip of land on which Starbuck parks his wagon. Moving things outdoors allowed for the addition of townspeople for ensemble numbers and dances. As in the film but not the play, Snookie was brought onstage. File's rank was raised from deputy to full sheriff. And Starbuck was exposed to the whole town instead of just to the Curry family.

The result was a solid show very much in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical-play mode. That the musical holds up was demonstrated by a well-received New York City Opera revival in 1992, directed by Ellis and choreographed by Susan Stroman, with Karen Ziemba as Lizzie and an underpowered Brian Sutherland as Starbuck.

Last year, 110 in the Shade was revived in Pasadena, with Marin Mazzie and Jason Daniely as Lizzie and Starbuck. There was also a 2003 production at Virginia's Signature Theatre, directed by Eric Schaeffer and featuring Matt Bogart and Jacquelyn Piro. And I would not be surprised to see 110 in the Shade turning up again, perhaps at Goodspeed or Paper Mill Playhouse.