Presentation on “Chicago Motor Coach Company” By John F. Doyle
Edgewater Beach Playhouse
| EDGEWATER BEACH PLAYHOUSE* | |||
| Production | Opening Date | Stars | Author |
| Marshall Migatz Productions | |||
| 1955 | |||
| Rain | Jul 11 to Jul 17 | June Havoc & Sylvia Syms | John Colton & Clemence Randolph |
| Blithe Spirit | July 19 to Jul 24 | Eva Gabor | Noel Coward |
| Oh Men! Oh Women! | July 26 to Aug 1 | John Newland & Patrick O’Neal | Edward Chodorov |
| Cyprienne | Aug 2 to Aug 17 | Uta Hagen & Arthur Berghof | Victorien Sardou & Margaret Mayo |
| Theater closed at end of the season; bankruptcy filed/vender liens against theater | |||
| No summer theater in 1956; the hotel mgr Neal Lang unable to find a producer willing to spend $50,000 on completing the tent theater. *named Edgewater Beachwalk Playhouse under Migatz. |
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| Noel Behn (producer) & Arthur Morse (executive director), Chicago Summer Theater, Inc. | |||
| 1957 | |||
| Circus of Dr. Lao | July 8 to Jul 21 | Burgess Meredith | Nathaniel Benchley & Gwen Steinbeck |
| My Three Angels | July 22 to Aug 4 | Walter Slezak | Samuel & Bella Spewack |
| Father of the Bride | Aug 5 to Aug 11 | Henry Morgan | Caroline Francke |
| The Affairs of Anatol | Aug 12 to Aug 25 | Uta Hagen & Arthur Berghof | Arthur Schnitzler |
| The Matchmaker | Aug 26 to Sep 8 | Gertrude Berg | Thornton Wilder |
| 1958 | |||
| The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker | Jun 23 to July 6 | Burgess Meredith | Liam O’Brian |
| The Little Hut | July 7 to Jul 20 | Walter Slezak | André Roussin |
| Sweet and Sour | July 21 to Aug 3 | Melvin Douglas | Unknown |
| Kind Sir | Aug 4 to Aug 17 | Ann Sheridan & Scott McKay | Norman Krasna |
| Uncle Willie | Aug 18 to Aug 31 | Menasha Skulnik | Julie Berns |
| 1959 | |||
| Caesar and Cleopatra | Jun 22 to Jul 5 | Franchot Tone & Susan Strasbourg | George Bernard Shaw |
| Tall Story | July 6 to Jul 19 | Hans Conreid | Howard Lindsay & Russel Crouse |
| Time for Elizabeth | July 20 to Aug 2 | Groucho Marx | Norman Krasna & Groucho Marx |
| Once More with Feeling | Aug 3 to Aug 16 | Dorothy Malone & Jacques Bergerac | Harry Kurnitz |
| The Law and Mr. Simon | Aug 17 to Sep 6 | Menasha Skulnik | Julie Berns |
| 1960 | |||
| Not in the Book | Jun 27 to Jul 10 | Hans Conreid | Arthur Watkyn |
| Craig’s Wife | Jul 11 to Jul 24 | Tallulah Bankhead | George Kelly |
| Goodbye Again | Jul 25 to Aug 7 | Tony Randall | George Scott & George Haight |
| Two For the Seesaw | Aug 8 to Aug 21 | Dane Clark & Anne Jackson | William Gibson |
| Make A Million | Aug 22 to Sep 4 | Sam Levene | Norman Barasch & Carroll Moore |
| 1961 | |||
| Four Poster Bed | Jun 20 to Jul 2 | Steve Allen & Jayne Meadows | Jan de Hartog |
| Sextette | Jul 4 to Jul 16 | Mae West | Mae West |
| Marriage-Go-Round | July 18 to Jul 30 | Eve Arden | Leslie Stevens |
| Al Hirt & Dixieland Band | Aug 1 to Aug 6 | ||
| Rhinoceros | Aug 8 to Sep 3 | Zero Mostel & Ralph Meeker | Eugene Ionesco |
| 1962 | |||
| I am a Camara | Jun 11 to Jun 24 | Rita Moreno | John Van Druten |
| Sunday in New York | Jun 25 to Jul 8 | Karen Kupcinet | Norman Krasna |
| Purlie Victorious | Jul 9 to Aug 5 | Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee & Godfrey Cambridge | Ossie Davis |
| Fair Game | Aug 7 to Aug 19 | Jackie Mason | Sam Locke |
| Chicago Summer Theater shifted the 1963 summer season to the Studebaker Theater and then closed. | |||
| Source: Chicago Tribune. | |||
–prepared by Marsha Holland