About the Play:

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Seven Keys to Baldpate is a full-length mysterious melodramatic farce by the legendary playwright and songwriter George M. Cohan, based on a novel of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers. What happens when a novelist is challenged to write his next book in one day? More stories than he bargained for in this zany, hilarious mystery. Arranging to sequester himself in a remote rustic inn, the novelist assumes that he has the only key to the place. As the evening wears on, the inn becomes the rendezvous for several mysterious characters – all of whom have keys of their own – and the site of a startling murder. The novelist tries to figure out the goings-on, but just when he has put the clues together, the lock in the door clicks. The seventh key!

Seven Keys to Baldpate follows pulp-fiction author Billy McGee who makes a bet with a wealthy friend that he can churn out his novel within 24 hours. He retires to a summer mountain resort named Baldpate Inn, which is closed for the winter season, and locks himself in, believing he has the sole key. However, peace and quiet are the last things he gets, as there are some very strange goings-on at the establishment. Chaos reigns supreme as he is visited during the night by a rapid succession of colourful characters, including a corrupt politician, a crooked cop, a gang of inept criminals, a woman-hating hermit, a wisecracking female con artist, and none of them have any trouble getting into the inn – there appear to be seven keys. McGee ends up getting caught up in the hijinks of his visitors and ends up getting no work done, or does he? All of them are desperately in pursuit of the fortune that is locked in the safe of the Baldpate Hotel. From its dark-and-stormy-night opening to its remote mountaintop setting to its tough-guy lingo, George M. Cohan's Seven Keys to Baldpate pokes fun at its own genre, the melodramatic thriller. Hailed as a precursor of the great "Screwball Comedies" of the 1930's, which started actors like Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, the play is suspenseful, humorous, and suitable for the whole family.

Seven Keys to Baldpate premiered in 1913 at The Astor Theater on Broadway in New York City. The show was a hit, running for nearly a year in New York, another year in Chicago, and receiving later revivals. It has been filmed six times (the last in 1983 with the title House Of Long Shadows), and remains a popular choice for school and community theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 9 male

What people say:

"...melodrama of the good, old-fashioned sort...." — New York Times

About the Playwright:

George Michael Cohan (1878-1942) was an American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, comic actor, vaudeville song-and-dance man, popular songwriter, and producer. The only man of the theatre to have his statue in Times Square, he is considered the father of the American Musical Comedy, although the melodrama Seven Keys to Baldpate is certainly his most popular work and is considered one of the best plays of the early 20th Century.