About the Play:

The Moon is Blue is a full-length comedy by F. Hugh Herbert. Two aging playboys are both after the same attractive young actress, but she fends them off by claiming that she plans to remain a virgin until her wedding night. Both men's efforts to seduce the young woman are fruitless as she prefers to engage in conversation surrounding moral and sexual issues in this light romantic comedy.

The Moon is Blue follows a New York architect's efforts to seduce a "professional virgin" even as his ex-fiancee's father arrives on the scene. A very charming and innocently frank young girl, Patty O'Neill, meets a young architect, Don Gresham, on the top of the Empire State Building. The result of this casual meeting is that she goes to his apartment, where she becomes embroiled in a whole series of amusing situations. He has invited her out to dinner, but instead she determines to cook the meal for him, and the two get along swimmingly until it turns out that Don has until the day before been more or less satisfactorily engaged to the daughter of his friend and neighbour, David Slater. Slater arrives at Don's apartment, is attracted to Patty, and when he gets too friendly Don shows unmistakable signs of purely masculine jealousy. The situation becomes increasingly involved, reaching a climax when Patty's father, an irate and Puritanical policeman, turns up and, suspecting the worst, gives Don a black eye. Ultimately, however, it turns out that Don is not the wolf that Patty's father imagined, and at the very end, when the scene reverts to the top of the Empire State Building, all ends satisfactorily.

The Moon is Blue premiered in 1951 on Broadway at Henry Miller's Theatre. It was a hit and ran for over three years on Broadway, a year in both Chicago and London, and spawned three companies that toured 35 American cities from Boston to Los Angeles, as well as Toronto at Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1952. The Academy Award-winning 1953 film version with William Holden caused a scandal with use of the words "virgin," "mistress," and "pregnant," which are all in the original dialogue of the play.

Cast: 1 female, 3 male

What people say:

"…turned out to be the light-hearted comedy everyone…had been waiting for." — The New York Times

"Nothing but fun. The Moon is Blue is a happy sign of spring — jaunty as a fine Easter bonnet…I came away from the theater feeling young and gay." — New York News

About the Playwright:

F. Hugh Herbert (1897-1958) was a born in Vienna and raised and educated in London. Already an accomplished novelist and short story author, he emigrated to the United States where he became a playwright, screenwriter, and film director.