Carmen Jones.

HAMMERSTEIN, Oscar.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 116745

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945.

First edition of this classic play. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Wolfe, with gratitude for all he did to successfully re-launch this very old debutante. Sincerely, Oscar.” The recipient, Wolfe Kaufman was the director of publicity for the run of Carmen Jones from December 2, 1943 to February 10, 1945. Kaufman was a leading general manager and press director for Brigadoon S. Hurok’s production of Hamlet, Paint Your Wagon, The Rose Tattoo and many other Broadway plays and musicals. On the front pastedown is the bookplate of Rita Allen, showing Ms. Allen reading a book in a theatre box, while other occupants of the box are looking at the production in the opposite direction. Rita Allen was a well-known theatrical producer in the 1950s and 60s (The Grass Harp, My 3 Angels, at the Rita Allen Theater and other venues) and was the founder of the Rita Allen Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket, bookplate. Rare and desirable signed.

Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical with music by Georges Bizet (orchestrated for Broadway by Robert Russell Bennett) and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II which was performed at The Broadway Theatre. Conceptually, it is Bizet's opera Carmen updated to a World War II-era African-American setting. Bizet's opera was, in turn, based on the 1846 novella by Prosper Mérimée. The Broadway musical was produced by Billy Rose, using an all-black cast, and directed by Hassard Short. Robert Shaw prepared the choral portions of the show.The original Broadway production starred Muriel Smith (alternating with Muriel Rahn) in the title role. The original Broadway cast members were nearly all new to the stage; Kennedy and Muir write that on the first day of rehearsal only one member had ever been on a stage before. The 1954 film was adapted by Hammerstein and Harry Kleiner. It was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. In 1992, Carmen Jones was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."