Bloody Broadway: Plays of Menace, Murder, and Mystery. Vol. 1, 1900–1930

This robust reference guide from Kabatchnik (Murder in the West End), a retired theater professor, spotlights the crime dramas that appeared on Broadway and international stages from 1900 to 1930. The so-called “bloody Broadway era” was set in motion by director William Gillette, whose four-act adaptation of stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle premiered in 1899 and ushered in a wave of melodramatic plays filled with “convoluted plots, wild happenings, humorous interludes, one-dimensional characters, flamboyant villains, and sensational cliffhangers.” Among them were heart-pounders such as 1902’s Old Sleuth, about a Manhattan gumshoe who saves a lady in distress from a wrongful accuser, and 1914’s On Trial, which was set in a courtroom during a two-day murder trial and helped popularize cinematic effects like flashbacks. By 1925, conventional dramas waned as playwrights began to dissect the psychological underpinnings of crime, with Eugene O’ Neill’s Desire Under the Elms investigating themes of “avarice, incest, and infanticide.” Kabatchnik’s selection of plays is comprehensive and packed with detailed analysis, trivia, and insights into how the featured productions reflected the times (“If a particularly horrible murder excited the public,” playwright Owen Davis once quipped, “we had it dramatized and on the stage usually before anyone knew who had been guilty of the crime”). Dedicated theater fans will want this on their bookshelves. (Oct.)