Melbourne The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll had its world premiere on 28 November 1955, where it opened at the Union Theatre in Melbourne. This production of the play was directed by
John Sumner and featured the following cast: • Roma Johnston as Pearl Cunningham • Fenella Maguire as Kathy "Bubba" Ryan •
June Jago as Olive Leech •
Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot • Carmel Dunn as Emma Leech •
Noel Ferrier as Roo Webber • Malcolm Billings as Johnnie Dowd
Sydney The play opened in
Sydney, approximately two months later, on 10 January 1956, this time with significant changes to its cast: •
Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham • Fenella Maguire as Kathie "Bubba" Ryan •
June Jago as Olive Leech •
Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot • Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech •
Lloyd Berrell as Roo Webber • John Llewellyn as Johnnie Dowd
Country tour On 28 January 1956 a thirteen-week country tour of the play was announced, commencing on 14 February. The play toured
New South Wales and
Queensland, returning to Sydney for an encore season, and featured the following cast: • Yvonne Lewis as Bubba Ryan • Jacqueline Kott as Pearl Cunningham •
June Jago as Olive Leech • Robert Levis as Barney Ibbot • Dorothy Whiteley as Emma Leech •
Kenneth Warren as Roo Webber • Keith Buckley as Johnnie Dowd
United Kingdom After the final Sydney show of the play's country tour,
The Doll moved to the United Kingdom, where it spent two weeks showing in
Nottingham,
Liverpool and
Edinburgh before opening in
London on 30 April 1957, with the following cast: • Fenella Maguire as Bubba Ryan • Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham •
June Jago as Olive Leech •
Ray Lawler as Barney Ibbot • Ethel Gabriel as Emma Leech • Kenneth Warren as Roo Webber •
Richard Pratt as Johnnie Dowd
New York Encouraged by its wholehearted reception in Australia and Britain,
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll took a trip to America, where audiences and critics were rather underwhelmed with the production, most likely due to drastic cultural differences.. The play opened in
New York City on 23 January 1958, with no changes made to the cast.
Variety wrote "When Lawler finally gets around to it, along about the middle of the third act, “Summer of the 17th Doll" is a fairly absorbing play. The exasperating first act, however, and even much of the second act, are a staggering hurdle and probably limit this Australian import (by way of London) to a brief run. It’s a cinch to make money, though, if only on the prior film Sale, the Guild subscription sdpport and sortie advance interest, and sale."
The Doll only ran for a five-week season in America. However, in 1967,
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll featuring an all-black cast, was produced to great acclaim as one of four plays in the inaugural season of
The Negro Ensemble Company with an international bill that included ''
Kongi's Harvest by Wole Soyinka, Song of the Lusitanian Bogey
by Peter Weiss, and Daddy Goodness'' by American playwright
Richard Wright.
Film adaptation After continuing to tour Australia through 1958,
Summer of the Seventeenth Doll was adapted by
Leslie Norman for
Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions – whose first film had been
Marty with
Ernest Borgnine – for
United Artists in 1959. The film was retitled
Season of Passion for the American market. This decision was severely lamented by some fans of the play, whose complaints were rooted in three essential criticisms: • The "Americanisation" of the text, namely the casting of American actor
Ernest Borgnine, who played his character (Roo) with an American accent. Others have thought the film was a recruiting film for migrants with the Englishman
John Mills as Barney and Alan García as Dino, an Italian friend and fellow cane cutter who does not feature in the play. The female leads were played by
Anne Baxter and
Angela Lansbury, though the film featured many Australian actors. • It was set in Sydney rather than Melbourne. • The drastic changes to key plot points, namely the alternative, "happy" ending that the 1959 film adaptation entailed. This alternate ending was considered by some to be representative of a dire misunderstanding of the play and its message, and by others an attempt to make the film an international success at the box office and critical acclaim similar to the
kitchen sink realism of
Marty. The producers also added a comedy sequence where a young girl attempted to trick Roo in a tent at Luna Park. Another account claimed the film did not work because of its accent, male lead and changes to the source material. The cast was: •
Lyn Ashley as Bubba Ryan •
Madge Ryan as Pearl Cunningham •
Sheila Hancock as Olive Leech •
Ewen Solon as Barney Ibbot •
Grant Taylor as Roo Webber •
Hazel Coppen as Emma Leech •
George Roubicek as Johnny Dowd
1979 Australian TV adaptation A version of the play was filmed in 1979, directed by
Rod Kinnear.| •
Christine Amor as Bubba Ryan •
Sandy Gore as Pearl Cunningham •
Carole Skinner as Olive Leech •
Bruce Myles as Barney Ibbot •
Peter Curtin as Roo Webber •
Irene Inescourt as Emma Leech •
David Downer as Johnny Dowd •
Rowena Wallace as Presenter
Most recent productions Notable productions include: • 1965: Sydney's Q Theatre staged a production of
The Doll, in which Ethel Gabriel, a member of the cast for nearly a decade, gave her last performance as Emma • 1973: Sydney's
Nimrod Theatre Company staged a production with
Bill Hunter • 1974:
Queensland Theatre Company staged a production • 1977:
Melbourne Theatre Company revived the play as part of
The Doll Trilogy (featuring prequels
Kid Stakes and
Other Times) • August 1988: Brisbane's
La Boite Theatre Company staged play, directed by Don Batchelor. • 1983: Melbourne's
Australian Nouveau Theatre (Antill) directed by Jean-Pierre Mignon • 1985:
Sydney Theatre Company revived the play as part of
The Doll Trilogy directed by
Rodney Fisher (which also played in Melbourne) • 1988:
Sydney Theatre Company production travelled overseas to New York • 1990:
Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the UK directed by John Adams • 1995:
Melbourne Theatre Company directed by
Robyn Nevin, which also played a national tour through 1995 and 1996 • 2008: Brisbane's
La Boite Theatre Company directed by Sean Mee. • 2011:
Belvoir production directed by
Neil Armfield which toured Sydney, Melbourne (for
Melbourne Theatre Company), Brisbane (for
Queensland Theatre Company), Wollongong and Canberra through 2011 and 2012 • 2015:
State Theatre Company of South Australia at the
Dunstan Playhouse,
Adelaide Festival Centre directed by Georgie Brookman • 2020:
State Opera of South Australia in
Her Majesty's Theatre, directed by Joseph Mitchell • 2026: Melbourne's
Red Stitch Actors Theatre revived the play as part of
The Doll Trilogy directed by Ella Caldwell. ==The iPad app==