{{Short description|1934 play by Norman Krasna}} {{use mdy dates|date=November 2015}} {{Infobox play | name = Small Miracle | image = File:Small-Miracle-1934-FE.jpg | image_size =
| caption = First edition dust jacket (1935) | writer = Norman Krasna | characters = | setting = Lounge of the 43rd Street Theatre, New York | premiere = {{Start date|1934|09|26}} | place = John Golden Theatre,<br>New York City, New York | orig_lang = English | subject = | genre = Melodrama }} '''''Small Miracle''''' is a 1934 play by Norman Krasna, presented on Broadway with Joseph Calleia in the featured role. Directed by George Abbott with a single setting designed by Boris Aronson, the three-act melodrama opened September 26, 1934, at the John Golden Theatre, New York. It continued at the 48th Street Theatre November 11, 1934 – January 5, 1935.<ref name="Small Miracle IBDb">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/Production/View/11919 |title=Small Miracle |publisher=Internet Broadway Database |accessdate=2015-11-12}}</ref><ref name="Small Miracle Playbill">{{cite web|url=http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/10327/Small-Miracle |title=Small Miracle |website=Playbill Vault |publisher=Playbill |accessdate=2015-11-12}}</ref> On February 7, 1935, the play began a run at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, with Calleia, Joseph King and Robert Middlemass reprising their Broadway roles.<ref>{{cite news |date=February 8, 1935 |title=News of the Stage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/02/08/archives/news-of-the-stage-tonights-premiere-merivale-reported-for-role.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2016-01-17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hart |first=Enid |date=February 15, 1935 |title=Theatrical Chi-Chat |newspaper=The San Marino Tribune |quote=Mr. Spurin-Calleia justifies the advance news of his ability. The rest of the cast also is first class. ''Small Miracle'' should have a record run. }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Soanes |first=Wood |date=February 22, 1935 |title=Curtain Calls |newspaper=Oakland Tribune |quote=Spurin-Calleia … has started a run for Henry Duffy at El Capitan in his original role in ''Small Miracle''. }}</ref>
It was Krasna's second play, written in the evenings while he was working as a Columbia Pictures contract writer during the day.<ref>{{cite book |last=McGilligan |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick McGilligan (biographer) |date=1986 |title=Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sWewbX79ISsC&q=Krasna |location=Berkeley, Los Angeles, London |publisher=University of California Press |page=217 |isbn=9780520056893 }}</ref> He adapted the play for the Paramount Pictures film ''Four Hours to Kill!'' (1935).
==Cast== [[File:Small-Miracle-Calleia-1934.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Joseph Calleia as Tony Mako in ''Small Miracle'']] {{div col}} * Edward Crandall as Carl Barrett Jr.<ref name="NYT Review">{{cite news |last=Atkinson |first=Brooks |author-link=Brooks Atkinson |date=September 27, 1934|title=The Play: 'Small Miracle' Being a Slice of New York Life in a Theatre Lobby |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/09/27/archives/the-play-small-miracle-being-a-slice-of-new-york-life-in-a-theatre.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-11-16 }}</ref> * Joseph Calleia as Tony Mako<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Joseph King as Joseph Taft<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Eva Condon as Ma<ref name="NYT Review"/> * William Wadsworth as Herman<ref name="NYT Review"/> * G. Albert Smith as William S. Johnson<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Myron McCormick as Eddie<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Elspeth Eric as Mae Danish<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Wyrley Birch as Mac Mason<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Fraye Gilbert as Helen<ref name="NYT Review"/> * James Lane as Repair man<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Ilka Chase as Sylvia Temple<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Lucille Strudwick as Anna<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Jean Bellows as Kitty<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Edna Hagan as Twelve-year-old girl<ref name="NYT Review"/> * George Lambert as Stanley Madison<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Violet Barney as Mrs. Madison<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Hitour Gray as Donald Madison<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Allan Hale as George Nelson<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Robert Middlemass as Captain Seaver<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Herbert Duffy as Healy<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Owen Martin as Anderson<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Helen Gardner as First Girl<ref name="NYT Review"/> * Nancy Vane as Second Girl<ref name="NYT Review"/> {{div col end}}
==Reception== ''The New Yorker'' called ''Small Miracle'' "a very satisfactory melodrama with Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the pleasantest murderer you ever saw."<ref>{{cite magazine |date=December 29, 1934 |title=Goings On About Town |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=X |issue=46 |page=2 }}</ref>
"George Abbott's talent for accuracy of detail has given this tabloid tale of Times Square passions an uncanny, cumulative fascination," wrote drama critic Brooks Atkinson of ''The New York Times''. Praising Boris Aronson's set design and the performances of Ilka Chase, Myron McCormick, Elspeth Eric, Joseph King and Robert Middlemass, he reserved his highest praise for the featured actor: "Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the prisoner plays with such keen authenticity and such sensitive understatement of emotion that his scenes are enormously moving. Type casting becomes an art when an actor can draw so much pulsing truth out of a character."<ref name="NYT Review"/>
''The Stage'' magazine wrote that "there have been few gangsters of the heartbreaking calibre of Joseph Spurin-Calleia's Tony Mako. To this excellent, rather quiet melodrama with its paucity of dead bodies, he gives a sure feeling of impending catastrophe."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=A Playgoer's Discoveries |url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/c/c9/20160116173748!Small-Miracle-Stage-1.jpg |magazine=The Stage |location=New York |publisher=John Hanrahan Publishing Company |volume=12 |issue=2 |page=14 |date=November 1934 |access-date=2016-01-17 }}</ref>
==Gallery== Photographs of the original Broadway production of ''Small Miracle'' appeared in the November 1934 issue of ''The Stage'' magazine. <gallery mode=packed heights=160px> File:Small-Miracle-Stage-1.jpg|Set in the lounge of a Broadway theatre, the drama centers around a condemned prisoner (Joseph Calleia) and a cop (Joseph King) who have missed their train and have four hours to kill. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-2.jpg|Nobody notices the handcuffs under the overcoat during the intermission at the 43rd Street Theatre. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-3.jpg|A hat-check boy (Myron McCormick) is questioned about some missing jewelry belonging to a theatre patron (Ilka Chase). File:Small-Miracle-Stage-4.jpg|A squealer is grilled by the police captain (Robert Middlemass), who suspects him of aiding the prisoner's escape. File:Small-Miracle-Stage-5.jpg|In the big scene the small miracle happens: The killer gets his man and his death. </gallery>
==Publication history== ''Small Miracle'' was published in 1935 by Samuel French, Inc., with a preface by George Abbott.<ref>{{cite book |last=Krasna |first=Norman |date=1935 |title=Small Miracle: A Play in Three Acts |location=New York, Los Angeles |publisher=Samuel French, Inc. |oclc=1690719}}</ref>
==Adaptations== Krasna adapted ''Small Miracle'' for the Paramount Pictures film ''Four Hours to Kill!'', released in April 1935 and starring Richard Barthelmess.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=4899 |title=Four Hours to Kill! |website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films |publisher=American Film Institute |access-date=2015-11-16 }}</ref> In 1944, Paramount Pictures announced it would film a new adaptation of ''Small Miracle'', starring Alan Ladd; the project was not made.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 17, 1944|title=Screen News Here and in Hollywood |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/01/17/archives/screen-news-here-and-in-hollywood-paramount-to-star-alan-ladd-in.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-11-17 }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Small Miracle}} * {{IBDB show|8101|Small Miracle}}
{{Norman Krasna}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:1934 plays Category:Broadway plays Category:American plays adapted into films Category:Plays set in New York City Category:Plays by Norman Krasna