{{Short description|Play written by Groucho Marx}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox play | name = Time for Elizabeth | image = | image_size = | caption = | writer = Norman Krasna<br>Groucho Marx | characters = | setting = | premiere = 1948 | place = | orig_lang = English | subject = | genre = }}
'''''Time for Elizabeth''''' is a 1948 play written by Norman Krasna and Groucho Marx.<ref>{{Cite news|title=AT THE THEATRE: OTTO KRUGER APPEARS IN A NEW COMEDY BY NORMAN KRASNA AND GROUCHO MARX |author=BROOKS ATKINSON|date=Sep 28, 1948|work=New York Times|page=32}}</ref>
Krasna and Marx were good friends and Krasna says writing it took 10–15 years.<ref name="pat">*McGilligan, Patrick, "Norman Krasna: The Woolworth's Touch", ''Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age'', University of California Press,1986 p218</ref>
The original Broadway production was directed by Krasna, and starred Otto Kruger. Opening at the Fulton Theatre, it only ran for eight performances, from September 27 to October 2, 1948.<ref>{{cite web |title=Time for Elizabeth |url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/time-for-elizabeth-8735 |website=Internet Broadway Database |accessdate=2 September 2019}}</ref> The reviews were universally bad, with Brooks Atkinson at ''The New York Times'' writing that "Mr. Marx has everyone's permission to throw down the pen and put back the moustachio any time he pleases."<ref name=coniam>{{cite book |last1=Coniam |first1=Matthew |title=That's Me, Groucho! The Solo Career of Groucho Marx |date=2016 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-1476663739|chapter=Chapter 5: A comparatively easy racket}}</ref> However, film rights were sold to Warner Bros for $500,000.<ref>{{Cite news|author=Hopper, Hedda|title=Looking at Hollywood: Comedian Marx Sells Self, Play for $500,000! What Fun!|date=Oct 6, 1955|work=Chicago Daily Tribune}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/stream/variety173-1949-02#page/n58/mode/1up ''Variety'' February 1949]</ref>
The play toured as a summer stock production in the summers of 1957, 1958, 1959 and 1963, with co-author Groucho Marx playing the lead. Thanks to Marx's presence and an increasing number of Groucho-style jokes added to the script over time, the tours were well received.<ref name=coniam/>
''Time for Elizabeth'' was adapted for TV in 1964, with Marx playing the lead.<ref>{{IMDb title|0528242}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IBDB title | 2023 }} * {{Playbill production | /time-for-elizabeth-fulton-theatre-vault-0000004532 }} ([https://web.archive.org/web/20131203013555/http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/4532/Time-for-Elizabeth archive]) * [https://archive.org/details/variety171-1948-09/page/n307 Review of play] at Variety
{{Norman Krasna}}
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Category:Plays by Norman Krasna Category:1948 plays Category:Broadway plays