The Cave Dwellers (1957)
Original Production - October 19, 1957 to January 11, 1958. 97 Performances at the Bijou Theatre, New York
Producer - Carmen Capalbo and Stanley Chase
Director - Carmen Capalbo
Music - Bernardo Segall
Original Cast
John Alderman - A Young Man
The Silent Boy
Francine Amdur - The Young Queen
Vergel Cook - Woman with Dog
The Mother
Ivan Dixon - An Arab Chief
The Young Opponent
Jamie (a workman)
Susan Harrison - The Girl
Gerald Hiken - The Father
Clifton James - Wrecking Crew Boss
Barry Jones - The King
Eugenie Leontovich - The Queen
Wayne Morris - The Duke
Negrita - Negrita
Ronald Weyand - The Factory Foreman Gorky
Notes:
Saroyan's first play on Broadway in since 1943.
Like The Time of Your Life, Saroyan wrote The Cave Dwellers while staying at the Great Northern Hotel in New York. Over the New York holiday of 1956-57, Saroyan wrote the play while in town to witness the opening of the revival of The Time of Your Life featuring Francot Tone and his ex-wife, Carol.
Reviewed on Oct. 27, 1957 for the New York Daily News by John Chapman ("The Cave Dwellers is a Warm, Lovely Play, Splendidly Staged and Acted.")
Reviewed by Brooks Atkison for The New York Times ("On Broadway fourteen years. have passed since William Saroyan last invited us to sit down to listen to a story. "The Cave Dwellers," which opened at the Bijou on Saturday evening, is one of the most enchanting stories he has ever told.")
Al Lewis, best known as Grandpa Munster from the television series The Munsters, played The King in a 1976 production of The Cave Dwellers at The Mary Moody Northen Theatre in Austin, Texas. Future Star Trek actor Tim Russ played The Duke in the same production.
Revivals have been staged at The Olney Theatre (1958), Greenwich Mews Theatre (1961, featuring former Mercury Theatre member Geraldine Fitzgerald and future Emmy-winner Joanna Miles), Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia (1966), The Schoolhouse Theater in North Salem, New York (2002) and The Pearl Theater (2007).
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