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THE GREEN PASTURES – Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Hall Johnson
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
A Broadway stage production of “Green Pastures” by Marc Connelly won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened February 26, 1930 at the Mansfield Theatre in New York and ran for 640 performances. It was based on the 1928 novel Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun by Roark Bradford and the 1930 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Following the massive success of the stage play, Warner Brothers decided to purchase the film rights for $100,000. The decision was controversial as the studio would be taking a significant financial and social gamble for the era by keeping the play’s premise entirely intact – making “The Green Pastures” the second of only seven feature films during the entire Hollywood Studio era to star an all-Black cast. Co-owner Jack L. Warner would manage production with an $800,000 budget, Marc Connelly and William Keighley would direct, Sheridan Gibney would write the screenplay based on the novel and play. The cast would include Rex Ingram as Jehovah and Adam, Oscar Polk as Gabriel, Eddie Anderson as Noah, and Ernest Whitman as Pharaoh. Read more…
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