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The Command to Love
A comedy in three acts by Rudolph Lothar and Fritz Gottwald. Adapted by Herman Berstein and Brian Marlow. Opened at the Longacre Theatre, New York City, September 20, 1927. After 247 performances the play went on national tour for one year, with most of the New York cast. Produced by William A. Brady, Jr. and Dwight Deere Wiman, in association with John Tuerk. Staged by Lester Lonergan.
Cast of characters
| Don Pedro Munaterra | Thomas Louden |
| The French Ambassador to Spain | Henry Stephenson |
| Marie-Anne | Violet Kemble Cooper |
| A Lackey | Walter Colligan |
| Gaston, Marquis du Saint-Lac | Basil Rathbone |
| Emile Ardillot | Anthony Kemble Cooper |
| Don Tomas Martinex | Percy Hemus |
| Manuela | Mary Nash |
| The Spanish War Minister | Ferdinand Gottschalk |
| The French Foreign Minister | David Glassford |
| Act I — A Room in the French
Embassy, Madrid Act II — The Attaché's Rooms Act III — A Room in the French Embassy |
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"Gaston, with a reputation as the most successful of the modern Don Juans,
is drafted as an attaché of the French
embassy at the court of Spain. His unofficial duties include such social
contacts with the influential ladies of the court as will help his country.
Gaston, however, being true to his ambassador's wife, refuses to flirt until the
ambassador practically orders him to do so. Then he reluctantly but successfully
acknowledges the advances of Manuela, wife of the Spanish war minister, and thus
helps along the signing of a treaty the war minister previously had opposed."
[from The Best Plays of 1927-28, ed. by Burns Mantle (Dodd, Mead and
Co., 1928), page 410.]
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Above: Two photos from "The Command to Love"
