June Moon

Fresh off the train from Schenectady, Fred Stevens arrives in New York convinced he can write hit song lyrics, and the collision between his small-town earnestness and the cynical hustle of Tin Pan Alley drives this 1929 comedy. Adapted by Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman from Lardner’s story “Some Like Them Cold,” the play skewers the songwriting racket, its fast-talking pluggers, jaded composers, and the women who see through all of it. The dialogue crackles with the wised-up Broadway patter both authors did so well, and the romance at its center stays sweet without turning soft. It remains one of the better comedies to come out of the late-1920s American stage. Free to read as a PDF or EPUB edition.