Rose Briar

Booth Tarkington wrote the play for Billie Burke at the behest of her showman husband, Florenz Ziegfeld.^[1] The year previous, she had starred in Tarkington's The Intimate Strangers, originally written for Maude Adams, but reworked for Burke when the former stayed in retirement.^[2] Ziegfeld felt that a play written especially for Burke would have more success than The Intimate Strangers.^[3]

The first public notice of the new play came in August 1922, while Burke and Ziegfeld were at their summer home in York Harbor, Maine. Tarkington, who spent summers in nearby Kennebunkport, had brought the play over for Burke to read. It was still a work in progress, for it wasn't yet ready for rehearsal.^[4] Casting extended into late September and early October, when Frank Conroy and Julia Hoyt were signed.^[5][6] Tarkington had come down from Kennebunkport to Manhattan for the casting. Allan Dinehart was cast for the leading man, while others signed included Florence O'Denishawn and Ethel Remey. Rehearsals had begun by mid-October.^[7]

By early November it was announced Victor Herbert was writing incidental music for the play.^[8]

Cast during the tryouts and the Broadway run.

Role	Actor	Dates	Notes and sources
Rose Briar	Billie Burke	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Mr. Paradee	Allan Dinehart	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Mr. Valentine	Frank Conroy	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Mrs. Valentine	Julia Hoyt	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923	Annoyed at newspapers calling her Mrs. Lydig Hoyt, she insisted on being billed as Julia Hoyt.[9]
Mr. Little	Richie Ling	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
M. Crecelous	Paul Doucet	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Miss Nicely	Florence O'Denishawn	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Miss Sheppard	Ethel Remey	Nov 16, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923	Remey and Frank McCoy, who played Thompson, were rumored to have been married.[fn 5]
Monsieur Prologue	Donald Hall[fn 6]	Dec 25, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Sullivan	Mark Haight	Dec 04, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923
Thompson	Frank McCoy[fn 7]	Dec 04, 1922 - Mar 10, 1923	McCoy was a former member of the Forrest Winant Players; besides acting, he did stage management.[10]

Rose Briar was first performed at the Playhouse Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware on November 16, 1922.^[11] The Evening Journal reviewer reported that the play had only eight characters, with most lines falling to just four of them. They gave a cast list and the settings for each act, and identified the incidental music and that for Florence O'Denishawn's dance as composed by Victor Herbert. The four main actors, Billie Burke, Frank Conroy, Allan Dinehart, and Julia Hoyt were praised for their efforts, and the staging, especially of the first act, was considered very pleasing.^[12]

After three nights in Wilmington, the production moved to Nixon's Apollo Theatre in Atlantic City, starting November 20, 1922. Here the local reviewer said Frank Conroy gave "the best work of the entire performance, as the cowed yet adoring speciman of the useless husband of a rich wife. Mrs. Lydig Hoyt is not so effective as Mrs. Valentine", while Allan Dinehart was considered "far too good for" the part of Paradee.^[13] Following Atlantic City, the play was presented at Ford's Theatre in Baltimore, starting November 27, 1922. It received a scathing review from a critic at The Evening Sun, who said the theme "is treated in so unreal and preposterous a way (the character delineation is so farcical and so patent a caricature of life) that the piece immediately degenerates into one of those curious exhibitions of bad manners that Mr. Tarkington seems to delight in...".^[14]

The play then opened at the Majestic Theatre in Buffalo on December 4, 1922. The reviewer for The Buffalo News said both Florenz Ziegfeld and Booth Tarkington would be "doctoring" the play while in town. They provided a cast list that for the first time shows the characters Sullivan and Thompson, and identified Joseph Urban as the set designer.^[15] From Buffalo, Rose Briar went to Pittsburgh, where it opened at the Nixon Theater on December 11, 1922. The reviewer for The Gazette Times said the play was "not so happy a combination" between Burke and Tarkington as The Intimate Strangers, though it did please the audience.^[3]

Some of the negative reviews about the production led to Ziegfeld inviting critic Burns Mantle to view a dress rehearsal before the Broadway premiere on December 25, 1922, at the Empire Theatre. The cast list accompanying Mantle's review showed "Monsieur Prologue" for the first time, but he gave little in the way of a critical review.^[16] Alexander Woollcott said Rose Briar is a work "that is wise and gentle and buoyant and gay." He placed it next to Clarence among Tarkington's plays, but called the continuing story in the last two acts "the gradual subsidence of the play". He named both songs in the play and gave their composers, and said Burke "had not forgotten how to sing".^[17]

It was left to Percy Hammond in the New-York Tribune to spell out the dilemma critics face with reviewing Rose Briar. Acknowledging Tarkington's accomplishments as novelist, and that no author can expect to master all forms of writing, he confesses the urge to pull his punches when reviewing Rose Briar. Tarkington, Burke, Ziegfeld and the audience all think it good, "so who am I to say it is otherwise?" Hammond "suspects the play to be thin, awkward, and strained", but demurs judgement in the face of popular approval.^[18]

The play closed at the Empire Theatre on March 10, 1923.^[19] There had previously been reports of a tour, but Billie Burke made the decision to shut down the production. She was tired, newspapers reported, and wanted to join her convalescing husband in Palm Beach, Florida.^[20] The play was released for stock performances by May 1923.^[21]

Brunswick Records released a phonograph record (Brunswick 2402) in Canada during April 1923, with two instrumental dance numbers on it from Rose Briar: Love and the Moon and Give Me That Rose.^[22] Love and the Moon, by Jerome Kern and Booth Tarkington, was also performed by live musicians.^[23] Both songs may be heard performed by cover artists on YouTube today.