Dodsworth (play)
three-act play by Sidney Howard
Dodsworth is a three-act play by Sidney Howard based on the 1929 novel by Sinclair Lewis. Through the title character, it examines the differences between American and European intellect, manners, and morals.
Synopsis
Middle-aged Samuel Dodsworth is the head of Revelation Motor Company, an automobile manufacturing firm. His wife Fran, a shallow and vain woman obsessed with the notion of growing old, convinces her spouse Sam to sell his interest in the company and take her to Europe. Before long, Fran begins to view herself as a sophisticated world traveler and Sam as boring and unimaginative. Searching for excitement in her life, she begins spending time with other men and eventually informs Sam that she's leaving him for a member of royalty. While in Italy, Sam reunites with Edith Cortright, a widow he first met while en route to Europe via ship, and the two fall in love. Without warning, he breaks off their relationship, then realizes just how much he cares for her.
Production
The first Broadway production opened at the Shubert Theatre on February 24, 1934, and ran for 147 performances. It was produced by Max Gordon and directed by Robert B. Sinclair.
The public source identifies “Dodsworth (play)” as three-act play by Sidney Howard. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dodsworth, play and three-act.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5288022. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1929 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dodsworth (play)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.