The Man in the Street (play)
play by Geoffrey Kerr
The Man in the Street is a comedy play by the British writer Geoffrey Kerr. It first appeared at the Manchester Opera House before transferring to the St James's Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 44 performances between 9 October and 15 November 1947. Presented by the impresario Basil Dean the West End cast included Bobby Howes, Lloyd Pearson, Edward Jewesbury, Kynaston Reeves, Charles Lloyd Pack, Helen Christie and Beryl Measor. The play revolved an ordinary man of the people being celebrated by a newspaper proprietor. While The New Statesman described it as "slick and frequently amusing comedy" the review in The Spectator was more critical.
References
Bibliography
Wearing, J. P. The London Stage 1940–1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “The Man in the Street (play)” as play by Geoffrey Kerr. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as play by Geoffrey Kerr. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q128800289. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1947, 1940, 1949 and 2014.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Man in the Street (play)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Man in the Street (play) primary sources, The Man in the Street (play) archive and Street research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Man in the Street (play)”?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
- Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Man in the Street (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.