Kaufman's Family

I've been looking at the Library Of America's collection of nine plays by the great collaborator, George S. Kaufman. I'm especially intrigued by the first available commercial version of Animal Crackers. It includes the Du Barry scene, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the plot (not that that mattered to the Marx Brothers) and thus is not in the film version. For some reason, though, the words of the song "We're Four Of The Three Musketeers" is not in the text, but has been reproduced in the notes.

The weakest work in the collection is the earliest, The Royal Family, by Kaufman and Edna Ferber. Yet it keeps getting revived. In fact, it opens tonight on Broadway. Star Tony Roberts' illness has not postponed the date, we're assured by The New York Times. He was pretty sick a few days ago:

The Sunday matinee preview performance was canceled about 15 minutes into the show after Mr. Roberts appeared onstage disoriented and speaking gibberish.

Too bad it's a revival. If it had been a new play, maybe no one would have noticed.