The original sugar daddy comedy and the template for a Mel Brooks classic, about a rube who tries to beat Broadway at its own game.
Now she wants a butter an’ egg man
From way out in the west
She wants somebody who’s workin’ all day
So she’s got money when she wants to play
The Butter and Egg Man is a comedy about hitting it big on Broadway when everything’s stacked against you, and is the only play Kaufman wrote solo.
Before The Producers, there was George S. Kaufman’s The Butter and Egg Man, a tale about Peter Jones. A rube with more money than sense, Jones travels from the wilds of Ohio to New York City hoping to turn an investment stake into a fortune. Theatrical moguls Joe Lehman and Jack McClure think he’s just the sucker they’ve been waiting for. They’re right and they’re wrong, and finding out how is the fun in this classic comedy.
A Falconbridge reading, coming November 28 7 PM to Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S. Livingston St. in Madison.
