Philip Bartholomae

Philip Henry Bartholomae (July 3, 1880 – January 5, 1947) was an American playwright, lyricist, screenwriter, and theatre director who wrote numerous plays and musicals staged on Broadway during the 1910s and 1920s. Born in Chicago, he graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before beginning his career in the theatre. Several of his stage works were later adapted into films, with Bartholomae himself writing the screenplays.

His first significant theatrical success was the play Over Night, produced on Broadway by William A. Brady and premiering at the Hackett Theatre on January 2, 1911. Bartholomae adapted the play into a film in 1915. Before that adaptation reached the screen, he had already written the book and lyrics for two Broadway musicals with composer Silvio Hein: When Dreams Come True (1913) and Miss Daisy (1914). His early Broadway output also included the plays Little Miss Brown (1913) and Kiss Me Quick (1913).

The most celebrated work of Bartholomae's career grew directly from Over Night. In collaboration with Guy Bolton and composer Jerome Kern, he transformed the play into the musical Very Good Eddie, which premiered on Broadway in 1915 and became a hit. The musical also served as the basis for a long-running Broadway revival at the Booth Theatre in 1975–1976, starring Charles Repole in a Tony Award-nominated performance. A concurrent West End production ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1975 with Prue Clarke in the cast. That London production received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical, making Bartholomae a posthumous nominee, and the Broadway revival earned multiple nominations at the 30th Tony Awards.

Bartholomae continued writing for the stage through the late 1910s and into the 1920s. His Broadway credits from this period include the musical Over the Top (1917), the musical Girl o' Mine (1918), and The Greenwich Village Follies of 1919. For his 1921 musical Tangerine, he again partnered with Bolton, building the book from an earlier play Bartholomae had written with playwright Lawrence Langner. The plays Personality (1921) and Barnum Was Right (1923) followed, along with his final musical, Kitty's Kisses (1926). His last new work to reach Broadway was the play To-Morrow in 1928. Bartholomae died on January 5, 1947, in Winnetka, Illinois.