Mary, Mary is a play by Jean Kerr

Jean Kerr

Jean Kerr was an American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary...

. The play became one of the longest-running productions of the decade.

After two previews, the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production opened on March 8, 1961 at the original Helen Hayes Theatre (demolished in 1982), where it ran for nearly three years and nine months before transferring to the Morosco

Morosco Theatre

The Morosco Theatre was a legitimate theatre located at 217 West 45th Street in the heart of the theater district in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States....

 where it closed in December 1964, after 1572 performances. Directed by Joseph Anthony

Joseph Anthony

Joseph Anthony was an American playwright, actor, and director. He made his film acting debut in the 1934 film Hat, Coat, and Glove and his theatrical acting debut in a 1935 production of Mary of Scotland...

, the original cast starred Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes

Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...

 as Mary, Barry Nelson

Barry Nelson

Barry Nelson was an American actor, noted as the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond.-Early life:...

 as Bob, Michael Rennie

Michael Rennie

Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...

 as Dirk, John Cromwell as Oscar, and Betsy Von Furstenberg as Tiffany. Bel Geddes was nominated for the Tony Award

Tony Award

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...

 for Best Actress in a Play.

Later in the run, Nancy Olson

Nancy Olson

Nancy Ann Olson is an American actress.In Sunset Boulevard she played Betty Schaefer, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress...

 and Inger Stevens

Inger Stevens

Inger Stevens was a Swedish-American movie and TV actress.- Early life :Inger Stevens was born Inger Stensland in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an insecure child and was often ill. When she was nine, her parents divorced and she moved with her father to New York City...

 were among those who assumed the role of Mary, while Bob was portrayed by George Grizzard

George Grizzard

George Cooper Grizzard, Jr. was an American actor of film and stage. He appeared in more than 40 films, dozens of television programs and a number of Broadway plays.-Life and career:...

, Murray Hamilton

Murray Hamilton

Murray Hamilton was an American stage, screen, and television actor who appeared in such memorable films as The Hustler, The Graduate and Jaws.-Early life:...

, and Tom Poston

Tom Poston

Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...

. Hiram Sherman

Hiram Sherman

Hiram Sherman was an American actor.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sherman made his Broadway debut as a playwright with the short-lived comedy Too Much Party in 1934. It proved to be his sole attempt at writing. Two years later he made his first appearance as an actor in Horse Eats Hat...

 replaced Cromwell as Oscar, Edward Mulhare

Edward Mulhare

Edward Mulhare was a popular television actor whose career spanned four decades.Born at 22 Quaker Road, Cork City, County Cork, Ireland, and educated by the Irish Christian Brothers, Mulhare intended to study medicine, but was sidetracked by a growing interest in acting...

 and Michael Wilding

Michael Wilding (actor)

-Early life:Born in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, Wilding was a successful commercial artist when he joined the art department of a London film studio in 1933. He soon embarked on an acting career.-Career:...

 appeared as Dirk, and Carrie Nye

Carrie Nye

-Early life:Nye was born Caroline Nye McGeoy in Greenwood, Mississippi; her father was a vice president of a local bank. She attended Stephens College and then went on to the Yale School of Drama.-Career:...

 was cast as Tiffany.

Plot

The plot focuses on wisecracking cynic Mary and infuriatingly sensible Bob, on the verge of divorce following a nine-month separation, who meet at his apartment in the hope they can avert an audit

Audit

The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...

 by the IRS

Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...

. A snowstorm forces Mary to spend the night, and the following morning mutual friend and lawyer Oscar, Hollywood heartthrob and neighbor Dirk Winston, and Bob's considerably younger fiancée Tiffany arrive on the scene. The comedy's humor is derived from discussions about income tax

Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...

es, marriage, alimony

Alimony

Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...

, divorce, remarriage, extra-marital affairs, weight-loss programs, exercise, and sex.

Film

Richard L. Breen

Richard L. Breen

Richard L. Breen was a Hollywood screenwriter and director. He began as a freelance radio writer. After a stint in the US Navy during World War II, he began writing for films and worked alone and in collaboration with such distinguished writers as Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.He won an Oscar...

 adapted Kerr's play for a 1963 film version directed by Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy

Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...

. Nelson, Rennie, and Sherman reprised their stage roles, with Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds

Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

 as Mary and Diane McBain

Diane McBain

Diane McBain is an American actress who, as a Warner Brothers contract player, reached a brief peak of popularity during the early 1960s...

 as Tiffany. It opened at Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...

to lukewarm reviews. The play ran far longer than the movie.