"a free-hand drawing of the classical and historic roles to be assumed this fall by our leading mummers"

This fascinating collection of shows and performers captures a unique moment on Broadway where history and the classics provided many stories for shows. Johnny Appleseed, Queen Victoria, Marie Antoinette, Herod the Great, Jesse James, Peter Stuyvesant, and Abraham Lincoln all played roles in these productions. Shakespeare is the author or source material for two shows as The Boys from Syracuse is adapted from his Comedy of Errors. The following year he would become the most produced playwright of the season. Orson Welles’ production of Richard III was never realized, and other shows that were not seen in New York included Herod and Marianne.

Although Norman Lloyd was listed in the newspaper caption as being in the cast of the Federal Theater Project’s Sing for Your Supper, he was not in it. It appears that Hirschfeld drew him in costume for another Federal Theater project performance in Power, which he had played in earlier that spring. In the fall of 1938 Lloyd starred as Johnny Appleseed in Everywhere I Roam, a show which fits nicely into this theme.