Mr. Sycamore (1942, Boston Tryout)

Ketti Frings’s whimsical 1942 Broadway comedy fantasy 'Mr. Sycamore' launched its historic pre-Broadway out-of-town tryout engagement at Boston's historic Shubert Theatre, remaining an essential rarity for scholars tracking golden-era dramatic anomalies. The lighthearted plot centers on John Gwilt, an ordinary, weary postman from a provincial neighborhood who decides to completely break free from modern human worries, marital bickering, and parental expectations by quietly planting his feet in his backyard garden and slowly transforming himself into a sycamore tree. Directed under the auspices of the Theatre Guild, it starred Stuart Erwin.