Wissenswertes

The part of Banjo was originally based on Alexander Woollcott's good friend, Harpo Marx. However, in this production, the character is blatantly patterned after Jimmy Durante, who played the role in the 1942 film adaptation.

The original Broadway production of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman opened at the Music Box Theater on October 16, 1939 and ran for 739 performances.

However, given Whiteside's conversation with Walt Disney, it is clear this is not the script from opening night as Fantasia (1940), the project for which Disney provides consolation, did not premiere until one year after the play opened.

Many of the cast members returned to The Roundabout Theatre for a One-Night-Only Reunion reading of the play on December 7, 2015.

This production restored some lines that had been censored or omitted from the 1941 film, among them Sheridan Whiteside's opening line "I may vomit". It also restored the line "you have the touch of a sex-starved cobra", which had been changed in the old film to "you have the touch of a love-starved cobra".

The song Banjo sings upon his entrance was not originally in the Kaufman-Hart play, but was made up by Jimmy Durante when he played the role in the popular film adaptation.