The Seven Year Itch (play)


The Seven Year Itch is a 1952 three-act play written by George Axelrod starring Tom Ewell and Vanessa Brown.
The titular phrase, which refers to declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, has been used by psychologists.
The play was filmed in 1955 as The Seven Year Itch, directed and co-written by Billy Wilder and starred Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, reprising his Broadway role.

Productions

The stage version premiered at the Fulton Theatre on 20 November 1952, and closed there on 13 August 1955, after a run of 1,141 performances, making it the longest-running non-musical play of the 1950s.

Opening night cast

Replacement cast members during the original Broadway run included Eddie Albert, Eddie Bracken, and Elliott Nugent as Richard Sherman; Sally Forrest and Louise King as The Girl; and Paulette Girard as Marie What-Ever-Her-Name-Was.
The touring production starred Eddie Bracken as Richard Sherman and also featured Gena Rowlands as Elaine. In London, the West End production starred Rosemary Harris.
Although The Seven Year Itch has never returned to Broadway, it was revived in a 2000 London production starring Daryl Hannah, and the play continues to be produced in community theatres and small professional theatres such as the Ivoryton Playhouse, the American Century Theatre, and the Miami Theatre Center.

Plot

An American husband, married for seven years, fantasises about his adventurous past, and future, particularly with "the girl" who moves into his apartment block.