Filumena Marturano (1946) is one of the most celebrated and best known plays of the Italian playwright and philosopher Eduardo De Filippo. Filumena Marturano was initially written as a tribute to Eduardo's sister, Titina De Filippo, a famous Neapolitan theatrical actress, who took the title role in the first production in Naples in 1946. The play followed on from the success of Napoli milionaria, which Eduardo had written and which had premiered the year before to general acclaim. The first night of the new play, proved a disappointment however, and received lukewarm notices from the Neapolitan theatre-going public. Titina decided to address this by following her own instincts and performing as she felt the role required. She was proved right. The play achieved great success, so great in fact that for many years afterwards Titina was called in public in Italy by her character's name, Filumena, rather than her own. (Wikipedia)

The Invention of Love (1999) by Tom Stoppard. It is 1936 and A. E. Housman is being ferried across the river Styx, glad to be dead at last. The river that flows through Tom Stoppard’s The Invention of Love connects Hades with the Oxford of Housman’s youth: High Victorian morality is under siege from the Aesthetic movement, and an Irish student named Wilde is preparing to burst onto the London scene. On his journey the elder Housman confronts the younger version of himself and his memories of the man he loved his entire life, Moses Jackson — the handsome athlete who could not return his feelings. "Though the play demands close attention and even the most literate theater goer is likely to miss more than a few of the playwright's finer literary chess moves, it doesn't really matter. There are plenty of Stoppardian mots and bits of word play that do not require a Latin primer to hit their mark and, in many cases, make you laugh out loud. Take Houseman, the elder's analysis of the scholarly strengths of various countries. ‘. . .the French get credit for their cooking. During the siege of Paris I'm sure that the rats never tasted better. . .I'd recommend the Germans as mechanics.’” —from a Curtain Up review

Room Service by John Murray and Allen Boretz was first produced on Broadway in 1937 and made into a Marx Brothers film. It is the story of a nimble-witted producer, living on credit with several actors in a Broadway hotel who is desperately in need of a good script. He finds one, and, by great good luck, he also finds an angel with $15,000. The play shows how, during a hectic few days, the producer plays hide-and-seek with the angel who wants to withdraw his financial support, manages to outwit creditors, and at the very last moments puts over his play in spite of the most ludicrous and unexpected obstacles. Here's a link to a profile of the playwrights on the Utah Shakespearean Festival website.

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