Carry Nation premiered in New York on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on October 29, 1932, and starred Esther Dale, who had been known principally as a singer up to that time.
[1] Despite its being a flop, the show was notable for having launched the Broadway careers of supporting actress Mildred Natwick and the actors Jimmy Stewart, Myron McCormick and Josh Logan, who had known one another at Princeton University where the three men were members of the University Players theater company.
The show had originated in summer stock, and some of the young players from the earlier staging were carried over into the New York production in small roles.
In addition to Dale, the featured performers included Leslie Adams, Donald Foster, Daisy Belmore, Byron McGrath, John Parrish, Ernest Pollock and Fannie Bell De Knight.
(in order of speech)[2] The story line of the play followed the chronology of the prohibitionist leader's life, beginning with her birth in 1846 in Kentucky to a zealously pious father, her marriage to a chronic drunk, a second marriage to a country preacher, her public campaign against Demon Rum and her infamous marches culminating in the axing of booze barrels.