Seventeen is a 1917 play by writers Hugh Stanislaus Stange, Stannard Mears, and Stuart Walker, based on Booth Tarkington's 1916 novel.

The story concerns a seventeen-year-old boy in a small town who is smitten with a visiting beauty, enduring the pangs of a crush with the humiliation of not being accepted as adult by his family and friends.

The play was first produced and staged by Stuart Walker, with settings by Frank J. Zimmerer, and starring Gregory Kelly and Ruth Gordon.

Lead Supporting Featured Canine The play covers most of the novel published in March 1916, ending at the Parcher's party and omitting the last three chapters.

Willie accuses Jane of behaving like a child in front of "Miss Pratt" earlier that day.

Johnnie takes May for a walk, while Willie and Lola have a long discussion on Love, to the annoyance of Mr. Parcher in the living room.

The Baxters agree to help set things up, but Willie, once again refused a dress suit, disappears.

They are going for a ride, but since Crooper's car only holds five, Willie volunteers to stay behind, hoping to impress Lola with his nobility à la Sydney Carton.

Mr. Baxter sends Genesis to fetch Willie, while Jane has been primed to let him know his father's dress suit is at home, unaltered.

Crooper takes Lola to the train station, while Mrs. Baxter tries to console her son, who realizes now the romance was all one-way.

Stange and Mears' version of the play had included them, wherein 10-year-old Rannie Kirsted is introduced, and in the last chapter, revealed as Wille's "bride-to-be".

[21] Critics praised the performances of Gregory Kelly (Willie), Judith Lowry (Mrs. Baxter), Neil Martin (Johnnie), and Lillian Ross (Jane), but were dubious about Agatha Rogers as the "Baby-Talk Girl".

[23] A local critic reported "the acting version of Seventeen has been changing gradually since opening night", with Walker promising a further 10 minutes of cuts to come.

[24] The production resumed on September 17, 1918, at Columbus, Ohio,[15] with Ruth Gordon replacing Agnes Rogers as Lola Pratt, and Beatrice Maude promoted to playing May Parcher.

[25] Following two nights in Columbus, Seventeen played a series of one-night engagements for two weeks, before going into a steady run at Chicago.

Percy Hammond of the Chicago Tribune thought the acting in general was good, but saved his greatest praise for Lillian Ross, even suggesting the title should be changed to Ten.

He also disagreed with Tarkington's assessment of Kelly as the best possible "Willie", and after praising other actors[fn 4] failed to mention Ruth Gordon.

[30] The reviewer for The Sun felt the play's success owed more to Walker's "theatre genius" than to the writing of Stange and Mears.

[30] Charles Darnton at The Evening World felt Tarkington would have done a better job dramatising his novel than Stange and Mears.

His characters were what made the play work, while the playwrights writing "is without definite form", "merely a series of episodes".

[31] The New York Times thought the writing was fine and gave Kelly, Gordon, and Ross plaudits for their performances.

[32] J. Alexander Pierce of the New York Tribune also complimented Kelly, Gordon, and Ross, but said that Walker had rearranged and revised what Stange and Mears had written.

[33] The critic for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle emphasized how quickly the play captured the audience's approval, thought Lillian Ross "extraordinarily clever", but also remarked on Gregory Kelly's self-consciousness.

Broun decried the lack of theatricality in the production and lamented the thin plot, saying "The story is over before the play ends".

[37] The lack of a formal production contract between Tarkington and the partners Stange and Mears led to a legal dispute.