Hostile Witness
OPENING: February 17, 1966
CLOSING: July 2, 1966
Seen: May 1966
LOCATION: Music Box Theater
When I first started going through the playbills as a kid, most of them struck me in some way or another. Camelot had Julie Andrews. I Had a Ball looked strange. Hostile Witness looked…stuffy. The cover is literally just an older guy in a suit smiling for the camera. And after weeks of attempted research that’s scaring me that I’m falling behind on actually writing these entries, I have no proof to the contrary.
Hostile Witness was a courtroom drama that ran four and a half months in 1966. It starred Ray Milland, a celebrated welsh film star. From the one source I can find, the script mostly took place in the courtroom. Milland played the wrongly accused defendant.
I will admit that in researching for this entry, I did not attempt to find the script to read. At the time of writing this, I have just finished performing a few pieces of Poe (Including the Raven) while starting a new day job. There is no bandwidth left for reading a new script. However, while every other show I have researched had a healthy amount of information available, all that I was able to find for Hostile Witness was one New York Times review that described the show as “of the English garden variety” (Kauffmann, 1966).
The review goes on to say that the plot follows an English barrister whose daughter is killed in a hit and run accident. In a fit of grief, he publicly swears that he will not rest until the man who killed his daughter is dead. When said killer is found that way, our protagonist is arrested and tried.
Hostile Witness received no Tony love and closed after four and a half months. Since it was 1966 and social media was far from existence, I can’t gage how the audiences received it. However, Ray Milland liked it so much that he obtained the film rights. He both directed and starred in the 1969 film adaptation – which I also cannot find anywhere.
Not everything that makes it to Broadway is going to be remembered fondly. And not every show that is not beloved. Sometimes, you have the ones that are just there. Hostile Witness falls into this category. We should be grateful for the shows that are solid, steady, and ordinary. They are the ones that make the standouts even more memorable.
CAST: Original
CHARLES MILBURN: Norman Barrs
PERCY: Harvey Jason
SHEILA LARKIN: Angela Thornton
SIMON CRAWFORD: Ray Milland
SIR PETER CROSSMAN: Michael Allinson
HAMISH GILLESPIE: Edgar Daniels
MAJOR HUGH MAITLAND: Geoffrey Lumsden
COURT USHER: STAFFORD DICKENS
MR. NAYLOR: Anthony Kemble Cooper
CLERK OF THE COURT: Walter Thomson
POLICEMAN: Arthur Marlowe
SUPERINTENDENT ELEY: Gerald Peters
DR WIMBORNE: Peter Pagan
MR JUSTICE OSBORNE: Melville Cooper
PRISON OFFICER: John Clark
LADY GREGORY: Margot Stevenson
SPECTATORS AND COURT PERSONNEL: Katherine Hynes, Dorothy James, Robert Murch, Alex Reed, Tom McDermott, Jim Oyster
UNDERSTUDIES: Alex Reed (Charles Milburn, Superintendent Eley); Tom McDermott (Sir Peter Crossman, Mr. Naylor); Peter Pagan (Major Maitland); Dorothy James (Shelia Larkin); Walter Thomson (Hamish Gillespie); Stafford Dickens (Judge Osbourne); Arthur Marlowe (Usher, Clerk of the Court); Jim Oyster (Dr. Wimborne, Prison Officer, Policeman); Katherine Hynes (Lady Gregory); John Clark (Percy).
Internet Broadway Database. “Hostile Witness”. www.ibdb.com. Accessed November 2022.
Internet Movie Database. “Ray Milland”. www.imdb.com. Accessed November 2022.
Kauffmann, Stanley. “Theater: Milland in ‘Hostile Witness’ Opens; Courtroom Melodrama Is at the Music Box” New York Times, February 18, 1966. https://www.nytimes.com/1966/02/18/archives/theater-milland-in-hostile-witness-courtroom-melodrama-is-at-the.html?searchResultPosition=8
WalesArts. “Top 10 Welsh Actors: Ray Milland.” BBC. Updated March 5, 2010. https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/film/pages/actors-ray-milland.shtml
