Before there was “Bewitched” there was “Bell, Book & Candle.” It premiered on Broadway in 1950 before becoming the 1958 film starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.
The story is centered around a young witch named Gillian who casts a spell over her unattached tenant. But if she chooses a normal life with a mortal, Gillian will be excommunicated from a life of sorcery and spells since witches cannot fall in love.
While the play may seem Halloween-themed, it’s actually a Christmas story that opens on Christmas Eve in Greenwich Village.
The play opens Friday, Oct. 16 and runs through Nov. 1.
MORE INFORMATION:
In 1950s New York, a young witch named Gillian Holroyd secretly performs feats of the supernatural. She casts a spell over her unattached tenant, Shepherd, partly to keep him away from a rival and partly because she is attracted to him. Shepherd falls head over heels in love with her at once and wants to marry her. Unfortunately, witches cannot fall in love, and this minute imperfection leads to a number of difficulties. Ultimately, Gillian must choose between her companions in witchery and a “normal’ life of human love with Shepherd.
“Bell, Book and Candle” premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Nov. 4, 1950. Directed by John Van Druten, the production starred Rex Harrison and Lilli Palmer.
A 1952-53 national tour followed the Broadway run, starring Rosalind Russell, followed by Joan Bennett. A West End production at London’s Phoenix Theatre opened on Oct. 5, 1954, starring Rex Harrison.
Richard Quine directed the 1958 film adaptation, which also starred Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Elsa Lanchester and Hermione Gingold.
As mentioned, “Bell, Book & Candle” is considered a Christmas story. The Yuletide season provides a cozy backdrop for this complex comedy about a woman sorting out if she wants to keep an urban, exotic, single life or settle into the wedded countryside of the Christmas carols.
The 1960s television series "Bewitched" drew major inspiration from both the play and the film. Creator Sol Saks also drew inspiration from the 1942 movie “I Married a Witch.” However, “Bell, Book & Candle” provided key concepts and character parallels for the sitcom starring Elizabeth Montgomery as both stories feature a glamorous, modern witch who uses a spell on an ordinary mortal man, only to genuinely fall in love with him.
Columbia Pictures produced the 1958 film, and its subsidiary, Screen Gems, later produced “Bewitched.”
Source of the phrase
"Bell, book and candle" is a phrase from the Roman Catholic ritual for excommunication that is sometimes used to denote a witch or witchcraft. Excommunication, or exclusion from the religious fellowship of the church, represents a condemnation to spiritual darkness, with repercussions in society. The excommunicated becomes an outcast in secular as well as religious life.
The ritual is the equivalent of a curse and involves a bell, the holy book and a candle or candles. The priest reads the following sentence:
We exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church, and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the Demon, do penance and satisfy the Church.
The priest then closes the book, rings a bell — a symbolic toll for death — extinguishes the candle and throws it down, which symbolizes the removal of the victim’s soul from the sight of God.
The phrase “bell, book and candle” became associated with witches because the church believed them to be Devil-worshippers who should be excommunicated.
Since turnabout is fair play, the phrase is used in the context of the play to signify that if Gillian chooses a life with Shepard, she will be excommunicated from the supernatural society of witches and warlocks … bell, book and candle.
Susana Falcon directs. Pyewacket assistant directs.
Lemon Bay Playhouse is at 96 W Dearborn Street, Englewood FL 34223.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
