Pollyanna (play)

Pollyanna sometimes sub-titled The Glad Play or The Glad Girl, is a 1915 play by Catherine Chisholm Cushing, based on the 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter. It is a four-act comedy with two settings and eleven characters. The action of the play takes place in a New England village over a five year time period. The story concerns an orphan girl whose cheerful demeanor is infectious, unlocking long frozen hearts.

The play was produced by George C. Tyler, with financial backing from Klaw and Erlanger who owned it. Staging was by Frederick Stanhope, with Patricia Collinge as the eponymous lead. It had a tryout in Detroit in August 1915, then went on an extended tour starting with Chicago. It premiered on Broadway during September 1916. It ran three months on Broadway and continued touring until the 1920 silent film with Mary Pickford put an end to the play's commercial viability.

Though successful, the play was never revived on Broadway, nor was it adapted to other media, the subsequent Pollyanna films in 1920 and 1960 having gone back to the book for their screenplays.