Imagine America ruled by a charismatic bigot elected president on a populist platform. That is what Nobel Prize winner Sinclair Lewis did in his long forgotten play IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, which uncannily reflects the current the state of American politics. The Peccadillo Theater Company will present a staged reading of IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE, last seen on the New York Stage in 1936, for one night only on Monday, March 21st at 7:30 pm at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South). Obie Award winner and Peccadillo’s artistic director Dan Wackerman, who rediscovered this work, will direct the reading. Tickets are offered on a first come first served basis and can be ordered by emailing theatrearts@thenationalartsclub.org. 
Adapted from Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel of the same name, It Can’t Happen Here was originally produced as part of the WPA Federal Theater Project’s “Living Newspaper” series. This prophetic American play was adapted for the stage by Mr. Lewis and John C. Moffitt, and could easily have been written in 2016. Set in a small town in Vermont, IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE takes place under the rule of Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, a power-hungry demagogue who wins the presidency portraying himself as a champion of traditional values and promising to restore the country to greatness. Once in power, Windrip incarcerates political opponents and puts a paramilitary force called the Minute Men in charge. He curtails women’s and minority rights. He installs a government of “Corpo-men” cronies. He plans for a war with Mexico. Dissidents flee to Canada. The only ones to stand up to his dictatorship are members of an underground movement called the People’s Party – among them, a newspaper journalist named Doremus Jessup.
In keeping with Peccadillo’s mission of deepening appreciation of the history of the American theater, the company’s artistic director Dan Wackerman decided to present this timely play in a staged reading. “With It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis anticipated the 2016 presidential election by more than eighty years,” says Wackerman “Our form of government is more vulnerable than people suppose and this play shows how the loss of our cherished freedoms can happen by the gradual accommodation to the ‘new normal’ of demagogues like Donald Trump. This 80-year-old drama really stands the test of time,” he further explains. “Quite apart from its remarkably prescient analysis of how a fascist strongman might actually come to power in this country, it’s just a good story, well built and suspenseful, ” he concludes.
Dan Wackerman (Director) is one of the founding members of The Peccadillo Theater Company and has served as the company’s artistic director since its beginning in 1994. In that time, Dan has directed over 25 full productions of classic American plays, from the brooding melodramas of Eugene O’Neill to the rarefied nonsense of S.J. Perlman. In 2005, Dan was awarded Off Broadway’s highest honor, the OBIE Award, for direction of Elmer Rice’s great legal drama, Counsellor-at-Law. Under Dan’s artistic leadership, Peccadillo productions have earned several Lucille Lortel Awards and nominations, a Drama Desk Award and collected numerous nominations from the prestigious Outer Critics Circle. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from LeMoyne College in Syracuse and a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Catholic University of America. For many years, Dan has taught at Saint John’s University in Queens, introducing students to many aspects of producing live theater.
The Peccadillo Theater Company (founded in 1994) is a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to the rediscovery of classic American theater, particularly those works which, despite their obvious literary and theatrical value, are not regularly revived. Peccadillo concentrates on staging plays from the era of the so-called well-made play, championing sophistication in comedy as well as deepening realism in the drama. It encompasses diverse and little-known plays of celebrated authors like Dorothy Parker and John O’Hara. The mission of The Peccadillo Theater Company is to restore these buried gems to their rightful owner, the American theatergoer.
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) was a journalist and Nobel Prize winning novelist known for works like Main Street, Elmer Gantry and Babbitt. Born in in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, Lewis studied at Yale University and worked as a newspaper journalist before becoming an acclaimed novelist. Known for his insightful and critical views of American capitalism and materialism between the wars, he is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. His novels, Arrowsmith, Dodsworth and Elmer Gantry were made into major motion pictures. In 1930, he became the first U.S. writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded “for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters.”