Miss Lulu Bett (play)

Miss Lulu Bett is a 1920 play written by Zona Gale, adapted from her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1920 novel of the same name. The play is a domestic drama and satire set in a small Midwestern town, focusing on the life of the titular character, Lulu Bett, a spinster who lives as a virtual servant in the household of her sister Ina and her overbearing husband, Dwight Deacon.

The plot centers around Lulu's unexpected marriage to Dwight's charming but irresponsible brother, Ninian, who arrives for a visit. The marriage is initially treated as a joke, performed during a supposed lapse in Ninian's memory regarding a previous (invalid) marriage. However, the question of the validity of the marriage becomes a point of contention and significantly alters Lulu's social standing and self-perception.

The play is notable for its depiction of the constrained lives of unmarried women in early 20th-century America, the suffocating atmosphere of small-town life, and the power dynamics within families. Gale's work explores themes of female agency, self-discovery, and the search for individual happiness within societal limitations.

The original Broadway production of Miss Lulu Bett was a success, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1921, cementing Gale's reputation as a significant American playwright and novelist. The play has been revived numerous times and remains a significant work in the American theatrical canon.