Kaufman, the cast starred Broderick Crawford as Lennie and Wallace Ford as George. The play premiered on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre on November 23, 1937, and closed in May 1938 after 207 performances. The play had its world premiere circa October 1937 by the San Francisco Theatre Union. Steinbeck adapted the play from the novel. Eventually, in the face of a lynch mob, George kills Lennie to put him out of his misery. Lennie's displays of love result in several deaths ranging from mice and puppies to a beautiful woman. George's guardianship keeps Lennie out of trouble, but we soon see this is a slippery slope. They are bound by George's devotion and Lennie's 'pathetic helplessness'.

George, an affable migrant farm worker, and Lennie, a towering simple-minded pleasantly humble young man, are the subjects. Wallace Ford and Broderick Crawford in the original Broadway production of Of Mice and Men (1938) This has the effect of softening her character, portraying her as lonely and misunderstood. In the play, Curley's wife does not threaten to have Crooks lynched, and in her final scene she talks of her childhood and her father trying to run away with her. While the play follows the novel closely, Steinbeck altered the character of Curley's Wife, perhaps in response to criticisms from friends. Kaufman was the top director in the country. The 1937 production opened while the novel was still on best seller lists. The play, which predates the Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Awards, earned the 1938 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play. Of Mice and Men is a play adapted from John Steinbeck's 1937 novel of the same name. An agricultural valley in Northern California

Of mice and men first edition 1937