Transatlantic Translations and Transactions: Lars Schmidt and the Implementation of Postwar American Theatre in Europe

Abstract

Contributing to an intercultural understanding of American and European theatre during the postwar era, this essay explores the significance of the Swedish publisher and producer Lars Schmidt for the introduction and spread of US plays and musicals on his side of the Atlantic. Schmidt’s innovative publishing strategies and production methods, in addition to his skills as a cultural translator, made works like The Glass Menagerie , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , and My Fair Lady commercially viable and intelligible to audiences in various national contexts. In the process, he was largely responsible for the emergence of the individual producer in Europe, a position that was perceived as foreign and, at times, vehemently dismissed as too commercial and too American.