Scandalabra was written by Zelda Fitzgerald in the summer and fall of 1932 when the Fitzgeralds were living at “La Paix,” outside Baltimore. The play was produced in 1933 by the Junior Vagabonds and ran for a scheduled six nights in Baltimore, from June 26 to July 1.

There are two versions of Scandalabra: the ninety-one-page typescript deposited for copyright on October 31, 1932, and the undated sixty-one-page version in the Zelda Fitzgerald Papers at Princeton University Library. Both typescripts have a three-act structure; it may be that neither of these is the play as it was performed.

The shorter version printed here is almost certainly a later revision—if not the final one—of the longer text. Not only are speeches shortened and sometimes eliminated, but scenes are rearranged and new ones are added. The drastic cutting and revising produces a script that, while still probably a weak stage vehicle, at least reads more like a play in finished form.

Confusion within the play—as well as about the play—seems to reflect the turbulence in the Fitzgeralds’ lives during the time Scandalabra was written. Zelda Fitzgerald had suffered two breakdowns, and their marriage was in jeopardy. After her novel, Save Me the Waltz (1932), Fitzgerald had forbidden her to write fiction that would preempt material he wanted for Tender Is the Night. If she wrote a play, it must not be about psychiatry, nor should its locale be the Riviera or Switzerland; moreover, Fitzgerald must be given the right to approve her idea. These restrictions were more than Zelda Fitzgerald could tolerate.

Because of Zelda Fitzgerald’s determination to keep her work from Fitzgerald, he did not see a script for Scandalabra before its production. He first saw the play at dress rehearsal, which ran from approximately 8:15 p.m. to 1 a.m. The length of this performance made it clear that Scandalabra could not open as it was; Fitzgerald assembled the cast and revised the acting script in an all-night session. Despite his efforts Scandalabra played to poor reviews and small audiences.

Scandalabra was first published in 1980 as a limited edition (Columbia, S.C., and Bloomfield Hills, Mich.: Bruccoli Clark). This corrected text is republished here.