Calling The Philadelphia Story ' 'one of Barry's most accomplished works," Moe offers an overview of the play and discusses its place within the genre of class comedy.

Philip Barry's social comedy in three acts is set in the house of a rich, high-society Philadelphia family in the 1930's. Tracy Lord, the mercurial, oldest daughter of the family's separated parents, is a divorcee who will, on the morrow, embark on a second marriage to a stuffy, self-made millionaire named George Kittredge. Puritanical about the frailties of others, Tracy has recently divorced a childhood friend, Dexter Haven, for his past alcoholic weakness, and holds no sympathy for her father, whose escapades with a dancer are to be made the feature of a popular magazine. To avoid public disclosure of a family scandal, Tracy's brother has persuaded the magazine's editor to suppress the story in return for letting two...