Is Jordan E. Cooper, at 27, really the youngest playwright in Broadway history?

When David Merrick presented Shelagh Delaney's acclaimed play "A Taste of Honey," it was claimed that she was the youngest playwright in Broadway history at 21 years old. That was quite a cast-- Joan Plowright, Angela Lansbury, Nigel Davenport,Billy Dee Williams. It played for almost a year and Plowright won the Tony Award as Best Actress.

Cooper may be the second youngest but...it's still quite an achievement, even if he is 6 years older.

Totally interested in this question, so I just did some quick research. The Philanthropist, which was nominated for Best Play in 1971, was written by Christopher Hampton, who was born on January 26, 1946. The show opened on Broadway at the Barrymore on March 15, 1971, which would have made Hampton 25 years old at the time.

Importantly, though, Jordan E. Cooper's bio says he is the youngest American playwright in Broadway history, which makes sense, since Hampton is a Brit.

A few other tidbits I found... Look Back in Anger was nominated for Best Play in 1958. The playwright, John Osborne, was born on December 12, 1929, and the show opened on Broadway on October 1, 1957, which would have made Osborne 27 years at the time as well (though he was also a Brit).

However, A Thousand Clowns was nominated for Best Play in 1963. The playwright, Herb Gardner, an American, was born on December 28, 1934, and the show opened on Broadway on April 5, 1962, which would have made Gardner 27 years, 3 months, and 8 days old at the time as well.

I'm not sure what Cooper's birthday is, so they might be running with the knowledge of his exact number of days of being 27 by opening night to have that tagline. But if that's the case, then Cooper would have to be born after August 25, 1995 to beat Gardner's record of the youngest American playwright on Broadway (that's 9,960 days before Ain't No Mo's opening night on December 1, 2022).

Updated On: 11/27/22 at 09:07 PM

cardamon said: "In addition to the others already mentioned, Terrence McNally was 26 when 'And Things That Go Bump in the Night' opened on Broadway."

Oh, wow. That beats my whole multi-paragraph post then! LOL

But yes, And Things That Go Bump in the Night opened on Broadway on April 26, 1965 at the then-Royale (now-Jacobs). Terrence McNally, born on November 3, 1938, would indeed have been 26 years old on opening night.

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Is he the youngest Black dramatist? Quite possibly."

I think this is what is meant, as Lorraine Hansberry was the previous record-holder for black playwrights at age 28.

Ira Levin was twenty-seven when No Time for Sergeants opened on Broadway. Arthur Kopit was twenty-six when Oh Dad, Poor Dad had its Broadway run.

Pretty sure that Orson Welles holds this record... at 21 years old.

I cannot get over them just flat-out lying about this and just totally expecting nobody would notice or care.

If your flaccid, meandering, witless "satire" had all the bite and insight of a forty-year-old TV sketch, you'd make up something to feel special about too.

While it's true that he may not be the youngest -- he can at least take some comfort in being the WORST playwright in Broadway history!

Yes, Queen Latifah, who may not have checked any facts, announced to the audience at last night's performance that Cooper was the youngest playwright in history to have a play on Broadway. I guess she can be forgiven since she's never been on Broadway and may not have a sense of history apropos playwrights like Terrence McNally, Ira Levin, Moss Hart, Shelagh Delaney, Arthur Kopit, and (possibly) Herb Gardner per some respondents to this thread. Her team should have advised her more accurately.

In interviews I saw in early December they did make the clarification of youngest BLACK playwright.