The Entertainer (play) Holm as Jean and Bertie Carvel as Frank. In 1960, a paperback novelization by John Burke was published by Four Square Books to coincide with the release of the film. Though the attribution line says "based on the play", it is actually based on the screenplay by Osborne and Nigel Kneale. The Entertainer (play) The Entertainer is a three-act play by John Osborne, first produced in 1957. His first play, "Look Back in Anger", had attracted mixed notices but a great deal of publicity. Having depicted an "angry young man" in the earlier play, Osborne wrote at Laurence Olivier's request
John Osborne he wrote, "It is the best young play of its decade". Harold Hobson of "The Sunday Times" called Osborne "a writer of outstanding promise". During production, the married Osborne began a relationship with Mary Ure, and would divorce his wife, Pamela Lane, to marry Ure in 1957. The play became an enormous commercial success, transferring to the West End and to Broadway, touring to Moscow and a film version was released in May 1959 with Richard Burton and Mary Ure in the leading roles. The play turned Osborne from a struggling playwright into a wealthy and famous angry young man