The Bespoke Overcoat Tickets

Inspired by Nicolai Gogol’s famous short story, Wolf Mankowitz’s The Bespoke Overcoat is by turns a deeply comic and unforgettably poignant reimagining of Gogol’s most famous classic tale, The Overcoat. Reset by Mankowitz into the Jewish East End of London, this story about an old clerk who can’t afford a new overcoat is a tale of love and resilience told with dignity and humor. Immediately hailed as one of Britain’s most exciting young playwrights when the play opened in London in 1953, Mankowitz adapted it into a film that won the Oscar at the 29th Academy Awards for Best Short Subject Film in 1957. The son of a Jewish bookseller in London’s East End, Mankowitz was a prolific dramatist, novelist, and screenwriter often known for depicting acts of humanity in a flawed but fascinating world.

“Mr. Mankowitz has a perfect ear for the rhythm and idiom of East End speech…hilarious and mournful by turn and tinged throughout with poetry.”
—(Kenneth Tynan on The Bespoke Overcoat 1953)