hayward came to broadway in 1935 with a production of coward's "point valaine" working with alfred lunt and lynn fontanne. the play, described as one of coward's worst and poorly received critically and popularly, only ran for a short time. the play ran six weeks and was considered a failure, but hayward won the donaldson award, a precursor to the tonys and as a consequence signed a four picture contract with mgm.