Meanings
- datedSuggests that something will fail and soon be ended.
PETER: We could start a two-person stock company. If things get tough, we can play some small town auditoriums. We'll call this one "The Great Deception." ELLIE: Next week "East Lynne."
1934, Robert Riskin, It Happened One Night2 more examples
The moving picture machine, which gave an amusing exhibition between the third and fourth acts, was, however, moved too rapidly, and as a result some of the pictures were blurred. Next week, 'East Lynne.'
1906, The IndependentMy actor-friend invited me to drive back to the city with him and as we piled into the car he sighed deeply out of weariness. "Well," he said as he shifted into first, "next week East Lynne."
1947, Screen Writer - datedSuggests that a person's acting is poor and particularly melodramatic.
I have known critics who were actors at heart, giving their own impersonations of Raskolnikov, or Donne, or Freud. Next week, East Lynne.
1962, Saul Bellow, The Noble Savage2 more examples
Mr. Derwent liked his actors to be theatrical (and they liked him because he would let them be theatrical) . He saw no wrong in their overplaying the soft and sentimental elements in their parts even though we pointed out how detrimental this was to the play.[…]Our only recourse was to wander mechanically around and prophecy that all this excess cooing and gushing could only invite from the critics: Next week "East Lynne."
1944, Theatre World“It was perfectly appropriate for the Senator from Idaho to offer this amendment, which I [am] so happy to accept,” O’Mahoney assured him with a straight face. Ardent Johnson supporter that he was, Oregon Senator Richard Neuberger could barely contain himself. In a reference to a hokey stage melodrama of the nineteenth century, he muttered: “What’s next week? East Lynne?”
1957, Richard Neuberger, quotee, “LBJ Goes for Broke”, in Smithsonian Magazine
Origin
East Lynne was a popular 1861 novel by Mrs. Henry Wood with numerous stage adaptations. Urban legend stated that if a stage show was failing, the theatre manager would cancel it by declaring "Next week, East Lynne!" as it was a guaranteed moneymaker and part of the standard repertoire.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
next week, East Lynne. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/next%20week%2C%20East%20Lynne
“next week, East Lynne.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/next%20week%2C%20East%20Lynne. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “next week, East Lynne,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/next%20week%2C%20East%20Lynne.
Source: next week, East Lynne on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.