8284 shows
Clear filtersBrecht’s revised Lehrstück retells Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight while repudiating the aviator’s historical politics. The revision removes Lindbergh’s name and changes the first-person identification to an impersonal one.
Matriarch Enid Pollack, who once aspired to be a dancer in George White's Scandals, spends her days hounding neighbors with telephone business schemes in order to support the family. Her philandering husband Max is a gambler, furtively planning his escape from his marriage. Stuttering teenaged son Paul is a frail, bright, shy boy who tries to perfect magic tricks — including a floating light bulb illusion — in his bedroom. When talent agent Jerry Wexler arrives at the house, seemingly to audition Paul, Enid seizes the opportunity for Paul to shine in the spotlight that eluded her, only to have her hopes dashed when she realizes Wexler is more interested in wooing her than signing her son as a client.
In a small coastal town, June performs a daily striptease that leaves the men in tears. The arrival of a stranger disrupts the ritual, uncovering the forces of desire and obligation that hold the community together.
An English father dreams of leaving his insurance job to run an apple orchard, while his wife wants him to abandon those plans. Their two children face problems of their own as the couple’s marriage strains.
The Flowering Peach is a 1954 dramatic play by American playwright Clifford Odets with music by Alan Hovhaness. The plot is a modern take on the Bible stories of Noah and Noah's Ark. It was the last original play by Odets produced in his lifetime. The play was revived in 1994. While rarely produced in stock and regional theatres, a musical version titled Two by Two was produced on Broadway in 1970 by Richard Rodgers, Martin Charnin and Peter Stone. It starred Danny Kaye and ran for a year on Broadway.
After a breakdown, American businessman Grover Bemis retreats to rural southern Mexico, where a corrupt fascist general targets the village. When its idealistic leader is arrested as a communist, Bemis impersonates the local patron saint, restores the power supply, and helps save the village from dictatorship.
The Flying Fool is a 1929 thriller play by the British writer Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale. It enjoyed a successful run in the West End.
The play follows poet John Clare from his rural East Anglian roots through literary success in London to his final years in an asylum, against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution.
A long-married couple, Harriet and George, shop for twin beds. George objects to the change and finds common ground with Jill, a much younger shopper who shares his view.
A king forces Erminia to marry Alcippus, though she loves Philander, who is in turn connected to Alcippus and Galatea; disguises, mistaken identities and a threatened duel complicate the royal command.
The Force of Ridicule is a 1796 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. The original Drury Lane cast included John Palmer, William Barrymore, Richard Suett, Robert Palmer, Charles Kemble, John Bannister, Maria Theresa Kemble and Elizabeth Farren. According to James Boaden, the play was "perdurably damned” after its opening night and never performed again. The manuscript of the play was never published and its sources were only hinted at in Biographica Dramatica, where it was mentioned that it was believed to have been derived from French. The failure of the play was seen as so great, Holcroft did not attempt any further playwriting for another two years.
Shy Englishman Charlie Baker pretends not to understand English at a Georgia fishing lodge, where guests reveal their secrets around him. When a local white supremacist plots to seize the lodge for the Klan, Charlie uses the ruse to help the owner and her guests defeat the plan and find confidence.
Ostrovsky's play developed from a planned family comedy into a sharper satire, with Neschastlivtsev growing from a marginal figure into its central character.
In a Volyn forest, woodland spirit Mavka falls in love with Lukash, a young man who plans to build a home there with his uncle. As domestic demands pull Lukash away from the forest and its spirits, Mavka's love survives betrayal and a transformation that leaves her voice in a willow flute.
A blank-verse and prose stage treatment of the Robin Hood legend in four acts, tracing the bond, flight and crowning of Maid Marian before the conclusion. The text contains songs and dances, with a nine-movement incidental score.
A court masque envisions a unified British kingdom under a wise king while satirizing Rosicrucians. Johphiel, a spirit, debates Merefool, a melancholic student, before English poets and folkloric figures join mythological sea gods in the masque and anti-masque.
An impoverished French aristocrat marries an Australian heiress, then seeks annulment when her fortune disappears. When their child is born, his attempted reconciliation comes too late; he engineers a duel so his friend can marry and care for Diana.
The Fortune Hunters; Or, Two Fools Well Met is 1689 comedy play by James Carlile. It was originally staged by the United Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The original Drury Lane cast included Anthony Leigh as Sir William Wealthy, Edward Kynaston as Tom Wealthy, William Mountfort as Young Wealthy, James Nokes as Spruce, John Bowman as Littlegad, Elinor Leigh as The Lady Sly, Charlotte Butler as Sophia, Susanna Mountfort as Maria and Frances Maria Knight as Mrs Spruce. The work remained popular into the eighteenth century. It was revived at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket in 1707 with a cast featuring William Bullock, John Mills, Robert Wilks, George Pack, Henry Norris, Lucretia Bradshaw, Margaret Bicknell and Anne Oldfield. This led to further stagings at the Haymarket in 1708 and 1709, followed by Drury Lane in 1711 and Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1717 and 1728.
A reconstructed burlesque of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the production cast women in all the principal male roles and as the forty thieves.
This pantomime burlesque retells Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves through four scenes—at Ali Baba’s house, in the wood, back at his house and in the cave—followed by a transformation and a harlequinade.
Former cavalry general Traugott von Beeskow plots to destroy the manuscript of his former comrade Ago, who has returned from Russian imprisonment with new political ideas and still loves Traugott’s daughter Ursula. Ursula’s father drives her to betray Ago, but she instead burns the manuscript and embraces him; Traugott shoots them both.
The Foundling is a 1748 comedy by the British writer Edward Moore. The original Drury Lane cast included David Garrick as Young Belmont, Spranger Barry as Sir Charles Raymond, Charles Macklin as Faddle, William Havard as Colonel Raymond, Richard Yates as Sir Roger Belmont, Peg Woffington as Rosetta and Susannah Cibber as Fidelia.
Florian is abandoned in the woods as a small child and grows up living on his own resources. It is only at the conclusion of the story that he is revealed to be of aristocratic birth.
Architect Howard Roark pursues an uncompromising modernist vision against colleagues who favor established styles. After Roark agrees to help Peter Keating with a housing project and their agreement is broken, he demolishes the building and faces trial; Dominique Francon leaves Gail Wynand to join him.
A stream-of-consciousness play by Pablo Picasso, written in French; critics have questioned whether it was intended for staging or only for reading.
In Heywood’s interlude, a palmer, pardoner, apothecary and pedlar compete to tell the greatest lie, with the pedlar judging their claims.
Four brothers, reduced to apprentices after their father's dispossession, join a crusade, become separated, and eventually reunite in Jerusalem, where they receive crowns and marriages.
The Fourposter is a play written by Jan de Hartog. The two-character story spans 35 years, from 1890 to 1925, as it focuses on the trials and tribulations, laughters and sorrows, and hopes and disappointments experienced by Agnes and Michael throughout their marriage. The set consists solely of their bedroom, dominated by the large, fourposter bed in the centre of the room. Among the couple's milestones are the consummation of their marriage, the birth of their first child, Michael's success as a writer, his extramarital affair, their daughter's wedding, and their preparations to move to smaller quarters and pass their home on to another newlywed couple. After a pre-London tour, it opened in the West End in 1950. A Broadway production followed in 1951, and the play has been adapted for film, television and musical theatre.
Peggy redecorates her living room like a stage, with everything facing a blank wall that represents the audience. Her husband Roger and their friends are drawn into theatrical conventions and try to restore their ordinary domestic life.
The Fourth Wall is a mystery play by the British writer A.A. Milne. It was first staged at the Haymarket Theatre in 1928. Under the name, The Perfect Alibi, it was produced at the Charles Hopkins Theatre on Broadway from November 1928 through July 1929.
A farce set at a private country club, built around mistaken identities, slamming doors and romantic entanglements among its stuffy members.
Cui Jianyun, a scholar's wife, and Cao Yuhua fall in love. After Cui secretly marries Cao in men's clothing, the women are separated; Cui arranges to have Cao's father marry her to the scholar as a second wife, and they eventually reunite as co-wives.
A spinster from Ohio arrives in New York before a trip to Europe and discovers that her niece has joined a group of hippies, drawing her into their world.
In 1970 Derry, three civil-rights marchers fleeing tear gas mistakenly take shelter in the mayor’s Guildhall parlour. Their presence is treated as an occupation; they discuss their lives while waiting for the violence to pass, then are shot by soldiers as they try to surrender. A tribunal reconstructs their deaths through fictionalized testimony and acquits the soldiers, turning the play’s parallel scenes into an indictment of the violence and its official account.
The Freedom of the Seas is a 1918 British comedy play by Walter Hackett. A downtrodden London clerk joins the Royal Navy during the First World War. Given command of a tramp steamer he rises to the occasion and thwarts the plans of a German spy. It appeared at the Royalty Theatre before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket where the cast included Dennis Eadie, Billie Carleton, Tom Reynolds, Marion Lorne, Randle Ayrton, Sydney Valentine and James Carew.
The French Conjuror is a comedy play by the English writer Thomas Porter. It was first staged by the Duke's Company at the Dorset Garden Theatre in London in June 1677. The original cast included Thomas Jevon as Avarito, John Crosby as Claudio, Thomas Gillow as Dorido, Henry Norris as Horatio, Thomas Percival as Truro, Anthony Leigh as Monsieur, John Richards as Audacio, Elizabeth Barry as Clorinia, Margaret Hughes as Leonora and Elinor Leigh as Scintilla.
The French Libertine is an 1826 historical play by the British-based American writer John Howard Payne. Written under the title Richelieu the play originally focused on the life of the eighteenth century French aristocrat and libertine the Duke of Richelieu, a relation of the seventeenth century statesman Cardinal Richelieu. It was partly inspired by the 1796 work La Jeunesse de Richelieu by Alexandre Duval. Issues with the censor George Colman led to many changes, done by Charles Kemble who played the lead, and Richelieu was altered into the fictional Duke de Rougemont. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 11 February 1826. The cast included Charles Kemble as the Duke de Rougemont, James Prescott Warde as Dubois, Tyrone Power as Lamotte, John Cooper as Dorival, Louisa Chatterley as Countess de Fleury and Julia Glover as Jeanette.
The French Mistress is a comedy play by the British entertainer Sonnie Hale under the pen name Robert Munro about the arrival of a new young French teacher at a traditional public school. It premiered at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff in May 1955. Four years later it enjoyed a West End run of 185 performances, first at the Adelphi Theatre before transferring to the Prince's Theatre. The cast included Hugh Wakefield and Richard Bird.
A pantomimic military drama reflecting the French occupation of Algiers. Its heroine, Mathilde de Grammont, assumes the identities of Pierre Graziot, a lancer cadet, and Omar Almorid, an Arab boy.
A group of friends from working-class backgrounds have built a successful chain of interior-design shops, but feel their work has failed to reach the people they hoped to serve. As they gather around Esther, who is dying of leukaemia, they reassess their ideals, achievements and mortality.
The Frog is a 1936 thriller play written by Ian Hay, and based on the novel The Fellowship of the Frog by Edgar Wallace. It ran for 481 performances at the Princes Theatre in London's West End between 11 April 1936 and 5 June 1937. The cast included Gordon Harker, Jack Hawkins, Frank Pettingell, Hugh Burden and Herbert Lomas. In 1937 a film version The Frog was made, with Gordon Harker and Jack Hawkins reprising their roles.
Mamet retells the traditional tale of a haughty prince transformed into a frog, who can return to human form only if someone willingly kisses him.
Dionysus descends to the underworld with his slave Xanthias to bring Euripides back to Athens. At Pluto's palace he judges a contest between Euripides and Aeschylus over the greatest tragic poet, then chooses Aeschylus to return and advise the city during the Peloponnesian War.
The play's single set is the dingy press room of Chicago's Criminal Courts Building, overlooking the gallows behind the Cook County Jail. Reporters from most of the city's newspapers are passing the time with poker and pungent wisecracks about the news of the day. Soon they will witness the hanging of Earl Williams, a white man and supposed Communist revolutionary convicted of killing a black policeman. Hildy Johnson, cocky star reporter for the Examiner, is late. He appears only to say goodbye; he is quitting to get a respectable job and be married. Suddenly the reporters hear that Earl Williams has escaped from the jail. All but Hildy stampede out for more information. As Hildy tries to decide how to react, Williams comes in through the window. He tells Hildy he is no revolutionary, and that he shot the police officer by accident. The reporter realizes this bewildered, harmless little man was railroaded—just to help the crooked mayor and sheriff pick up enough black votes to win re-election. It is the story of a lifetime. Hildy helps Williams hide inside a roll-top desk. His daunting challenge now is to get Williams out of the building to a safe place for an interview before rival reporters or trigger-happy policemen discover him. Hildy has no choice but to ask for help from Walter Burns, managing editor of the Examiner—a devious tyrant who would do just about anything to keep Hildy with the newspaper.
This western triptych follows brothers journeying west under a blood-moon omen, a trapped man forced to choose between ease and justice as a railroad approaches, and an outlaw confronting the lawman pursuing him.
A contemporary urban drama about street life outside Camden Town tube station in London.
A group of retirees live at a hotel in Miami, Florida.
An allegorical Arctic drama responds to the loss of Franklin’s expedition and the controversy over reports of its fate.
Tolstoy satirizes the landed aristocracy’s persistence in unenlightened attitudes toward Russian peasants. The first staged version reflected conditions at Yasnaya Polyana and neighboring estates, using real local gentry names before these were replaced in later text.
Civil servant Daniele plans to abandon his wife Nina, but a mysterious doctor challenges his motives. When Nina is implicated in her supervisor's murder, Daniele learns more about their bond and helps her flee toward the border, ultimately rejecting the doctor's nihilism.
The Full Monty is a black comedy play written by Simon Beaufoy, from his original screenplay for the 1997 film The Full Monty. It made its world premiere at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield in February 2013, before touring the United Kingdom. A West End production was launched at the Noël Coward Theatre in February 2014. Followed by UK Tours in 2014/15 and 2016/17. In 2023 a brand new production opened at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, produced by Mark Goucher Productions and Buxton Opera House, which is currently touring the UK until April 2024.
The Gambler (Il giocatore) is an Italian-language play in three acts by Ugo Betti that was first performed in Italy in 1950. An abstract morality play, the plot revolves around the character of David Petri who out of both ego and boredom conspires to have his loving and doting wife, Eva Petri, murdered by hiring a group of invading soldiers to commit the deed on his behalf. In 1952 the play was staged on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in an English-language adaptation by Alfred Drake and Edward Eager. Drake starred as David Petri with Margaret Draper portraying his wife Eva. Others in the cast included Anne Burr as Eva's mother Alma Reich, Percy Waram as the Station Master, E. G. Marshall as Ernest Bruni, Philip Coolidge as Commissioner Costa, and Constance Clausen as Paula Mori. The Broadway production was directed by Herman Shumlin.
Card sharp Ikharev joins three gamblers in a scheme involving a rich landowner's promissory note, only to discover that the supposed landowner and a local official were accomplices in a plot to take his winnings.
The play centers on fictional football club Blackton Rovers, its star player Jack Metherell and the family of club owner Austin Whitworth.
A young woman and her fiancé each disguise themselves as servants to judge one another before marriage. They fall in love without recognizing each other’s status, while their servants imitate their masters and become a second couple.
In December 1936, actor William Gillette, famed for playing Sherlock Holmes, invites his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle. When a guest is murdered, Gillette adopts Holmes's persona to hunt for the killer before another victim appears.
Gambling-obsessed Wilding neglects his wife and pursues her ward Penelope, then sends his friend Hazard to an assignation meant for himself. His wife secretly takes Penelope’s place, and the pair devise a lesson that ends with Wilding’s repentance. A subplot follows a wealthy uncle’s attempt to make his nephew a fashionable gambler, while a third plot concerns two pairs of lovers and a false murder charge.
The Gamester is a 1705 comedy by the English writer Susanna Centlivre. This marked the first time Centlivre had a star cast in one of her productions, and it was a hit. The play was one of the most popular of the nineteen she wrote, and it was fairly often staged until 1745, before later being revived at Covent Garden in 1789 under an alternative title. It is inspired by the 1696 play Le Joueur by the French writer Jean-François Regnard, with numerous changes made to reflect its English setting most particularly in its moral about the "ill consequences of gaming". The original cast included John Freeman as Sir Thomas Volere, John Corey as Dorante, John Verbruggen as Young Volere, Thomas Betterton as Lovewell, William Fieldhouse as Marquess of Hazard, George Pack as Hector, Elizabeth Barry as Lady Wealthy, Anne Bracegirdle, as Angelica and Elizabeth Willis as Mrs Security.
Beverley’s gambling has stripped his family of its fortune, yet he continues to trust Stukely, who profits from his losses. As his wife tries to support him, Stukely schemes to take the family’s remaining resources and implicate Beverley in a murder.
The Gamester is a drama in five acts by dramatist Edward Moore. It premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre on February 7, 1753. The original production starred David Garrick as Beverley, Hannah Pritchard as Mrs. Beverley, Henry Mossop as Lewson, Thomas Davies as Stukely, Edward Berry as Jarvis, Charles Blakes as Dawson, Miss Charlotte as Miss. Haughton, Miss Lucy as Mrs. Price, Mr. Burton as Bates, and Ellis Ackman as the Waiter.
Hugo Pludek attends a bureaucratic Liquidation Office garden party after an appointment falls through. He adapts to its empty ideological clichés so successfully that he rises to lead a new committee, losing his identity until even his parents fail to recognize him.
Devout Englishwoman Domini Enfilden meets Boris Androvsky, a former Trappist monk with a mysterious past, in Beni-Mora. They marry, but after Boris confesses his history, Domini recognizes that his religious vocation remains; she bids him return to the monastery. Five years later, she listens to music in Count Anteoni's garden while their son plays nearby.
In this three-act Dada parody, Mouth, Ear, Eye, Nose, Neck and Eyebrow trade absurd, metaphorical non sequiturs rather than pursue a conventional plot. Their exchanges suggest courtship and desire, while brief dance sequences and a closing arrangement of words and drawings further unsettle theatrical form.
The Gay Adventure is a 1931 comedy play by the British-American writer Walter Hackett. It ran for 291 performances at the Whitehall Theatre in the West End between 23 December 1931 and 3 September 1932. The original cast included Seymour Hicks, Charles Quatermaine, Eric Maturin, Nora Swinburne and Marion Lorne.
The Gay Dog is a 1951 comedy play by the British author Joseph Colton. After its London premiere at the Q Theatre in Kew Bridge (under the title A Dog for Delmont it transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End where it ran for 276 performances between 11 June 1952 and 7 February 1953. The West End cast included Wilfred Pickles, Megs Jenkins, Harold Goodwin, Anthony Oliver, Brian Nissen, David King-Wood and Joan Hickson.
Sophy Fullgarney is a manicurist whose clients include the Countess of Owbridge and the Duchess of Strood. The former is elderly and kind; the latter is younger and romantically inclined. They are both also clients of "Valma", the professional name of the palmist Frank Pollitt; he practises in the next door premises and is Sophy's fiancé. Sophy is the foster-sister of the beautiful Muriel Eden, and is set against Muriel's intended marriage to the notorious middle-aged roué, the Marquess of Quex. Sophy does not believe that he is, as he claims, a reformed character and believes a more suitable husband for her foster-sister would be the charming young Captain Bastling. Lady Owbridge invites the other characters to her country house, where the Duchess, an old flame of Quex's, insists on his drinking a farewell glass of champagne in her room after dinner. It is a wholly innocent rendezvous, but would appear highly scandalous if others knew of it. Sophy spies on them, and is discovered. The Duchess hastily departs, leaving Quex and Sophy to confront each other. To avoid a scandal he attempts to bribe her to remain silent. He is impressed to find that her motives are not mercenary and that she is simply determined that he shall not marry Muriel. He points out that he has locked the door, and that if Sophy is discovered to be alone with him in a bedroom her fiancé would assuredly break off their engagement. Any scandal she causes will therefore be as damaging to her as to him. He convinces her that he is truly reformed and she promises not to stand in the way of his marriage to Muriel. Quex is concerned that the handsome young Captain Bastling is a rival for Muriel's affections. Sophy tricks Bastling into revealing that he is as dissolute a philanderer as Quex used to be. Muriel sees how untrustworthy he is, and prefers the reformed Quex.
A television crime writer kills the man blackmailing his wife and hides the body beneath a new garden gazebo. When the corpse reappears in their living room, the couple must face the detectives gathering around them.
The Gazette Extraordinary is a comedy play by the British writer Joseph George Holman, published and first performed in 1811. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London on 23 April 1811 The original cast included Charles Mayne Young as Lord De Mallory, Joseph Shepherd Munden as Heartworth, William Barrymore as William Clayton, John Fawcett as Doctor Suitall, Charles Murray as Randall, Nannette Johnston as Lady Julia Sandford, Mary Catherine Bolton as Miss Alford, Mary Ann Davenport as Mrs Leech and Sarah Booth as Ellen Meredith. It was acted eleven times during its initial run.
The Generous Conqueror is a 1701 tragedy by the English writer Bevil Higgons. It was published in January the following year, and is sometimes dated 1702 by this. Higgons was a well-known Jacobite who had been implicated in the 1696 Jacobite assassination plot against William III. In this play he effectively called for the peaceful succession of the pretender to the throne as James III. The Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Almerick, John Mills as Rodomond, Philip Griffin as Gonzalvo, Colley Cibber as Malespine, Thomas Simpson as Meroan, Jane Rogers as Armida, Mary Kent as Irene and Anne Oldfield as Cimene. It was not a success, partly because audiences and critics objected to its Jacobite arguments portrayed in the characters and plot. The prologue was by the Tory politician and writer George Granville, who shared the Jacobite sympathies of Higgons. The printed version play was dedicated to the Marquess of Normanby, who had attended the play several times, and was another Tory with Jacobite leanings. A contemporary play Tamerlane by Nicholas Rowe, took the very opposite view to Higgons, presenting another historical tragedy that depicts William of Orange as a heroic figure in Whig eyes.
The Generous Enemies; Or, The Ridiculous Lovers is a 1671 comedy play by the writer John Corye. It was first staged by the King's Company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The original cast included William Wintershall as Signior Robatzy, Edward Lydall as Signior Cassidoro, Michael Mohun as Don Alvarez, Edward Kynaston as Signior Flaminio, William Cartwright as Don Bertran, Richard Bell as Sanco, Rebecca Marshall as Jaccinta, Elizabeth James as Alleria, Elizabeth Boutell as Lysander and Katherine Corey as Julia.
Young scientist John Rivers works in the household of elderly physicist Henry Maartens and becomes involved with Maartens’s wife Katy. After their affair, Katy returns to her husband, torn between her desire and sense of duty to him.
The Gentle Gunman is a 1950 thriller play by the British writer Roger MacDougall. A former IRA gunman attempts to renounce his violent past, as he is now convinced a non-violent approach is best. It premiered at the Cambridge Arts Theatre before transferring to the Arts Theatre in London's West End where it ran for 31 performances between 2 and 27 August 1950. The original London cast included Henry Hewitt, Robin Bailey, Victor Maddern, Larry Burns, Michael Golden, Harry Towb, Eddie Byrne, Kevin Stoney, Louise Hampton and Maureen Pryor. The production was televised by the BBC in September 1950.
Two friends escape their domestic troubles by fishing together, until a gangster demands protection money and then their boat savings. When a corrupt court fails them, they decide to confront him themselves.
A pastoral comedy depicting rustic manners in the Scottish Lowlands countryside of the eighteenth century.
In an Italian duchy, Duke Alphonso and his son Vincentio both love Margaret. With his friend Strozza’s help, Vincentio courts her through the pompous usher Bassiolo, while the duke’s favorite Medice schemes against the young couple. After Vincentio is wounded and Margaret disfigures herself to avoid a forced marriage, Medice’s deceptions are exposed and both lovers are healed and united.
Giovanni, a gardener's son, distinguishes himself in Venice's war with Genoa and seeks the hand of Bellaura, the Duke's niece. A revelation that he and the Duke's son were switched at birth changes their identities. In a subplot, a Venetian gentleman's attempt to force his wife to conceive by abducting Florelli collapses into repentance.
The German Hotel is a 1790 comedy play by the British writer Thomas Holcroft. The original Covent Garden cast included John Quick as Count Werling, Joseph George Holman as Dorville, Francis Aickin as Count Kolberg, William Farren as Baron Thorck, Richard Wilson as Rummer, John Bernard as William, Charles Farley as Messenger, Isabella Mattocks as Adelaide and Jane Pope as Mrs Dorville. George III and Queen Charlotte attended a performance of the play in December 1790 "and seemed highly gratified with the whole performance".
Kentucky fugitive Warren Jarvis escapes arrest with the help of Spanish princess Maria Theresa, who hides him aboard a ship and enlists him to rid her ancestral castle of a ghost. Their search for her missing brother and hidden treasure brings them into conflict with a scheming duke and his mercenary.
A young student idealizes the residents of a fashionable Stockholm apartment building. With the mysterious Jacob Hummel's help, he enters and discovers betrayal, sickness, and a world in which human beings must suffer to reach salvation.
A group of railway passengers stranded overnight at an isolated station are warned about a deadly ghost train. The apparent supernatural threat escalates into danger, then proves to be a cover for revolutionaries smuggling weapons, confronted by a secret agent among the passengers.
After the bombing of the Mariupol theatre in 2022, two actress friends take different paths: one works with Russians in the rebuilt theatre, while the other makes theatre for injured Ukrainian soldiers. Both reckon with their choices during the attack.
Over seven days, JPW King, an English-born self-help therapist in Dublin, reluctantly teaches a mysterious Irish construction millionaire to sing like opera star Beniamino Gigli. Their work helps the client recover and later leads King to confront his own despair and discover he can sing.
Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens, strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy, and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins. Weller's inability to win a single hand becomes increasingly frustrating to him, while Fonsia becomes increasingly confident. While playing their games of gin, they engage in lengthy conversations about their families and their lives in the outside world. Gradually, each conversation becomes a battle, much like the ongoing gin games, as each player tries to expose the other's weaknesses, to belittle the other's life, and to humiliate the other thoroughly.
A comedy about a seeming fool who takes nothing but laughter seriously.
The Gingerbread Lady is a play by Neil Simon. It was widely believed to have been written specifically for actress Maureen Stapleton, who won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her performance. But in a later autobiography, Simon wrote that he'd feared Stapleton might be "hurt" if she assumed the character's flaws and personal damage were a direct dramatization of her life. Simon said that it was director Mike Nichols' suggestion to cast Stapleton in the role, and that Simon responded, "This is not really Maureen. It's ten, twenty different actresses I've met over the years."
Stockbroker Wilfred Grant schemes to force Violet Donald into marriage by falsifying her father's accounts. Violet agrees to save her father, while the soldier Richard Scott seeks to marry her after designing a submarine that could restore his fortune. Grant sabotages the vessel, but Scott survives, Grant is exposed, and the couple's troubles end.
Della, trapped in a relationship with numbers banker Jazz Barrett, who will not marry her, decides to run away with an old flame, Dr. Lee.
New York rake Richard O'Shaugnessy is having an illicit affair with a woman he knows by the name "Loute Sedaine". When O'Shaugnessy's cousin asks for help with charming Marcia Singleton, a high-class young woman visiting from Battle Creek, Michigan, O'Shaugnessy decides she will be a more favorable partner for himself instead of for his cousin. He informs his mentor, known to him as "Colonel Tandy", that he will marry Singleton and break off his relations with Sedaine. He also severs ties with Tandy, whose assistance he no longer needs. When he arrives in Battle Creek, O'Shaugnessy discovers his rude dealings with Sedaine and Tandy were a mistake, because "Tandy" turns out to be a false name used in New York by his new fiancée's father. Similarly, "Sedaine" is also from Battle Creek, where she is married to a local judge. In a complication borrowed from the French original without regard to its implausibility in American law, O'Shaugnessy and Singleton have already wed in a civil ceremony, but need to go through a religious ceremony to complete their marriage. The joint arrival of O'Shaugnessy's lover and his mentor threatens to disrupt this plan. The main characters all end up at a roadhouse, where they go in and out of one another's rooms, revealing their embarrassing affairs. Eventually they work out their differences; O'Shaugnessy consummates his new marriage, and his former lover reconciles with her husband.
Tony Hamilton is on his way to a party at the home of his former girlfriend Betty and her new husband Freddie Neville. He is waylaid by thieves who take most of his clothes and dump him into a dark room of a nearby apartment. This room turns out to be Betty Neville's bedroom. Betty has been feeling ill and has retired from the party to sleep. Various complications ensue as Tony attempts to conceal or explain his near-naked presence in Betty's bedroom. First Betty's aunt Cicely shows up. She has never met Betty's new husband, and finding Tony in the bedroom, she assumes he must be Freddie. The real Freddie makes his way to the bedroom later, as do several of the party guests.
A four-act Gold Rush melodrama centered on a woman known as the Girl, a gambler sheriff, and a stranger in a mining camp.
The story follows the misbehaviors of Regina (Valeska Suratt) as she passes whooping cough to the numerous men she kisses. In the final act, her amours land her in divorce court, where she performs a dance routine borrowed from Suratt's vaudeville act.
The Thracian gladiator Spartacus and his brother Phasarius lead a revolt against Rome, but their conflicting aims split the rebellion. After Roman troops kill Spartacus's wife and child, he rejects a pardon and dies fighting for freedom.
The Glass Cage is a 1957 play by J.B. Priestley. It premiered at the Crest Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada before transferring to London's West End where it ran for 35 performances at the Piccadilly Theatre. The cast included Donald Davis and his brother and sister Murray Davis and Barbara Chilcott, for whom it had specially been written.
At Queen Anne’s court, peace-seeking Bolingbroke and the Duchess of Marlborough maneuver over the War of the Spanish Succession, while both the queen and duchess are drawn to officer Masham, who loves Abigail. A glass of water becomes a signal in the competing schemes around the queen and the court.
In a 15th-century Italian inn, Giulia plans to lure Count Ferruccio to her father Squarcio, a professional assassin, so they can kill him and finance her marriage to Sandro. The disguised Count exposes the plan, then debates class and crime with his would-be killers as they negotiate a safe escape and wedding gift.
The Glorious First of June is a 1794 play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It depicts the Glorious First of June, a British naval victory over the French that took place on 1 June 1794 during the French Revolutionary War. It premiered on 2 July 1794 at the Drury Lane theatre, and was based on newspaper accounts of the battle. It contains a debate on the question of naval patriotism – a key issue at the time. The profits made from the play were donated to the families of those killed in the battle.
Dunlap reworks his tragedy André as a patriotic play centered on the ordinary American people. The action includes the capture of British officer John André by local militiamen during the Revolutionary War.
Lisa meets Clint at her mother's mobile home, and they later marry and have twins. The couple lives in motels while Lisa lures young girls to Clint, who abuses them; Lisa murders the victims, then anonymously directs police to their bodies. The second act focuses on their punishment and Lisa's motives.
It is Martin's 50th birthday. In his suburban living room, he and his wife Stevie prepare to be interviewed on television by their friend Ross. Martin seems distracted and cannot remember anything. Stevie casually asks Martin about a woman's business card in his pocket and his odd scent. Martin denies having an affair with a woman, but confesses to falling in love with a goat named Sylvia. Stevie laughs it off, thinking it is a joke. Stevie leaves when Ross arrives. Ross begins interviewing Martin, congratulating him for being the youngest man ever to win the Pritzker Prize and recently being chosen to design a multi-billion-dollar city. However, Ross soon becomes frustrated with Martin’s inability to concentrate on the interview. Martin confides that the reason for his absent-mindedness is his affair with Sylvia, which began during his search for a country home. Amazed that Martin could fall in love with anyone but Stevie, Ross asks repeatedly, "Who is Sylvia?" Martin reveals a photo of Sylvia and Ross screams that Sylvia is a goat. Ross has written Stevie a letter regarding Martin's affair and Sylvia's identity. Stevie confronts Martin about this, with their son Billy also in the room. Billy is shocked and flees (throughout this scene, he enters and exits sporadically). Stevie recounts the normalcy of her life before she opened Ross's letter. She realizes that Martin was telling the truth in Scene 1 and that she was right to worry about the business card and the odd scent. The card belongs to a member of a support group for bestiality. Martin claims that people like him seek animal company as a coping mechanism. For him, Sylvia is not just an animal; she has a soul and reciprocates his love. As Martin tries to justify himself, Stevie breaks various objects and overturns furniture. Finally, she exits, vowing revenge. Billy enters the ruined living room where Martin remains. Billy claims that Martin and Stevie are good people and are better than most of his classmates' parents. However, he begins crying once he realizes that Martin's bestiality has torn their once happy family apart beyond repair. Overwhelmed with a sense of loss and love for his father, Billy embraces Martin and kisses him sexually on the mouth. Martin pushes Billy away just as Ross enters to witness the scene. Martin angrily defends both his son and himself. Ross says he received a call from Stevie saying Martin needed him. Ross and Martin spar over Ross's letter and how Martin's public image can be saved from disgrace. Stevie then enters, dragging a dead goat. With directions from Ross to the farm where Sylvia was kept, she found and killed the goat, because she could not stand the idea that she and Sylvia loved Martin equally, and were loved as equally by him. The scene and play ends with a tableau as Ross freezes, Stevie remains emotionless, Martin breaks down in tears, and Billy quietly tries to address his parents.
In the mythical kingdom of Francelia, Tamoren leads a band of robbers who disguise themselves as devils and unsettle the country with pranks and rough justice. The plot also weaves in rival noble families, while the lively play draws on romance, action, songs, dances, and a comic subplot.
Wisconsin dairy farmer Frank and his wife Emma live quietly until Mr. Welch, a mysterious, ultra-patriotic government agent, arrives in pursuit of Frank’s old friend Haynes.
In the Yoruba kingdom of Kutuje, King Odewale seeks the cause of a plague. A prophecy and revelations about the murder of the former king expose that Odewale unknowingly killed his father and married his mother; Ojuola kills herself, and Odewale leaves the kingdom.
Classics professors Ralph and Daphne discover a manuscript of Euripides’ lost tragedy Andromeda. When Daphne misplaces it, she calls on Dionysus and Thalia for help, and the gods appear, unleashing comic mayhem.
Rumors that Napoleon buried gold in a Jewish cemetery throw a shtetl into chaotic competition to find it.
Stephen Lee is a wealthy man who is convinced that the chorus girl engaged to his nephew is a "gold digger", who only wants his nephew's money. Lee asks Jerry Lamar, another chorus girl he knows, to convince his nephew to break off the engagement. Instead she tries to convince Lee that not all chorus girls are out for money. Unfortunately for her effort, several of her friends demonstrate that they are as money-hungry as Lee fears. Annoyed by Lee's comments, Lamar decides to show him up by getting him drunk and tricking him into proposing to her. Her scheme proves harmless when it turns out that she and Lee really are in love.
Engineer Francis Morris and geologist Peter become lost in Tasmania and find a community isolated since the mid-19th century, with its own language and Regency-era social conventions. Authorities force the group into society and then confine them in an asylum; after wartime service, Francis returns and chooses to live with the surviving member, Betsheb, in the wilderness.
Astraea, goddess of justice and the returned Golden Age, awakens the twelve Sons of Phoebus. Pallas banishes the personified Iron Age, while twelve personified Evils form the anti-masque; the work also carries a theme of reforming a corrupt court.
A three-part dramatic poem based on the Greek myths of Jason, the Argonauts, and Medea. The cycle consists of The Guest-friend, The Argonauts, and Medea.
A drama about gold seekers in central Australia, inspired by the 1932 Charles Chapman expedition to The Granites.
Two actors and two dummies portray the memories, dreams and imagined lives of three generations of Australian women, with dummies taking the male roles.
Rabbi Leyb creates a clay golem named Yosl despite the spirit's pleas not to be born. After the golem is trapped in a cave amid forces tied to an attempted blood libel, he later rampages through Prague and demands that the rabbi remain with him; the rabbi accepts responsibility and ends his life.
The Good Companions is a 1931 play by J.B. Priestley and Edward Knoblock, based on Priestley's 1929 novel of the same title about a touring concert party. The music was composed by Richard Addinsell. It was first performed at the Princes of Wales's Theatre in Birmingham before beginning its West End run at His Majesty's Theatre before transferring to the Lyric. It lasted for 331 performances between 14 May 1931 and 27 February 1932. The cast included John Gielgud, Adele Dixon, Edward Chapman, Ellen Pollock, Edith Sharpe and Frank Pettingell. Several of the actors reprised their roles for the 1933 film adaptation, notably Gielgud. A New York production the same year staged by Julian Wylie lasted for 68 performances.
The Good Doctor is a comedy with music written by Neil Simon. It is a series of short plays based on short stories and other works of Russian writer Anton Chekhov, framed by a writer commenting on them.
Lu, an usherette with debts from pretending to be wealthy, tells her admirer Konrad that she is married to a successful lawyer. When he asks to hire her supposed husband, she selects Dr. Sporum from the phone book, setting off a chain of misunderstandings and new opportunities. Lu eventually chooses the Head Waiter, while the epilogue revisits the group ten years later to reveal that her life has taken a different turn.
In a poor Dutch fishing village, Kniertje’s remaining sons join a crew on an unsafe vessel because the fishermen face poverty if they refuse. The owner declines repairs to protect his profit; the ship sinks, leaving Kniertje bereaved and exposing the human cost of greed.
Tom and Barbara Good leave the suburban rat race for a self-sufficient life in Surbiton, growing food and keeping livestock at home. Their new routine unsettles neighbours Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, who want to preserve the neighbourhood’s conventional way of life.
After the gods reward the prostitute Shen Teh for sheltering them, she buys a tobacco shop, but her generosity draws people who exploit it. To protect herself she adopts the identity of her stern male cousin Shui Ta, whose business acumen turns the shop into a factory. As she falls in love with an unemployed pilot and becomes pregnant, the boundary between the two identities strains; the play leaves the audience to confront whether goodness can survive in an unjust society.
After fifty years as a doorman, Buchanan approaches retirement and encounters Edith, a former lover who is also the mother of his twin sons. He reflects on his life, marries Edith and dies quietly beside her.
The Good-Natur'd Man is a 1768 comedy play written by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith. It premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on 29 January 1768. The original cast included Mary Bulkley as Miss Richland, Isabella Mattocks as Olivia, Ann Pitt as Mrs Croaker, Jane Green as Garnet, William Powell as Mr Honeywood, Edward Shuter as Croaker, Henry Woodward as Lofty, Matthew Clarke as Sir William Honeywood, Robert Bensley as Leontine, John Dunstall as Jarvis, John Cushing as Butler and John Quick as Potboy. The prologue was written by Samuel Johnson. It was a middling success for Goldsmith, and the printed version of the play became popular with the reading public. It was released at the same time as Hugh Kelly's False Delicacy, staged at Drury Lane Theatre. The two plays went head to head, with Kelly's proving the more popular. Garrick rejected The Good-Natur'd Man, possibly because the story is an antidote of False Delicacy. In 1850 William Powell Frith produced a painting Mr Honeywood Introduces the Bailiffs to Miss Richland as His Friends based on the play which he displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1850 and the Paris Salon of 1855.
The dramedy focuses on elderly Max Silverman, who is determined to reopen the Coney Island Boardwalk hot dog stand he closed twenty-two years earlier for renovation, despite the fact he's recovering from a severe heart attack and it's the middle of February. He demands assistance from his daughter Nancy, who abandoned her husband, changed her name from Shirley, and had a nose job in an effort to assume a new and more exciting identity but has come to realize it takes more than a $4,000 rhinoplasty to erase the past. Into their lives arrives neurotic Arthur Korman, who comes to the beach to watch the sunrise and forget he despises his career choice and inability to quit a job he hates. With the help of each other, the trio manages to jump start their individual dreams before tragedy intercedes.
Showing 5,953–6,072 of 8,284 shows
Load more shows