Backstory

The Wait Is Over for Godot on Broadway

BACKSTORY April 29, 2009 | 3:09PM

“I haven’t the faintest idea what this play means,” 24-year-old director Peter Hall admitted in 1955.

He was referring to Waiting for Godot, the poetically funny, fascinating and perplexing four-man show by then-unknown Irishman Samuel Beckett that went on to mystify, entertain, outrage and touch the entire theatrical community.

“I have been brooding in my bath for the last ...

Accent on Youth: The Curious Case of Samson Raphaelson

BACKSTORY April 23, 2009 | 5:25PM

Samson Raphaelson earned his place in the history of American film as the man who created The Jazz Singer. But did you know that he loved theater so much, he gave up his Hollywood mansion at the height of his career to move back east? As Broadway prepares to welcome a revival of Raphaelson’s drawing-room comedy Accent on Youth ... Read More...

The Tragic Roots of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms

BACKSTORY April 21, 2009 | 10:23AM

A playwright who single-handedly transformed American theater in the early 20th century. A raging alcoholic who shipped out to sea and led a derelict’s life in Buenos Aires. An unhappy son who grew up to be a rotten father. A writer who, after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, withdrew from public life. A man so private he tried ... Read More...

Nice Guys Finish First: The Philanthropist's Rocky Trek from Page to Stage

BACKSTORY April 16, 2009 | 3:55PM

Christopher Hampton couldn’t get a part.

He would eventually win an Academy Award, two Tony Awards and more than a dozen additional prizes for his contributions to film, television and theater over the course of a 40-year career and counting, but standing in 1965 in front of a cast list posted without his name on it outside Oxford University ...

The Battle for The Norman Conquests

BACKSTORY April 9, 2009 | 6:11PM

Perhaps the only things you know about the Broadway revival of The Norman Conquests are that 1 it’s an English comedy, 2 it’s really long and 3 it’s about pivotal event in England’s history. Yes, yes, and no. Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy classic could be the only epic trilogy capable of making you laugh hysterically for ... Read More...

Mary Stuart: A Royal Rumble Comes to Broadway

BACKSTORY April 7, 2009 | 2:31PM

As royal feuds go, the stand-off between Elizabeth I of England and her cousin Mary Queen of Scots was—pardon the expression—deadly serious. A devout Catholic, Mary was considered the rightful heir to the English throne by her followers after the death of Henry VIII. The problem? His daughter, the Protestant Elizabeth, was already queen, and had no intention ... Read More...

Punching In: How 9 to 5 Ended Up Working It on Broadway

BACKSTORY April 1, 2009 | 5:01PM

“What’s funny about working 15-hour days and getting paid for 40 hours work a week?” asks Jane Fonda in her autobiography, My Life So Far.

Turns out, a hell of a lot.

Actress and activist Fonda couldn’t predict comedy would be part of the equation when she began pondering a film about the American workforce in 1979, after ...

The Second Coming (on Broadway) of August Wilson's Joe Turner

BACKSTORY March 24, 2009 | 6:03PM

Any Broadway season that features a play by August Wilson is a good season, particularly when it’s a revival of Wilson’s sentimental favorite of the 10 works in his masterful Century Cycle, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Though it nabbed six 1988 Tony nominations and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Joe Turner is less well ... Read More...

A Glittering New Entrance for Exit the King

BACKSTORY March 18, 2009 | 5:36PM

You know that the Broadway revival of Exit the King stars Oscar winners Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon, as well as Tony winner Andrea Martin and Lauren Ambrose. You know that Ionesco was, like, a really big playwright of the 20th century. But if you don’t know much else about this surreal satire, that’s okay— we’re here ... Read More...

How Hair's Nude Hippies Changed Broadway Forever

BACKSTORY March 5, 2009 | 5:56PM

From the soaring first notes of its opening song, “When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars,” Hair exudes a joyful anarchy that shook Broadway 40 years ago, proving there’s more than one way to write and stage a successful musical. A magical revival at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre drew SRO crowds last ... Read More...