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Play table
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typelibrarian for the Theater Commons
A play is a work written to be performed on stage. Musicals are considered plays for purposes of this type (that is, there is no separate type...
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| x name | x image | x Playwright | x Composer | x Lyricist | x article |
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| x West Side Story |
|
Arthur Laurents | Leonard Bernstein | Stephen Sondheim |
West Side Story is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The musical's plot is based on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Set in New York in the mid-1950s, the musical explores...
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| x Gypsy: A Musical Fable |
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Arthur Laurents | Jule Styne | Stephen Sondheim |
Gypsy is a 1959 musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. It is usually referred to as simply Gypsy. Gypsy is based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses...
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| x Top Girls | Caryl Churchill |
Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It depicts the life of Marlene, a hard-bitten career woman who is employed at the 'Top Girls' employment agency, and her interactions with her family she left behind. Marlene left her working class...
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| x Cyclops |
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Euripides |
The Cyclops (Greek: Κύκλωψ , Kyklōps) is an Ancient Greek satyr play by Euripides, the only complete satyr play that has survived. It is a comical burlesque-like play on the same story depicted in book nine of The Odyssey by Homer.
Odysseus has lost...
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| x Medea |
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Euripides |
Medea (Greek: Μήδεια / Mēdeia) is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world...
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| x Hippolytus |
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Euripides |
Hippolytus (Greek: Ιππόλυτος / Hippolytos) is an Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, based on the myth of Hippolytus, son of Theseus. The play was first produced for the City Dionysia of Athens in 428 BC and won first prize as part of a trilogy....
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| x Henceforward... |
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Alan Ayckbourn |
The play Henceforward... is the first comedy in which Alan Ayckbourn includes elements of science fiction. It concerns Jerome, a composer, who develops a plan to persuade his estranged wife Corinna that his home life is sufficiently stable for her...
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| x Prometheus Bound |
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Aeschylus |
Prometheus Bound (Greek: Προμηθεύς Δεσμώτης / Promētheus Desmōtēs) is an Ancient Greek tragedy. In Antiquity, this drama was attributed to Aeschylus, but is now considered by some scholars to be the work of another hand, perhaps one as late as ca....
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| x The Knights |
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Aristophanes |
The Knights (Greek: Ἱππεῖς Hippeîs; Attic Ἱππῆς) was the fourth play written by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient form of drama known as Old Comedy. The play is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the...
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| x Peace |
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Aristophanes |
Peace (Greek: Εἰρήνη / Eirēnē) is an Athenian Old Comedy written and produced by the Greek playwright Aristophanes. It won second prize at the City Dionysia where it was staged just a few days before the ratification of the Peace of Nicias (421 BC),...
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| x Iphigeneia at Aulis |
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Euripides |
Iphigenia at Aulis (Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Αὐλίδι / Iphigeneia en Aulidi) is the last extant work of the playwright Euripides. Written between 408, after the Orestes, and 406 BC, the date of Euripides' death, the play was first produced the following...
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| x Kanjinchō |
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Namiki Gohei III |
Kanjinchō (勧進帳, The Subscription List) is a Japanese kabuki play by Namiki Gohei III, based on the Noh play Ataka. It is one of the most popular plays in the modern kabuki repertory.
Belonging to the repertories of the Naritaya and Kōritaya guilds,...
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| x Lysistrata |
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Aristophanes |
Lysistrata (Attic Greek: Λυσιστράτα, "Army-disbander") is one of the few surviving plays written by the master of Old Comedy, Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary...
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| x The Suppliants |
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Aeschylus |
The Suppliants (Greek: Ικέτιδες / Hiketides; also translated as "The Suppliant Maidens") is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the first play in a trilogy which included the lost plays The Egyptians and The...
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| x The Bacchae |
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Euripides |
The Bacchae (Greek: Βάκχαι / Bakchai; also known as The Bacchantes) is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides. It premiered posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BCE as part of a tetralogy that also included...
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| x Andromache |
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Euripides |
Andromache (Greek: Ανδρομάχη / Andromachē) (c. 425 BC) is a play by Euripides. It follows Andromache during her life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War.
During the Trojan War, Andromache's husband Hector was slain by Achilles....
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| x The Trachiniae |
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Sophocles |
The Trachiniae or The Maidens of Trachis (Greek: Τραχίνιαι / Trachiniai) is a play by Sophocles.
The story begins with Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, relating the story of her early life, and her plight adjusting to married life. She is now...
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| x No Exit |
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Jean-Paul Sartre |
No Exit is a 1944 existentialist play by Jean-Paul Sartre, originally published in French as Huis Clos (meaning In Camera or "behind closed doors"). English translations have also been performed under the titles In Camera, No Way Out, and Dead End....
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| x The Clouds |
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Aristophanes |
The Clouds (Νεφέλαι / Nephelai) is a comedy written by the celebrated playwright Aristophanes lampooning intellectual fashions in classical Athens. It was originally produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BC and it was not well received, coming last...
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| x Heracles |
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Euripides |
Heracles or Hercules Furens (Greek: Ἡρακλής μαινόμενος / Hēraklēs Mainomenos) is a play by Euripides (c. 416 BC). While Heracles is in the underworld obtaining Cerberus for one of his labors, his father Amphitryon, wife Megara, and children are...
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| x Iphigeneia in Tauris |
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Euripides |
Iphigeneia in Tauris (Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, Iphigeneia en Taurois) is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written sometime between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, and is often described as a...
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| x Oedipus the King |
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Sophocles |
Oedipus the King (ancient Greek Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, often known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex) is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes...
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| x The Sisters Rosensweig | Wendy Wasserstein |
The Sisters Rosensweig is a play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play focuses on three Jewish- American sisters and their lives. It "broke theatrical ground by concentrating on a non-traditional cast of three middle-aged women." Wasserstein received the...
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| x Hamlet |
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William Shakespeare |
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who...
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| x Electra |
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Euripides |
Euripides' Electra was probably written in the mid 410s BC, likely after 413 BC. It is unclear whether it was first produced before or after Sophocles' version of the Electra story.
Years before, near the start of the Trojan War, the Greek general...
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| x Seven Guitars |
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August Wilson |
Seven Guitars is a 1995 play by American playwright, August Wilson. It focuses on seven African American characters in the year 1948. The play begins and ends after the funeral of one of the main characters, showing events leading to the funeral in...
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| x Orestes |
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Euripides |
Orestes (Greek: Ορέστης, Orestēs) (408 BCE) is an Ancient Greek play by Euripides that follows the events of Orestes after he had murdered his mother.
In accordance with the advice of the god Apollo, Orestes has killed his mother Clytemnestra to...
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| x Phoenician Women |
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Euripides |
The Phoenician Women (Greek: Φοίνισσαι / Phoinissai) is a tragedy by Euripides based on the same story as Aeschylus' play Seven Against Thebes. The title refers to the Greek chorus, which is composed of Phoenician women on their way to Delphi who...
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| x Ajax |
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Sophocles |
Ajax (Greek: Αίας, Aias) is a play by Sophocles. The date of its first performance is unknown, but most scholars regard it as an early work, about 450 BCE to 430 BCE (J. Moore, 2). It chronicles the fate of the warrior Ajax after the events of the...
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| x The Persians |
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Aeschylus |
The Persians (Greek: Πέρσαι, Persai) is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BCE, it is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre. It dramatises the Persian response to news of their military...
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| x Electra |
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Sophocles |
Electra or Elektra (Greek: Ἠλέκτρα / Ēlektra) is a Greek tragic play by Sophocles. Its date is not known, but various stylistic similarities with the Philoctetes (409 BC) and the Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC) lead scholars to suppose that it was...
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| x The Acharnians |
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Aristophanes |
The Acharnians (Ancient Greek: Ἀχαρνεῖς / Attic Ἀχαρνῆς / Akharneĩs) is the third play - and the earliest of the eleven surviving plays - by the great Athenian playwright Aristophanes. It was produced in 425 BCE on behalf of the young dramatist by...
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| x The Wasps |
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Aristophanes |
The Wasps (Greek: Σφήκες / Sphēkes) is the fourth in chronological order of the eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, the master of an ancient genre of drama called 'Old Comedy'. It was produced at the Lenaia festival in 422 BC, a time when Athens...
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| x The Oresteia |
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Aeschylus |
The Oresteia (Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus which concerns the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. Though originally written as tetralogy, it is the only surviving example of a trilogy of ancient Greek plays;...
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| x Heracleidae |
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Euripides |
Heracleidae (Greek: Ἡρακλείδαι / Hērakleidai) is a play by Euripides c. 430 BC. It follows the children of Heracles (known as the Heracleidae), as they seek protection from Eurystheus. It is the first of two surviving plays by Euripides where the...
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| x Ion |
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Euripides |
Ion (Greek: Ίων / Iōn)is an ancient Greek play by Euripides, thought to be written between 414 and 412 BC. It follows the orphan Ion in the discovery of his origins.
Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, was a noble native of Athens. The god Apollo raped...
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| x Army Daze |
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Michael Chiang |
Army Daze is a Singaporean film released in 1996. A comedy based on the National Service experience by a group of enlistees in the Singapore Armed Forces, it was one of the earliest top-grossing films then, bringing in some S$1,600,000 at the local...
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| x Philoctetes |
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Sophocles |
Philoctetes (Greek: Φιλοκτήτης / Philoktētēs) is a play by Sophocles (Aeschylus and Euripides also each wrote a Philoctetes but theirs did not survive). It was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 409 BC, where it won first prize. The...
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| x The Heidi Chronicles | Wendy Wasserstein |
The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan.
The play premiered off-Broadway at...
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| x Helen |
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Euripides |
Helen (Greek: Ἑλένη / Elenē) is a drama by Euripides, probably first produced in 412 BC for the Dionysia. The play shares much in common with another of Euripides' works, Iphigenia in Tauris.
About thirty years before this play, Herodotus argued in...
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| x Seven Against Thebes |
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Aeschylus |
The Seven against Thebes (Greek: Ἑπτά ἐπί Θήβας, Hepta epi Thēbas) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. It concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles...
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| x Hecuba |
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Euripides |
Hecuba (Greek: Ἑκάβη / Hēkabē) is a tragedy by Euripides written c. 424 BC. It takes place after the Trojan War, but before the Greeks have departed Troy.
It depicts Hecuba's grief over the loss of a daughter, and the revenge she takes over the loss...
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| x Rhesus |
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Euripides |
Rhesus (Greek: Ρήσος, Rhēsos), possibly 350 BC, is transmitted among the plays of Euripides, and was indeed believed to be genuinely Euripidean in the Hellenistic, Imperial, and Byzantine periods. As early as the 17th century, however, the play's...
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| x Uncommon Women and Others | Wendy Wasserstein |
Uncommon Women and Others (1977), is the first play by noted 20th century American playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
The play premiered Off-Broadway in a Phoenix Theatre production on November 21, 1977 and closed on December 4, 1977 after 22...
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| x The Trojan Women |
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Euripides |
The Trojan Women (in Greek: Τρῳάδες, Trōades) is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced during the Peloponnesian War, it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and...
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| x Oedipus at Colonus |
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Sophocles |
Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, and in Greek Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ Oidipous epi Kolōnō) is one of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles' death in 406 BC and produced by his...
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| x The Suppliants |
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Euripides |
The Suppliants (also known as The Suppliant Women), first performed in 423 BC, is an ancient Greek play by Euripides.
After Oedipus leaves Thebes, his sons fight for control of it. Polyneices lays siege to Thebes against his brother Eteocles....
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| x Antigone |
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Sophocles |
Antigone (Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is a tragedy by Sophocles written before or in 442 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus'...
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| x The Birds |
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Aristophanes |
The Birds (Greek: Ὄρνιθες Ornithes) is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BC at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy...
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| x Alcestis |
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Euripides |
Alcestis (Greek Ἄλκηστις, Alkēstis) is an Athenian tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the...
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| x Saturday Night | Julius J. Epstein | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim |
Saturday Night is a 1950s musical by Stephen Sondheim, with a book by brothers Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, based on their play, Front Porch in Flatbush.
Saturday Night was set to premiere in the 1954-55 Broadway season. Announcements of...
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| Philip G. Epstein | |||||
| x The Pajama Game |
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Richard Bissell | Jerry Ross | Jerry Ross |
The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7-1/2 Cents by Richard Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where worker demands for a seven and a half cent raise are...
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| George Abbott | Richard Adler | Richard Adler | |||
| Richard Pike Bissell | |||||
| x Allegro |
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Oscar Hammerstein II | Richard Rodgers | Oscar Hammerstein II |
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their fourth collaboration together.
Allegro opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre on October 10, 1947, running for only 315 performances. It starred...
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| x The Wiz |
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William F. Brown | Charlie Smalls | Charlie Smalls |
The Wiz is a musical, with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and a book by William F. Brown. It is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and featured African American actors.
The original Broadway production in 1975 won seven Tony...
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| x The Pirate Queen |
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Richard Maltby, Jr. | Claude-Michel Schönberg | John Dempsey |
The Pirate Queen is a musical written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, best known for their adaptation of Les Misérables. John Dempsey is the co-lyricist. The Pirate Queen marks the first time Boublil and Schönberg have created a...
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| Alain Boublil | Alain Boublil | ||||
| Claude-Michel Schönberg | Richard Maltby, Jr. | ||||
| x Big River |
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William Hauptman | Roger Miller | Roger Miller |
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a musical with a book by William Hauptman and music and lyrics by Roger Miller.
Based on Mark Twain's classic 1884 novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it features music in the bluegrass and country...
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| x Seussical |
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Lynn Ahrens | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens |
Seussical is a musical based on the books of Dr. Seuss that debuted on Broadway in 2000. The play's story is a rather complex amalgamation of many of Seuss's most famous books. After a Broadway run, the production spawned two US National Tours and...
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| Stephen Flaherty | |||||
| x Ragtime |
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Terrence McNally | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens |
Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty.
Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem...
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| x Follies |
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James Goldman | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim |
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. Several of its songs have become standards, including "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here," "Too Many Mornings," "Could I Leave You?" and "Losing My Mind." The...
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| x A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum |
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Burt Shevelove | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart.
Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251–183 BC), specifically Pseudolus...
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| Larry Gelbart | |||||
