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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 for musicals). Plays are also typed as written works: see the help topic Entering Data for All Written Works for more information about that type.
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4,661 Play topics matching:
Filter this Collection| x name | x image | x Composer | x Lyricist | x Playwright | x article |
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| x West Side Story | Leonard Bernstein | Stephen Sondheim | Arthur Laurents |
West Side Story is an American musical with a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and conception and choreography by Jerome Robbins. It was inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.
The...
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| x Gypsy: A Musical Fable | Jule Styne | Stephen Sondheim | Arthur Laurents |
Gypsy is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has...
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| x Top Girls | Caryl Churchill |
Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It is about a woman named Marlene, a career-driven woman who is all about woman success in business. As the play unfolds we find Marlene has left her 'poor' life, and illegitimate child with her sister...
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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 antiquity. It is a comical burlesque-like play on the same story depicted in book nine of Homer's Odyssey.
Odysseus has...
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| x Medea |
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Euripides |
Medea (Ancient 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: Ἱππόλυτος, 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: Προμηθεὺς 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 (Ancient 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 in Aulis (Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Αὐλίδι, Iphigeneia en Aulidi; variously translated, including the Latin Iphigenia in Aulide) is the last extant work of the playwright Euripides. Written between 408, after the Orestes, and 406 BC, the year of...
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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 (/laɪˈsɪstrətə/, also /ˌlɪsəˈstrɑːtə/; Attic Greek: Λυσιστράτη, "Army-disbander") is one of the few surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's...
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| x The Suppliants |
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Aeschylus |
The Suppliants (Greek: Ἱκέτιδες, Hiketides, also called The Suppliant Maidens; Latin Supplices) is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the first play in a tetralogy, sometimes referred to as the Danaid...
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| x The Bacchae |
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Euripides |
The Bacchae (Ancient Greek: Βάκχαι, Bakchai; also known as The Bacchantes) is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, during his final years in Macedon, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthumously at the...
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| x Andromache |
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Euripides |
Andromache (Ancient Greek: Ανδρομάχη) is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides. It dramatises Andromache's life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War, and her conflict with her master's new wife, Hermione. The date of its first performance...
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| x The Trachiniae |
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Sophocles |
Women of Trachis (Greek: Τραχίνιαι, Trachiniai; also translated as The Trachiniae) is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles.
The story begins with Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, relating the story of her early life and her plight adjusting to married...
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| x No Exit | Jean-Paul Sartre |
No Exit is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The original French title is Huis Clos, the French equivalent of the legal term in camera, referring to a private discussion behind closed doors; English translations have also been...
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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 |
Herakles (Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλῆς μαινόμενος, Hēraklēs Mainomenos, also known as Hercules Furens) is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides that was first performed c. 416 BCE. While Herakles is in the underworld obtaining Cerberus for one of his labours,...
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| x Iphigeneia in Tauris |
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Euripides |
Iphigenia in Tauris (Ancient Greek: Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις, Iphigeneia en Taurois) is a drama by the playwright Euripides, written between 414 BC and 412 BC. It has much in common with another of Euripides's plays, Helen, as well as the lost play...
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| x Oedipus the King |
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Sophocles |
Oedipus the King (Ancient Greek: Οἰδίπους Τύραννος, Oidipous Tyrannos), also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BC. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be...
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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 is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's...
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| x Electra |
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Euripides |
Euripides' Electra (Greek: Ἠλέκτρα, Ēlektra) was a play 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...
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| x Seven Guitars | 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: Ὀρέστης, 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 |
Sophocles's Ajax (Ancient Greek: Αίας, Aias) is a Greek tragedy written in the 5th century BC. The date of Ajax's first performance is unknown, but most scholars regard it as an early work, circa 450 - 430 B.C. (J. Moore, 2). It chronicles the fate...
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| x The Persians |
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Aeschylus |
The Persians (Ancient 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...
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| x Electra |
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Sophocles |
Electra or Elektra (Ancient Greek: Ἠλέκτρα, Ēlektra) is a Greek tragedy 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: Σφῆκες / 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 (Ancient Greek: Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus which concerns the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. When originally performed it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have been...
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| x Heracleidae |
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Euripides |
Herakles' Children (Greek: Ἡρακλεῖδαι, Hērakleidai; also translated as Children of Herakles and Heracleidae) is an Athenian tragedy by Euripides that was first performed c. 430 BC. It follows the children of Herakles (known as the Heracleidae) as...
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| x Ion |
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Euripides |
Ion (Ancient Greek: Ἴων, 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...
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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 have not survived). The play was written during the Peloponnesian War. It was first performed at the Festival of...
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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, Helenē) is a drama by Euripides, first produced in 412 BC for the Dionysia in a trilogy that also contained Euripides lost Andromeda. The play shares much in common with another of Euripides' works, Iphigenia in Tauris.
The...
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| x Seven Against Thebes |
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Aeschylus |
The Seven against Thebes (Ancient Greek: Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας, Hepta epi Thēbas; Latin: Septem contra Thebas) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea. It...
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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 (roughly the same time as The Trojan Women, another play by Euripides). The central figure is...
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| x Rhesus |
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Euripides |
Rhesus (Ancient Greek: Ῥῆσος, Rhēsos) is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. There has been debate about its authorship. It was understood to be by Euripides in the Hellenistic, Imperial, and Byzantine periods. In...
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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 (Ancient Greek: Τρῳάδες, Trōiades), also known as Troades, 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...
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| x Oedipus at Colonus |
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Sophocles |
Oedipus at Colonus (also Oedipus Coloneus, 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 grandson ...
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| x The Suppliants |
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Euripides |
The Suppliants (also known as The Suppliant Women, Greek: Ἱκέτιδες, Hiketides), 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...
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| x Antigone |
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Sophocles |
Antigone (pronunciation: /ænˈtɪɡəniː/ an-TIG-ə-nee, Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 450 BC. Chronologically, it is the third of the three Theban plays but was written first. The play expands on the Theban...
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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 BCE 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...
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| x Saturday Night | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim | Julius J. Epstein |
Saturday Night is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and the book by brothers Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, based on their play, Front Porch in Flatbush.
Saturday Night was scheduled to open in the 1954-1955 Broadway...
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| Philip G. Epstein | |||||
| x The Pajama Game | Richard Adler | Richard Adler | George Abbott |
The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7½ 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 cents raise are...
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| Jerry Ross | Jerry Ross | Richard Pike Bissell | |||
| x Allegro | Richard Rodgers | Oscar Hammerstein II | Oscar Hammerstein II |
Allegro is a musical by Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (book and lyrics), their third collaboration for the stage. Opening on Broadway on October 10, 1947, the musical centers on the life of Joseph Taylor, Jr.—Joe follows in the...
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| x The Wiz | Charlie Smalls | Charlie Smalls | William F. Brown |
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of African American culture....
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| x The Pirate Queen | Claude-Michel Schönberg | John Dempsey | Richard Maltby, Jr. |
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 | ||||
| Richard Maltby, Jr. | Claude-Michel Schönberg | ||||
| x Big River | Roger Miller | Roger Miller | William Hauptman |
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 | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens | Stephen Flaherty |
Seussical is a musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty 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...
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| Lynn Ahrens | |||||
| x Ragtime | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens | Terrence McNally |
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 | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim | James Goldman |
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue ...
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| x A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Stephen Sondheim | Stephen Sondheim | Burt Shevelove |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and 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 | |||||
| x It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman | Charles Strouse | Lee Adams | Robert Benton |
It's A Bird... It's A Plane... It's Superman is a musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, with a book by David Newman and Robert Benton. It is based on the comic book character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster...
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| David Newman | |||||
