Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments” with the original Top 10 List.

We have become a society of list makers.  It shouldn’t be a surprise, when the Judeo-Christian ethic draws so strongly on the world’s earliest “top ten” list: The Ten Commandments. It’s a common year-end journalistic ritual: the top ten movies, the ten worst books, and what have you. These lists can be expansive and informative; they can be narrow-minded and limiting.

This morning, I came across a list of Ten Contemporary Plays That Should be on Your Shelf from the website Flavorwire and, save for the first entry — of which I’d never heard — it wasn’t a bad 10 play survey if you had to give a crash course in modern American, British and Irish theatre, although limited in gender and racial diversity. But of course, it’s impossible to include everything, and many other opinions are quickly voiced, typically in disagreement, in this situation.  But while it’s easy to name plays and playwrights who are missing, commenters rarely stop to say what should be removed.

So I’d like to offer my blog for exactly that: what are the 10 plays you would name as the 10 Most Important Contemporary Plays, the 10 that belong on any theatre lover’s bookshelf, and let’s say by contemporary we mean the past 25 years.  Start posting your top tens in the comments below; I’m eager to hear what people think of the Flavorwire list and how they’d make such a list their own.  A parlor game, perhaps? Dinner party conversation? Could be. But if enough of you contribute, we might have a very interesting sense of what new works are most valued as essential right now, knowing that in only a couple of years, it could be entirely different.

Among the entertainments and distractions wrought by Twitter are the propagation of memes or hashtag games, in which a topic is tossed out for the masses, from which to wring endless variations, almost always humorous. For example, yesterday, in honor of the weekend’s number one film, folks were spinning comedy on #FailedApePitches, to which I contributed such classics as “Macaque of the Red Death” and “She Wore a Yellow Gibbon.” You need a taste for low wordplay and bad puns to enjoy the majority of these efforts, which spread virally; I am often motivated to churn out a half-dozen in a few minutes when the mood strikes me, to my own endless amusement.

But amidst the puns, I employed Twitter’s hashtagging for a higher-aimed colloquy yesterday as well. Having spotted a feature about the 100 Best Closing Lines of Books, which I thought was very clever, since we mostly hear about book openings (“Call me Ishmael,” anyone?), I decided to toss the subject out to the Twitterverse, but for plays and musicals, of course, not books.

This did not become a viral sensation, nor did I expect that it would. But what struck me from the responses was how many of the closing lines moved me, immediately prompting my recall of one or more productions of the quoted play, taking me back to the feeling I had as the lights dimmed or suddenly went out on those lines. It only took a handful of words to reanimate the theatergoing experiences for me, and for a couple of hours, it proved a most intriguing avalanche of reveries, prompted by the memories of others.  The playwrights’ final words held enormous power.

What also struck me was how open ended the lines were in so many cases. I was not being sent words of finality, but words that seemed to lead on to yet another story, or perhaps more accurately yet another chapter in the story. Even with plays that I knew to leave audiences sad and even despairing, the final words usually offered some hope to the characters, and to us in the seats as well. This seems to have been what people took away with them.

And so I would like to offer you a limited selection of the final lines shared with me by others, and a few I chose myself, to see whether they have the same effect on others that they had on me, both at the theatre and in the scroll of tweets.  I find them hypnotic, optimistic and comforting.

“Greetings, Prophet. The Great Work begins: the messenger has arrived.”

“I think maybe heaven is a sea of untranslatable jokes. Only everyone is laughing.”

“When we’re 45, we can be pretty fucking amazing.”

“What will we do ‘til spring?”

“Blow out your candles, Laura.”

“Oh, how I do love birthday cake.”

“Years from now…when you talk about this…and you will…be kind.”

“Come you giants.”

“Ready, old friend? Courage.”

“Yes, let’s go.”

“You that way: we this way.”

“Everything in life is only for now.”

“We shall rest.”

“You get a good rest, too. Goodnight.”

“We’re free and clear. We’re free.”

“So many possibilities.”

“Mediocrities everywhere, I absolve you. I absolve you all.”

“Not annoying! Not annoying at all!”

The quotes are from, in order: Angels In America: Millennium Approaches, The Clean House, Uncommon Women and Others, Take Me Out, The Glass Menagerie, Crimes of the Heart, Tea and Sympathy, Jerusalem, Man of La Mancha, Waiting for Godot, Love’s Labour’s Lost,  Avenue Q, Uncle Vanya, Our Town, Death of a Salesman, Sunday in the Park With George, Amadeus, and On The Verge. If the quotes are imprecise, it is because I didn’t have the resources to check each and every one.

My thanks to everyone who contributed; you can see the complete Twitter chain by searching on #beststageclosinglines. For those who would enjoy this as a quiz focused on musicals, my query yesterday prompted one from Chris Caggiano, and it can be found on his blog here.

This post originally appeared on the 2amtheatre website

You had to know that this was inevitable.

After my Thanksgiving catalogue of 37 Flicks Theatre Lovers Should Know and 13 Docs That Theatre Lovers Should Know, and my New Year’s disgorgement of An Awful Lot of Plays and Musicals About Theatre, it was inevitable that I would close the circle with this blog, enumerating plays which look at the act of moviemaking and the environs of Hollywood.

There is one strong theme that emerges in these plays, which is that the authors see theatre as purer than Hollywood, and indeed that the film industry is a corrupting influence on artists. Although some of the works show great affection for film genres, the actual process by which movies get made gets low marks from playwrights, and it’s up to the viewers or historians to determine whether that perception comes from experience, jealousy or sheer invention. But overall, playwrights don’t seem to regard the business of moviemaking as representative of or conducive to the creation of art (and producers take a particular hit). Hollywood is not much good for your moral fiber either.

There are many shows that are parodies of or homages to particular films or film genres; one need only look to the work of Charles Ludlam and Charles Busch to find countless examples. But they are about the product of Hollywood, rather than moviemaking itself, so save for a handful of broadly encompassing examples, curtain-to-curtain parodies of genre films do not appear on this list.

This list also highlights the fluidity of stories between film and theatre, as once again there are entries that appeared on the earlier lists, having either begun life as a play and then become a movie, or vice versa, as well as plays that present theatre and film in counterpoint to one another within the same script. It’s also worth noting how often the names of George S. Kaufman, Betty Comden and Adolph Green appear in the list; clearly they had a lot to say on the subject of movies.

Please note that I have defined my territory as plays about the movies, not the entire entertainment industry of Hollywood. Consequently, with a few exceptions, plays about the music industry (Buh-bye, Dreamgirls!) and in particular television (Sorry, The Ruby Sunrise! Apologies, The Farnsworth Invention!) don’t appear. Screen adaptations of plays, and vice versa, would be another blog altogether, and that’s been written about plenty of times anyway.

As always, I don’t pretend that this list is so exhaustively researched as to be definitive. Instead, I hope it’s merely the jumping off point for readers to add their own knowledge to the piece by listing other examples in the comments section.

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ADULT EDUCATION by Elaine May It’s by pure alphabetical accident, but how fitting that a singular screenwriter and one-time improv comedy darling chose the stage to send up the porn film industry and landed first on this list. May’s comedy imagines the scenario if a bunch of adult film stars and their director developed artistic pretensions and attempted to make a film of insight and value. Compared to many of the plays discussed below, May’s comedy takes an affectionate view of her characters, rather than simply hitting the fairly easy target that is XXX-filmmaking.

AMAZONS AND THEIR MEN by Jordan Harrison As “Hitler’s filmmaker,” Leni Riefenstahl has been admired for her technical skills and reviled for her collaboration with the Nazi regime, as well as her subsequent disavowals of any political aims of her own. So, referred to only as The Frau, she gets her comeuppance in this imagining of a true-life event, in which she attempts and fails to make a movie about Achilles’ battle with the Amazons, as did Riefenstahl as World War II was breaking out.

ANGEL CITY by Sam Shepard Based on Shepard’s own experiences working on the screenplay of Zabriskie Point for Michelangelo Antonioni, this early work portrays a trio of unlikely screenwriters summoned by reprehensible producers to help salvage a film in a nightmare vision of Hollywood that leads to its destruction.

THE BIG KNIFE by Clifford Odets A film producer blackmails a star, threatening to reveal his role in a drunk driving accident that killed a child, in a drama drawn both from the life of Odets, who had an unhappy screenwriting career, and that of his original leading man and muse, John Garfield. It marked Odets’ return to Broadway after a six-year hiatus; his subsequent work, The Country Girl, was the greater success.

THE BIOGRAPH GIRL book by Warner Brown, music by David Heneker, lyrics by Brown and Heneker The intertwined fortunes of Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Mary Pickford, Adolph Zukor and D.W. Griffith form the core of this British musical that charts the rise and fall of silent films. Though praised for charm and wit, the show doesn’t fail to attend to the racial issues provoked by Griffith’s Birth of a Nation and the financial impact of the movies’ skyrocketing popularity.

BOY MEETS GIRL by Bella and Sam Spewack A madcap farce about two Hollywood screenwriters (possibly modeled on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur) who are looking to put a new twist into the old formula that gives the show its name, but the most available “girl” is a widow whose bigamist husband has left her with their infant son, Happy, who becomes a major film star.

BRECHT IN HOLLYWOOD devised by Goran Stefanovski Although it promises the story of Brecht’s sojourn in California, that goes unremarked upon in this loose assemblage of Brecht’s work that may be most notable for featuring, in its London premiere production, Vanessa Redgrave in tap shoes.

BRECHT IN L.A. by Rick Mitchell The clash between Brecht’s personal philosophies about life and theatre and the materialistic, populist mindset of the film community form the core of the drama about the noted playwright’s life in California, during which he had trouble finding work, collaborated with Charles Laughton on a stage production of Galileo, and was ultimately called to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

The CHARLIE CHAPLIN Shows (Chaplin with book, music and lyrics by Anthony Newley; Chaplin with book by Ernest Kinoy, music by Roger Anderson and lyrics by Lee Goldsmith; Charlie Chaplin Goes to War (aka Chaplin) by Simon Bradbury and Dan Kamin; Limelight aka Behind the Limelight, book by Thomas Meehan, music and lyrics by Christopher Curtis) Certain figures in Hollywood seem to provide endless source material for dramatists and musical writers alike. Charlie Chaplin, perhaps because his movie ouevre is silent while his personal life spoke volumes, has been the subject of numerous stage portrayals. What is remarkable is that with many efforts, only a handful of which are listed, none has become a major success. Perhaps silence is golden.

CITY OF ANGELS book by Larry Gelbart, Music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by David Zippel This structurally ingenious musical toggles between the film noir story of tough guy gumshoe Stone and the Hollywood travails of his creator, screenwriter Stine, battling the usual studio meddling with his work, even as he lives out his fantasy life through the story of Stone.

COMPLETELY HOLLYWOOD (ABRIDGED) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company While parodies of films abound and are largely absent from this list, I would be remiss (and berated by the playwrights) if I did not make mention of this break-neck, ingenious compendium of filmmaking’s 100-plus-year history through condensations 186 great films, ranging alphabetically from Airplane! to The Wrong Man (what, no Zardoz?).

THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Martin McDonagh Rooted in the true-life making of Robert Flaherty’s quasi-documentary Man of Aran, set on the poverty stricken Islands off the coast of Ireland, McDonagh’s protagonist in “Cripple Billy” Clavan, who sees the arrival of a film crew in his otherwise stultifying community as a way up and perhaps out.

A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD/A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE book by Dick Vosburgh, music by Frank Lazarus, lyrics by Vosburgh I certainly can’t skip this light-hearted entertainment romanticizing Hollywood films, which is really two unrelated one-acts, or more accurately, a first-act revue mixing new and classic songs, and a second act Marx Brothers-styled comedy (adapted from Chekhov’s The Bear, no less) with an original score. Tommy Tune’s Broadway staging lifted some ideas he had previously used in the musical DOUBLE FEATURE by Jeffrey Moss, which he had co-directed at the Long Wharf Theatre; that show contrasted the relationships of two present-day couples with the great romances of the silver screen.

THE DISENCHANTED by Budd Schulberg and Harvey Breit Although it has much more on its mind than just Hollywood, this little-remembered Tony-nominee for Best Play in the early 60s, drawn from Schulberg’s novel, won Jason Robards Jr. a Tony for his portrayal of a dissipated novelist at the end of his failed career in Hollywood, assigned to research a frothy entertainment by observing a college winter carnival, chaperoned by an aspiring screenwriter. Substitute F. Scott Fitzgerald and Schulberg himself for the play’s lead characters and you have a quasi-fictional account of an actual trip the two men took as “research” at the behest of movie execs in Fitzgerald’s final days.

EPIC PROPORTIONS by Larry Coen and David Crane Seen Off-Broadway in 1986 and then again on Broadway in 1999 (with co-writer Crane creating a sitcom you may have heard of called Friends in the interim), this comedy, despite the claim of its title, is an intimate behind the scenes look at the making of a Cecil B. DeMille-type biblical epic devoid of DeMille’s talent or budget.

FADE OUT, FADE IN book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Comden and Green A chorus girl is accidently chosen to star in a film, which inexplicably gets made before anyone discovers the mistake, at which point the movie is shelved. But when the film is let out of the can for a sneak preview, both it and its unlikely star become successes. This little seen musical ran on the strength of its star, Carol Burnett, although at one point she attempted to depart the production and was forced back in due to her contractual commitment.

FILM IS EVIL, RADIO IS GOOD by Richard Foreman Lest we neglect the avant-garde, theatrical innovator and enigma-generator Foreman lays out his thesis in his title and proceeds with an elliptical debate on the subject, punctuating it in the original production with, paradoxically, a very good film, and letting the audience draw his take on the theatre from the play they’re watching that juxtaposes the other mediums.

FLIGHT Conceived by Steve Pearson, text by Robyn Hunt Drawn from a true story from 100 years ago, the multifaceted story of two young French actresses who take a break from a production of The Seagull (note metaphor) to serve as a flight team in the early days of aviation. Movies enter the picture as Alisse, a documentary filmmaker, chronicles the endeavor.

FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD by Gerard Alessandrini Much like his series of Forbidden Broadway shows, Alessandrini’s Hollywood foray was a send up of both movies themselves as well as the business and gossip behind them, using tunes from classic movie musicals.

FOUR DOGS AND A BONE by John Patrick Shanley Moral bankruptcy abounds in Shanley’s satire of filmmaking as two actresses attempt to manipulate a screenwriter for larger roles in a low-budget film, while a take-no-prisoners producer pursues his own agenda. This 1993 comedy follows Shanley’s Oscar-winning hit Moonstruck and his less-successful directing debut with Joe Vs. The Volcano, but predates Congo, which became his last screenplay credit for 13 years.

GENIUSES by Jonathan Reynolds A biting look at Hollywood in general and the runaway production history of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now in particular, Reynolds’ characters belie the play’s title at every turn, from the sadomasochistic art director to the Hemingway-emulating make-up man, to the jaded screenwriter; the only smart person in evidence is the bimbo (and director’s mistress) brought in to doff her clothes gratuitously at one point in the film. Given the enduring legacy of the Coppola film (itself the subject of a documentary by Coppola’s wife, Hearts of Darkness), it’s surprising no one has revived this comedy for a new generation.

GOLDILOCKS book by Walter and Jean Kerr, music by Leroy Anderson, lyrics by Joan Ford and The Kerrs A sharp tongued actress who’s about to forsake the stage for marriage to a fat cat and an egomaniacal producer who latches onto her as his next big screen star battle their way to romance in this little-remembered Broadway musical that featured no less than Elaine Stritch and Don Ameche in the pre-sound era. Just imagine: Elaine Stritch, but no sound…

A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN FILM by Christopher Durang, music by Mel Marvin, lyrics by Durang A mad dash through some 40 years of movie genres, as five classic character types journey through plotlines reminiscent of film staples. At once an homage to and comment on the content of Hollywood product, the show achieved a remarkable “hat trick” premiere, opening in entirely separate productions at Hartford Stage, Arena Stage and the Mark Taper Forum only a few weeks apart from each other.

HOLLYWOOD EXPOSED by Michael Tester Another spoof of Hollywood genres, featuring Friday the 13th, The Ballet; Maria von Trapp endorsing Valium; Elmer Fudd appearing in Singin’ in the Wayne and selections from Dirty Harry Dancing and A Very Brady Exorcist.

HOLLYWOOD PINAFORE, OR THE LAD WHO LOVED A SALARY book and lyrics by George S. Kaufman, music by Sir Arthur Sullivan Debuting on Broadway only a week after Memphis Bound took the same source material, Gilbert and Sullivan’sH.M.S. Pinafore, on a trip to the American south, Kaufman’s version used it as the framework for a Hollywood satire in which a young starlet is promised in marriage to a studio head by her ambitious director father, while she really loves a disgraced screenwriter. It managed on 52 performances in 1945 (16 better than Bound).

HURLYBURLY by David Rabe Think that Hollywood is filled with narcissistic, substance-abusing, morally bankrupt low-lifes focused on their own gratification? Then this is the play for you.

I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES by Neil Simon Listed more for its title than its topic, Simon’s 18th play focused more much on the rapprochement behind a father and his estranged daughter, but it has its share of Hollywood humor thanks to the father’s formerly successful, now blocked, career as a screenwriter.

KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN In the darkest of circumstances, a filthy jail in a Latin American country, two political prisoners sustain themselves by escaping from hellish reality into fantasies of the motion pictures, one of the few examples on this list where the movies are lifelines. Available in both play (by original novelist Manuel Puig) and musical (by John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally) versions.

LIKE TOTALLY WEIRD by William Mastrosimone Two teenaged delinquents break into the home of a schlock action film producer and proceed to terrorize the man and his girlfriend by recreating scenes from the producer’s own films. A seemingly exploitative play that examines the responsibility of those who create senseless violence for public consumption.

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED by Douglas Carter Beane A scathing and hilarious look at Hollywood mores and double-standards, Beane’s sharp comedy about a fast-talking, amoral agent who’s trying, by any means necessary, to keep her young star client from coming out of the closet manages to have its cake and eat it too, because the crass, soulless agent is also the most perceptive and funniest person on the stage.

LOOPED by Matthew Lombardo Although Tallulah Bankhead was better known for her stage work and for her flamboyant and risque public persona, this recent Broadway outing chose to focus on the star as she struggles to re-record a single line of dialogue for an undistinguished film thriller, earning it a place on this list. Bankhead has proven a favorite of stage writers and stars, generating numerous shows about her life, includingTallulah, book by William F. Brown, lyrics by Mae Richard, Music by Ted Simon; Tallulah by Sandra Ryan Howard; Tallulah Who? with book by William Rushton, music and lyrics by Suzi Quatro and Shirlie Roden; Tallulah, A Memory by Eugenie Rawls; and Tallulah Hallelujah! By Larry Amoros, Tovah Feldshuh and Linda Selman.

MACK AND MABEL book by Michael Stewart , music and lyrics by Jerry Herman The intertwined professional and personal lives of early filmmaker Mack Sennett and his leading lady Mabel Normand are the basis for this much-tinkered-with musical about their romance. A favorite of musical theatre buffs, it has a hard time reconciling the darker aspects of the true-life tale to the musical comedy conventions that were still in place when it was created, resulting in numerous attempts to “fix” the show in the more than 35 years since its short-lived Broadway premiere.

A MAP OF THE WORLD by David Hare An extremely complex play which takes place in Bombay at a 1978 UNESCO conference on poverty, as well as at a contemporary British film studio where a movie is being made about the conference’s behind-the-scenes events, based upon a novel about the conference. Needless to say, the film of the novel of the conference is highly reductive, highlighting the failure of moviemaking to do justice to either the novel or its factual basis.

MARILYN: AN AMERICAN FABLE book by Patricia Michaels; music and lyrics by many collaborators Though inevitably any retelling of the short, tragic life of Marilyn Monroe would at face value be bound to be an indictment of Hollywood, this musical treatment focused more on her men than her movies. But hers was a Hollywood life after all, so this merits inclusion, despite the Broadway production being, you should pardon the expression, a candle in the wind.

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG book by George Furth, music and lyrics by Stephen SondheimWhile the anti-hero of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s original play was a theatrical success, Furth and Sondheim begin their backward-moving musical with their compromised writer having sold out to Hollywood after having begun in the theatre. Sharp barbs are tossed at movie society in the earlier parts of the show, before we move backwards to a time of more integrity and before that, aspiration.

MERTON OF THE MOVIES by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly A bad actor becomes a comedy star when producer realize his incompetence in drama results in successful comedy. Quite remarkably, the play debuted in 1922, based on a 1919 book, making it one of the earliest stage satires of Hollywood and finding success while the silent film era was still in full swing.

MINNIE’S BOYS book by Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher, music by Larry Grossman, lyrics by Hal Hackady This is included only to point out why it doesn’t belong here. The story of the Marx Brothers and their mom (a regular Mama Rose was she), focuses entirely on their vaudeville days and ends with their discovering their trademark personas, which were honed on stage before being transferred to Hollywood.

MIZLANSKY/ZILINSKY, OR SCHMUCKS by Jon Robin Baitz Schlock producer Davis Mizlansky has the I.R.S. breathing down his neck as he works to convince his partner Sam Zilinsky to embrace the idea of celebrity retellings of Bible stories for children, such as “Sodom and Gomorrah: The True Story,” even though the backer for the project may also be a Nazi sympathizer.

MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS by Ron Hutchinson Focused on the five days in which producer David O. Selznick, writer Ben Hecht and Victor Fleming rewrote the screenplay of Gone With the Wind, this true-life tale chooses to play artistic desperation and potential financial ruin for laughs. Of course, we know the resulting film was a big hit, so there’s little need for reverence or any genuine suspense.

MY FAVORITE YEAR book by Joseph Dougherty, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens Although it’s one of the many fictionalized dramatizations of life behind the scenes at Sid Caesar’s television hit Your Show of Shows, MFY belongs on this list because of its portrayal of Alan Swann, a dissipated one-time swashbuckling star, now reduced to a guest shot on the new medium known as television, and the idealized Hollywood dreams of our protagonist, young Benjy Stone, that, as a result of Swann’s personal failings, are forced to fall by the wayside. Life is not like the movies at all.

NINE book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston Fellini’s film 8 1/2 is the basis for this highly stylized musical about film director Guido Contini and the many women in his life. While the backdrop is moviemaking (although in this case Cinecitta rather than Warner Brothers), it’s the relationships that form the backbone of the episodic story.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman A light-hearted satire of three out of work actors who head west to find work in the new field of talking pictures, convinced that their stage training will give them an edge over the once-silent stars of the era, this was first written by Hart and subsequently polished in partnership with Kaufman in the first of their eight collaborations. The show was promised several years ago as a musical, GOING HOLLYWOOD, by David Zippel, Jonathan Sheffer and Joe Leonardo, but it has yet to materialize.

PASSIONELLA from The Apple Tree, book by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, music by Bock and lyrics by Harnick The final chapter of Bock and Harnick’s tripartite chamber musical is drawn from Jules Feiffer‘s illustrated subversion of the Cinderella tale, in which a chimney sweeping drudge is transformed into a glamorous movie star. For the trivia minded, this was the second effort to bring Passionella to the musical stage; the earlier failed version was by Feiffer and some guy named Sondheim.

POPCORN by Ben Elton Stop me if you’ve heard this one: two killers on a serial murder spree hole up at the home of the schlock action film producer whose movies have inspired them and, knowing they’re likely to be caught soon, force the producer to accept the responsibility for their own depraved behavior. Adapted from Elton’s own 1996 novel of the same name.

ROAD TO NIRVANA (aka BONE-THE-FISH) by Arthur Kopit A conflation of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow and its original much-hyped Broadway production starring Madonna, this structurally and dramatically similar play expresses its own contempt for the state of modern Hollywood but seems to have contempt for Mr. Mamet’s tale as well, in this case telling the story of a rock star who attempts to pass off Moby Dick as her autobiography, with her in the place of Ahab, and the competitive producers vying to one-up each other.

THE ROYAL FAMILY by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman Yes, yes, I know it’s primarily focused on its two leading ladies, stage doyennes Fanny and Julie Cavendish, and modeled on The Barrymores, but there are more than a few poisoned arrows pointed at Hollywood via the character of Tony Cavendish, who has forsaken the stage for the louche and lucrative world of the screen.

SEARCH AND DESTROY by Howard Korder A morally bankrupt young man on the lam from the I.R.S. takes refuge where only such an empty vessel can succeed: Hollywood, where he embarks on a series of misadventures including drug abuse and murder in preparation for producing his first movie, Dead World.

SHAKESPEARE IN HOLLYWOOD by Ken Ludwig Based in the true-life making of the classic film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by recent refugee Max Reinhardt, the farceur Ludwig ups the ante by having the “real” Oberon and Puck materialize on the film set to complicate the production.

SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN book adapted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green from their screenplay, with pre-existing songs Amidst so many dark visions, Singin’ in the Rain is a ray of sunshine of stage shows about the movies, admittedly a straightforward adaptation of the utterly delightful love letter to Hollywood that is the original film, turning on the transition from silent films to talkies. One of the early cases of an original film musical subsequently being turned into a stage vehicle, the stage Singin’ marked the Broadway debut of Twyla Tharp as director and choreographer.

SLASHER by Allison Moore If the making of porn can be the subject of a stage play about movies, then the slasher genre should get a shot (or cleaver, or buzzsaw) too. Moore’s play portrays Sheena, a Texas waitress who secures a role in a low-budget horror film shooting nearby in order to make ends meet, the prospect of which causes her wheelchair-bound mother to go…CRAZY! A simultaneous spoof of horror films and feminist commentary on their objectification of women.

SPEED-THE-PLOW by David Mamet A crass, driven Hollywood big shot comes to question his profession and his purpose when he has to choose between making a sure-hit blockbuster and an esoteric film championed by his temp assistant. Like so many plays of Mamet, an accomplished screenwriter and film director, the story particulars are less important than the gender politics and macho battles that erupt within it.

STONES IN HIS POCKETS by Marie Jones Not unlike The Cripple of Inishmaan, Stones portrays the effects of a film crew’s arrival on a small Irish village, once the location for filming of The Quiet Man, although in this case the film is big budget Hollywood epic and the entire village is portrayed by only two men. While it has its share of standard Hollywood satirical jokes, Stones manages to retain a vision of Hollywood as a dream factory and America as a land paved with gold, even as it shares some darker stories of the filming, including the one that gives the play its name.

SUNSET BOULEVARD book by Don Black and Christopher Hampton, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Black and Hampton The classic film noir by Billy Wilder, of a forgotten silent screen siren who dreams of a comeback and her ill-fated dalliance with a down on his luck screenwriter, is transferred to the stage with a good bit of its tawdriness intact. The deluded, pathetic, grasping Norma Desmond and her kept man Joe Gillis encapsulate everything that’s was wrong with Hollywood for two different generations.

THEDA BARA AND THE FRONTIER RABBI book by Jeff Hochhauser, music by Bob Johnston, lyrics by Hochhauser and Johnston A young rabbi’s forbidden attraction to the films of silver screen siren Theda Bara, Bara’s true identity as Theodosia Goodman (who just wants to find a nice Jewish boy to settle down with), and the efforts of one Selwyn Farp to have the rabbi lead a movie industry watchdog group form the basis of this musical romantic comedy that manages to mix religious issues into the standard tale of Hollywood allure and true life values.

THE VAMP book by John LaTouche and Sam Locke, music by James Mundy, lyrics by LaTouche Created as a vehicle for Carol Channing, this musical take-off on the silent screen career of – here she is again – Theda Bara proved one of Channing’s rare flops (60 performances), of which she later wrote that she should have simply walked out while it was out-of-town in Washington.

TRUE WEST by Sam Shepard Though it’s the sibling rivalry that most recall about this Shepard comedy, one shouldn’t forget that at the start, brother Austin is at work on a screenplay, one of the four characters is an unctuous film producer, and the filmic metaphor of what the west really represents gets trashed as the brothers metamorphose as a result of their dangerous proximity.

TWENTIETH CENTURY by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur/ON THE TWENTIETH CENTURY book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Comden & Green Although the main focus is on theatre in both the play and musical version of a down on his luck theatrical producer who works to woo his one-time protégée back to the stage and into his arms, there are zingers aplenty for Hollywood as producer Oscar Jaffe works to win a contract out of screen siren Lily Garland (nee Mildred Plotka).

WHAT A GLORIOUS FEELING by Jay Berkow with pre-existing songs Belonging to the “let’s look behind the scenes of a movie we all know well,” this play with songs focuses on the romantic triangle between Singin’ in the Rain‘s co-directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen and the film’s dance captain and Donen’s ex-wife Jeanne Coyne. Portrayals of producer Arthur Freed and leading lady Debbie Reynolds round out the cast. And for those who shout “jukebox musical,” just remember that the originalSingin’ didn’t have original songs either; they were drawn from a back catalogue of 20 to 30 years vintage.

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While I began with a disclaimer regarding the completeness of the list you’ve just read, I would be remiss if I didn’t note that a new addition will be making its debut very shortly: BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK by Lynn Nottage. Because the play has not yet had its world premiere — it begins previews in April at New York’s Second Stage) — I will borrow a synopsis from that theatre’s marketing copy: “the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career. When circumstances collide and both women land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy.” And thus another play about the movies is born.

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I would like to thank the many folks who helped me to build this list, even those whose suggestions may not have made the cut as a result of my arbitrary and mercurial nature and guidelines. Via Twitter, I give my appreciation to:
@awkwarddanny, @bengougeon, @charlenevsmith, @danaboll, @devonvsmith,

@dloehr, @dramagirl, @forumtheatre, @fronkensteen, @galoka,

@_hesaid_shesaid, @humphriesmark, @kevinddaly, @kingduncan, @labfly,

@organsofstate, @pawofthepanther, @patrica666, @pksfrk, @pollycarl,

@raisinsliaisons, @reduced, @spaltor and @thenygalavant.

Via Facebook and e-mail, I am indebted to Casey Childs, Roger Danforth, Michael Dove, Jane Lipka Helfgott, Larry Hirschhorn, Dawson Howard, Ben Pesner, Heather Randall, Scott Rice, Ellen Richard, Eric Savitz, Susan L. Schulman, Ed Windels, and Randall Wreghitt. MVP goes to Bert Fink.

This post originally appeared on the American Theatre Wing website.

Lest you think me an opportunist, I would like to declare that I had this blog on my mind since I first wrote the paired blogs “37 Flicks Theatre Lovers Should Know” and “13 Docs That Theatre Lovers Should Know” in late November. However, the overwhelming response to that effort did inform how I’ve gone about this new one.

From the title, the focus of this list is presumably quite obvious: it’s a catalogue of plays that focus on the act of theatre and the people who make it. It is, like its predecessors, in no way meant to be definitive, but rather to prompt reveries of plays once seen or dreams of plays yet to be seen; it will hopefully also flush out many more ideas of plays on this theme and indeed suggestions are welcomed in the comments section at the end of the list. That said, it is more comprehensive, lest I face more aggrieved fans of omitted shows.

As I suspected, I heard from many people with very strong opinions on the earlier blog, some of whom either missed or ignored the caveats I had set down. But ever one to beat a dead horse, let me say that even with contributions from the Twitterverse, who are individually thanked at the end of this piece, there are bound to be glaring omissions once again. So go ahead: be the first to point them out, and tell us about them; I am vastly more interested in conversation than declaration.

While I will at times arbitrarily choose to include plays that go beyond the legit theatre, that remains my main focus. So if you miss seeing a show about vaudeville, opera, burlesque, dance, choral singing or other forms of performance, feel free to add them as well. I’ve had my work cut out for me as it is. Also, unlike films which are fixed versions of a script, and complete in and of themselves, a list of plays focuses only on the text, not any particular production or interpretation; because many of these plays became movies, there’s some crossover with my earlier lists.

I found it interesting that even as I collated this assemblage of truncated synopses, a number of similar plot turns and character types revealed themselves, which means either that plays about theatre are based upon prior plays about theatre – or that there are common experiences in the theatre no matter where or how you came into the field. You’ll also note certain authors who have chronicled the stage more than once (I’m looking at you George S. Kaufman, Stephen Sondheim, Terrence McNally, Ira Levin, Comden & Green, Ken Ludwig, Noel Coward, Moss Hart, Kander & Ebb and Neil Simon) as well as some true-life theatre folk (Hello, Shakespeare! Hi, Chekhov! Welcome, all you Barrymores! Right this way, Mr. Ziegfeld!) who are the subjects of repeat scrutiny. Prison, for some reason, as well as Nazis, community theatre, Richard III and tha Mafia are also recurring motifs. Discuss, if you wish.

On a thematic note, I should say that the dictum of “write what you know” is not unique to literature, and we see countless self-portraits by artists, musical compositions reflecting the composer’s mood or experience, and so on. And so it is no surprise that playwrights, book writers, composers and lyricists would be drawn to the world they inhabit, both in loathing and in love. Some playwrights have to distance themselves, it seems, and consequently write about those in other creative endeavors (note Donald Margulies’ plays about artists, photojournalists and prose writers) and consequently aren’t enumerated here, but many more want to have at (in the many ways implied by that phrase) their muse and their burden, life in the theatre.

1. ACCENT ON YOUTH by Samson Raphelson A successful author of light comedies, Stephen Gaye, pushes his much-younger secretary, whom he loves, to take a leading role in his newest work, Old Love, only to find that he has also pushed her into the arms of an actor closer to her age, mirroring the plot of the new play itself – which is, uncharacteristically, a tragedy. Perhaps he should have known.
2. THE ACT by George Furth, John Kander and Fred Ebb Only the second entry and our premise is already stretched, by this musical/concert in which a film star who’s losing her luster seeks to regain it with an autobiographical Vegas act.
3. THE ACTOR by Horton Foote Much like the young Foote himself, the actor of the play’s title is 15-year-old Horace, who wants to attend acting school but runs up against his Texan parents’ more pragmatic expectations.
4. THE ACTOR’S NIGHTMARE by Christopher Durang An accountant named for the theatre’s favorite anonymous pseudonym, George Spelvin, is suddenly thrust upon the wicked stage with zero preparation in this curtain-raiser most often paired with Durang’s Sister Mary Ignatius.
5. AMY’S VIEW by David Hare A debate about the power of theatre and the influence of newer media is threaded throughout this story of a great actress and her daughter spanning their lives over 16 years. As with most of Hare’s plays, the personal and artistic themes are interwoven with, and at times parallel, political issues in England.
6. ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS by Jane Martin Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “A stage veteran, a neophyte and a TV star walk into a production of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters at a regional theatre in Texas….” Hilarity ensues.
7. APPLAUSE by Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams The classic film about a scheming understudy and the leading lady whose life she covets, remade as a musical, perhaps the only one to ever feature the annual Tony Awards presentation as its opening scene (replacing the film’s fictional Sarah Siddons Award).
8. AUDITION by Jane Martin One of the many monologues that make up the pseudonymous author’s breakthrough work Talking With, it’s a great example of how not to get a part.
9. BABES IN ARMS by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart “Hey kids, my vaudevillian parents are out of town, so let’s stay out of the work farm here on Long Island and put on a show!”
10. A BACKER’S AUDITION by Douglas Bernstein and Denis Markell The sometimes humiliating ritual of presenting a show for wealthy individuals who just might choose to invest in its future life is the target for this gentle musical satire focused on Raggedy Romeo, a project that the widowed Esther Kanner has inherited from her late husband.
11. BARRYMORE by William Luce Weeks Before his death in 1942, a failing John Barrymore struggles to mount a revival of his 1920 success in Richard III, in what is essentially a one-man show save for the offstage voice of a prompter.
12. BELLS ARE RINGING by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne An answering service operator (anyone remember those?) becomes the muse of one of her company’s clients, Jeff Moss, a playwright with writer’s block in this musical comedy.
13. THE BIG BANG by Boyd Graham and Jed Feuer Another musical about a backer’s audition for a musical, in this case one about the history of the world from the very beginning, expected to be the most expensive in history ($83 million) and longer than Nicholas Nickleby, but presented for investors solely by the show’s two authors. Feuer is the son of Cy Feuer, noted producer and director.
14. BIRDS OF PARADISE by Winnie Holzman and David Evans A musical in which an amateur troupe stages The Seagull, having lured a Broadway has-been to direct and star based largely on his attraction to the group’s ingénue.
15. BOOTH by Austin Pendleton (aka Booth is Back aka Booth is Back in Town) A portrait of Junius Brutus Booth, who acted with Kean but emigrated to the U.S. to ply his trade grandly in the new nation, it evolves into an Oepidal struggle when his son Edwin, pursuing a simpler performing style, seeks to enter the family business.
16. BOX OFFICE OF THE DAMNED by Michael Ogborn This musical about a day in the life of a box office staff is included for two key reasons: a) because I’m unaware of any other musicals (or plays, for that matter) set in a theatre box office, and b) because the author was inspired by his tenure in the box office of the Annenberg Center in Philadelphia, where your humble blogger had his first paid job in the theatre a few years earlier.
17. BREAK A LEG by Ira Levin A beleaguered producer conspires against a particularly nasty critic in an effort to drive the pen-wielding viper mad. Oh, yes: it’s a comedy.
18. BREAKING LEGS by Tom Dulack A New England academic is so desperate to see his new play produced that he’s willing to seek financing from those most reliable of producers: the mob.
19. BROADWAY by George Abbott and Philip Dunning A Broadway hoofer and a hard-boiled mobster fight it out over a dame, an aspiring dancer, in this amalgam of gangland drama and backstage intrigue. Not a musical, it may well be the only show in history to have been directed twice on Broadway by its author (Abbott) with 61 years between the productions.
20. A BROADWAY MUSICAL by William F. Brown, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams Strouse and Adams’ own experiences on the 1964 musical Golden Boy with Sammy Davis Jr. were the impetus for this one-night-wonder of a show about the co-opting of a black author’s play as the source for a main-stem tuner about a basketball star.
21. BUFFALO GAL by A.R. Gurney A television actress returns to her hometown of Buffalo, NY to star help save the local regional theatre by starring in a production ofThe Seagull. The sad irony of the play is that it was the last new Gurney produced by Studio Arena Theatre, the main resident theatre in Buffalo, Gurney’s hometown.
22. THE BUTTER AND EGG MAN by George S. Kaufman A hotel clerk from Chillicothe comes to New York to bankroll a Broadway play in order to finance his own hotel back home, but the show bombs in its out-of-town tryout, prompting its producers to drop it like a hot potato – and leading the clerk to whip it into shape himself.
23. BY JEEVES by Alan Ayckbourn and Andrew Lloyd Webber This Wodehouse-suggested musical uses a story crafted entirely by Sir A, which blurs the line between play and play-within-a-play, as the denizens of a local church hall act out a misadventure of Bertie Wooster’s in order to prevent him from giving his intended banjo recital. Not to be confused with the earlier Jeeves, by the same authors, a notorious West End flop.
24. CABARET by Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb Although the title of the show makes clear that this is not set in the world of legit theatre, aficionados will pillory me for not including it. The habitués of a Berlin nightclub and their intertwined lives show the progression of Germany from the louche era of kabarett to the rise of Nazism, which would end that era of low-life creativity and self-expression.
25. CHEKHOV IN YALTA by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow Set during the final years of the author’s life, it is a romantic roundelay of love and desire set amidst the Moscow Art Theatre set, with appearances by the producer Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, actress Olga Knipper and director Konstantin Stanislavsky.
26. CHILDREN OF PARADISE: SHOOTING AN DREAM by Steven Epp, Felicity Jones, Dominique Serrand and Paul Walsh The making of Marcel Carne’s acclaimed backstage film is the subject of this collaboratively created drama by Minneapolis’ sadly defunct Theatre de la Jeune Lune. An epic work, a signature piece for the company and perhaps one that may never be staged again, it is included here as penance for leaving the movie Les Enfants du Paradis off of my film list last month.
27. A CHORUS LINE by James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante, Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban Now and forever, the ultimate musical about auditions and the many reasons that performers make their lives in the theatre, famously drawn from interviews with the original cast.
28. A CHORUS OF DISAPPROVAL by Alan Ayckbourn A mild milquetoast joins an amateur theatrical group that’s preparing a production of The Beggar’s Opera and proceeds to unwittingly upset the intricate power structure and romantic entanglements of the incestuous troupe.
29. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION by Annie Baker Less about the theatre than about the self-revelation that acting requires, this comedy set in a fictional Vermont town offers instant recognition for anyone who has ever studied acting, first out of the gentle satire, and later the genuine truths that the process must unearth.
30. A CLASS ACT by Linda Kline and Lonny Price with music and lyrics by Edward Kleban The lyricist for A Chorus Line, Kleban, is the subject of this posthumous tribute musical, emphasizing (and ultimately realizing) his desire to see a musical produced which employed not only his words, but his music as well.
31. THE COCKTAIL HOUR by A.R. Gurney Perhaps a glimpse into scenes from the author’s own life, as a playwright informs his very WASP-y parents that his newest play is based upon their family, meeting with the expected resistance.
32. COMPLEAT FEMALE STAGE BEAUTY by Jeffrey Hatcher The story of Ned Kynaston, an actor famed for playing female roles in the English era when women couldn’t appear on stage, and the effect on his career of the end of that prohibition. Adapted by Hatcher for film as Stage Beauty.
33. CRAZY FOR YOU by Ken Ludwig with songs by George and Ira GershwinTaking off from the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy, but interpolating songs from elsewhere in their catalogue, Ludwig indulges his love of backstage stories by contriving the new story of a “Zangler (read Ziegfeld) Follies” wanna-be, Bobby Child, who heads out west where he contrives to put on a show in the town of Deadrock, Nevada in order to save the local theatre and win the heart of local gal Polly – much to the consternation of his fiancée.
34. CRESSIDA by Nicholas Wright Set just a bit earlier than play #32, this tale of a young actor joining an English acting troupe in the days when only men could appear on the stage offers a plum role in the character of John Shank, actor, scout and mentor of a troupe that must thrive upon youth even as he grows older.
35. A CRITIC AND HIS WIFE by John Ford Noonan After “losing” the George Jean Nathan Award for Criticism, critic Len Oppenheim takes a leave of absence from his job in order to work on his first novel – only to place himself into direct competition with his wife, also an author.
36. CRITIC’S CHOICE by Ira Levin New York Herald Tribune critic Walter Kerr and his wife, the playwright Jean Kerr (Mary, Mary), were the inspiration for and target of Levin’s comedy, wherein a critic must decide whether or not to review his wife’s dreadful play in its Broadway premiere. Believe it or not, there’s a happy ending – with the critic’s integrity intact.
37. A CRY OF PLAYERS by William Gibson The author of The Miracle Worker mused on the life of one young Will, living in outside London, who, though married, is a bit of a layabout and ne’er-do-well, despite his tendency to high-flown language. Though we never hear the name of his hometown, or even his surname, it’s quite clear that we’re watching the formative years of Shakespeare at Stratford.
38. CRYSTAL & FOX by Brian Friel A traveling troupe may see its final days as one of the partners decides it’s time to get off the road.
39. CURTAINS Rupert Holmes, John Kander and Fred Ebb Originally titled Who Killed David Merrick?, this musical centers on backstage murders as a production tries out in Boston, and the local detective who is on the case but always dreamed of being on the stage.
40. THE COUNTRY GIRL by Clifford Odets An alcoholic, forgotten stage actor is given one last chance at glory by a young director who once worshipped the man, and the effect of this possible resurrection on the faded star’s wife, who has stood by his side throughout the decline.
41. DEDICATION by Terrence McNally A married couple dream of opening a children’s theatre company, but to find the funding they so desperately need, they must turn to a wealthy but malevolent woman with her own agenda.
42. DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin “Meta” before we knew what that even was (we thought Levin’s play was simply self-referential), this thriller is about a writer of stage thrillers who encounters the script of a stage thriller, entitled Deathtrap, written by a novice playwright who the more senior author then deigns to collaborate with…or is he planning to steal the young man’s play and do away with the script’s true provenance?
43. THE DRESSER by Ronald Harwood The playwright was once a dresser himself for the English actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit and he transforms their true life relationship into the tale of a dedicated dresser who selflessly, yet frustratingly, dedicates himself to propping up a figure much like Wolfit in his twilight years.
44. THE DROWSY CHAPERONE by Bob Martin, Don McKellar, Lisa Lambert and Greg MorrisonAlthough the bulk of this musical is the recreation of scenes from the fictional 20′s entertainment that is a show within the show, the framing device of narration by one “Man in Chair” makes this a valentine to theatre and the people who love it, maybe a bit too much and too cattily.
45. THE EASIEST WAY: A STORY OF METROPOLITAN LIFE by Eugene Walter From 1909, a scandalous early tale of a woman who uses the casting couch to her own advantage, among her many “depradations.”
46. ELIZABETH REX by Timothy Findlay A comedy with sober moments depicting the famed Queen distracting herself with William Shakespeare and his company following a performance of Much Ado About Nothing, as she awaits the beading of the Earl of Essex after his failed overthrow attempt.
47. THE ENGLISH CHANNEL by Robert Brustein Set in the plague year of 1593, another look at Shakespeare’s life, as he first encounters his patron the Earl of Southampton, takes a new mistress, “borrows” from the work of other writers, and shifts from poet to playwright. Part of Brustein’s intended Shakespeare trilogy, which also includes Enter William Shakespeare.
48. ENTER LAUGHING by Joseph Stein Drawn from Carl Reiner’s semi-autobiographical novel, about a young Jewish machinist’s helper who struggles to break into show business, it was an endless literary source, adapted by Reiner and Stein as a film, and by Stein (with Stan Daniels) as the musical So Long 174th Street, which is now known once again by the original title.
49. THE ENTERTAINER by John Osborne Springing from the English Music Hall tradition, rather than the legitimate theatre, this scathing play from the author of Look Back in Anger plumbs the dark well of a performer’s soul as retired headliner Billy Rice’s dismal home life is interspersed with “numbers” from his career which only serve to highlight his anger and despair.
50. EQUIVOCATION by Bill Cain Will Shag (read Shakespeare) is ordered to create a play about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 at the behest of King James I but ends up creating Macbeth instead. Jam-packed with questions about art, politics and the Jesuitical concept of equivocation vs. truth, including some parallels to the George W. Bush administration as well.
51. FAM AND YAM by Edward Albee A brief one-act in which a Young American Playwright confronts a Famous American Playwright about the commercialization of the theatre.
52. FOLLIES by James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim Former showgirls from “Weisman’s (read Ziegfeld’s) Follies” gather for a reunion before their former theatrical home is torn down, recalling the romance and the romances of their performing days and the sadder realities of their present day lives.
53. 45 SECONDS FROM BROADWAY by Neil Simon Just as in real life, the Edison Café (aka the Polish Tea Room) is the hangout for aspiring and has-been actors, directors, writers as well as the sometime unknowing tourist, lovingly commemorated herein.
54. 42ND STREET by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin The flip, sunny side of All About Eve/Applause, this stage adaptation of the darker 1933 film features an understudy who gets her big break when a big musical’s leading lady can’t do the show on opening night.
55. THE FROGS by Burt Shevelove, Stephen Sondheim and (later on) Nathan Lane First a play with music mounted in a Yale University swimming pool in 1974 under the guidance of Shevelove, this free adaptation of Aristophanes play was yet again adapted by Lane 30 years later as a full-fledged musical with new contributions from the composer. Dionysus, god of wine and drama, travels to Hades in order to bring back a writer to soothe troubled times. Topical, on many topics, the show reaches its climax with a debate on art between Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, replacing Aeschulyus and Euripides from the original Greek.
56. FUNNY GIRL by Jule Styne, Bob Merrill and Isobel LennartA musical recounting of Ziegfeld Follies star comedienne Fanny Brice’s early years as she builds her career and then risks it all for the love of gambler Nick Arnstein.
57. GATES OF GOLD by Frank McGuinness The founders of the Gate Theatre in Ireland, Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir, are the models for the main characters of Conrad and Gabriel in this story of the latter’s final days, as they come to terms with their professional and personal lives together.
58. GHETTO by Joshua Sobol Set in the Vilna ghetto during World War II, the play portrays the efforts of the head of the Jewish police to ostensibly save the lives of many artists by encouraging the prisoner to create a work of theatre and the resistance to and subverting of this idea by the incarcerated company.
59. THE GLORIOUS ONES by Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty The creative and personal trials and tribulations of a commedia dell’arte troupe as that form, and the characters, evolve.
60. THE GOODBYE GIRL by Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch and David Zippel From the popular movie of the same name, a romantic comedy in which another of Simon’s odd couples – Paula, a former dancer with a young daughter, and Elliot, an actor – become apartment-mates and eventually a couple. Prized for its satirical version of an experimental take on Richard III in which Elliot appears.
61. THE GRAND MANNER by A.R. Gurney Based upon his brief boyhood encounter with the celebrated actress Katharine Cornell, Gurney invents what he wished that visit had been, portraying the backstage triangle between Cornell, her lover and general manager Gertrude Macy, and her husband and director Guthrie McClintic.
62. GYPSY by Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents Once again, really about vaudeville and burlesque, but you’ll stone me to death if I pass it by. Considered by many to be one of the most psychologically astute of all musicals, it lays out the archetypal stage mother, living off of and vicariously through her performing children, getting her triumph and comeuppance all at once as her less favored child becomes a genuine star.
63. THE HABIT OF ART by Alan Bennett A meeting between W.H. Auden and Benjamin Britten is subject of Caliban’s Day, the play-within-a-play that is about to be rehearsed at the National Theatre (where Habit premiered). The framing device adds an additional layer of contemplation about the nature of artistic pursuits which is already the subject of Caliban.
64. HAY FEVER by Noël Coward Reportedly inspired by a weekend sojourn of Coward’s at the home of actress Laurette Taylor and with the leading role of a recently retired actress, Hay Fever is decidedly theatrical, but not wholly devoted to the stage, save for the question of whether the aforementioned retirement is really just a respite.
65. I HATE HAMLET by Paul Rudnick Written while Rudnick was living in one of John Barrymore’s former apartments, this comedy conjures Barrymore back to that locale in order to cajole its fictional resident, a young actor tempted by TV stardom, into instead appearing on stage as Hamlet. A tabloid cause célèbre in its Broadway debut, when star Nicol Williamson strayed from the fight choreography and wounded his younger costar.
66. THE ILLUSION by Pierre Corneille Familiar to most via its adaptation by Tony Kushner, this story of a father who seeks his son by calling on the powers of a great magician is germane to our topic, but to say more would prove a spoiler to those who don’t know it.
67. INSPECTING CAROL by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Rep Company This inventive blending of the classic The Inspector General by Nikolai Gogol and every stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol ever produced turns on a regional theatre’s mistaking a data processor (and aspiring actor) for a National Endowment for the Arts onsite evaluator, who is consequently enthusiastically drawn into the theatre company desperate for “his” approval in order to secure a grant.
68. IT’S ONLY A PLAY by Terrence McNallyFirst seen in engagements out of town (where it closed) as Broadway, Broadway, this reworked comedy is set at a restaurant in the now bygone days when the creative team, cast and assorted revelers alike awaited the first appearance of a show’s reviews, in this case something optimistically named The Golden Egg. Knowledge of the Broadway scene in the late ’70s and early ’80s may be a prerequisite for full enjoyment.
69. JACK: A NIGHT ON THE TOWN WITH JOHN BARRYMORE by Nicol WilliamsonPerhaps having felt constrained by playing Rudnick’s fictional version, Williamson fashioned his own one-man show based on the life of the famed actor, which, perhaps intentionally, focuses on the often erratic behavior its subject, mirroring that of its star/author.
70. JENNIE by Howard Dietz, Arthur Schwartz and Arnold Schulman The early life of the famed actress Laurette Taylor (from a biography by her daughter) was the jumping off point for this musical, a vehicle for leading lady Mary Martin, about a married couple touring the country in popular melodramas. It ran a little over two months on Broadway, a particular flop given the presence of its star.
71. JITTERS by David French This 1979 Canadian comedy traffics in the now-politically incorrect premise that real theatre only happens in New York, as it chronicles the backstage calamities of a small theatre company that dreams of sending its newest work, The Care and Treatment of Roses, to the Big Apple.
72. KISS ME, KATE by Cole Porter, Sam Spewack and Bella Spewack The backstage squabbles mirror the onstage plot as a musical of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew is performed by warring ex-lovers for whom the flame may not have truly flickered out.
73. LA BÊTE by David Hirson The eternal struggle between pleasing the populace and creating art on stage is the subject of this rhymed challenge of a play, which carries a strong whiff of Molière in its coupleted debate.
74. LEND ME A TENOR by Ken Ludwig This door slamming, dual identity farce owes as much to the Marx Brothers as it does to the opera world in which it’s set. Not about theatre, but it does remind us that self-absorbed performers, aspiring talents, good girls, femmes fatale and apoplectic managers exist in every performing field. We are not alone.
75. A LIFE IN THE THEATRE by David Mamet Two working actors, one young, one veteran, employed at a theatre company of seemingly constantly rotating rep, meet up backstage and on stage in this affectionate tribute those who make, well, their living on stage.
76. LIGHT UP THE SKY by Moss Hart A backstage satire of theatre in which the author of an allegorical epic finds himself undone by all of his collaborators during a show’s Boston tryout, before they get their comeuppance in the final act.
77. THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED by Douglas Carter Beane Managing to satirize theatre and the movies at the same time, this comedy concerns itself with the challenges of an actor whose gay relationship runs up against his agent’s unequivocal belief that coming out will ruin his career by losing him the starring role in a film based upon a hit play…about a gay relationship.
78. A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler From Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night, a multifaceted portrait of mismatched lovers that features Desirée, a leading lady fearing her looming days as a grand dame, and looking to leave a life on the road for something more settled.
79. LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O’Neill Not a play about the theatre, per se, but two of the four characters are actors and the lives of the other two are unquestionably impacted by the itinerant lives that dominate their own. Based on the playwright’s own family, it has indelibly delineated James Tyrone, a tight-fisted, frightened man trapped forever as a stage hero in material he considers beneath him, and his namesake, James, Jr. (also seen in A Moon for the Misbegotten), forced onto the stage with neither the love nor ambition that has kept his father going for decades.
80. MAGIC TIME by James Sherman A summer theatre dressing room is the setting for an acting company that has begun to assimilate their onstage roles, on the verge of their final performance of Hamlet. The author says he was inspired by the early days of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
81. MAN OF LA MANCHA by Mitch Leigh, Dale Wasserman and Joe Darion Another show that we tend to forget is a play within a play, the musical opens with author Miguel Cervantes thrown into prison, where he proceeds to weave the tale of Don Quixote de la Mancha, co-opting the convicts into the telling and ultimately gaining their trust.
82. A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen FlahertyAdapted from the film, the musical tells of a Dublin bus driver determined to mount an amateur production of Wilde’s Salome, who is undone when the star of the local theatre troupe, cast in a supporting role, declares the play indecent, causing the company to lose their church hall venue, and when his dawning realization of his own homosexuality is revealed to his narrow-minded community.
83. THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart An imperious and impervious critic takes over a household while laid up with an injury, with doppelgangers of Harpo Marx and Noël Coward thrown in for good measure. Created as a vehicle for, and based upon, the critic Alexander Woollcott, who relinquished the Broadway role to Monty Woolley, although he later appeared in the show’s West Coast debut.
84. ME AND JULIET by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II The backstage romance between a chorus girl and an assistant stage manager is threatened by a jealous stagehand during the run of an experimental musical-dance theatre piece. Set, uniquely for its time, six months into the run of a show, rather than during its creation or opening struggles.
85. MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart This experimental play was a tale told in reverse, beginning in 1934 with the opening night party for playwright Richard Niles newest show, then working backwards as we see his career build, his closest friends driven away and his integrity disintegrating until we reach 1916 as Niles delivers an optimistic college graduation speech.
86. MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG by Stephen Sondheim and George Furth A musical reworking of the Kaufman and Hart play, updated to travel backwards from 1976 to 1957, as we see successful filmmaker Franklin Shepard abandon his career as a musical theatre songwriter and betray the ideals he youthfully celebrated in his college anthem, “The Hills of Tomorrow.”
87. MISTAKES WERE MADE by Craig Wright A low-rent producer desperately works the phones to convince a major movie star to take a role in a new play about the French Revolution, willing to rewrite the play and history itself if only he can succeed in securing this piece of sure-fire star casting.
88. MOON OVER BUFFALO by Ken Ludwig Married, fading stage stars are on the verge of calling it quits professionally and personally when they’re forced to hold it together in the hope of one last nig break: as they’re touring in rep withPrivate Lives and Cyrano de Bergerac, famed film Frank Capra is reportedly coming to see them as he seeks a cast for his remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
89. THE MOONY SHAPIRO SONGBOOK by Monty Norman and Julian Moore Revues like Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Side by Side by Sondheim get a gently satirical skewering in this fictional meander through some three dozen songs by the imaginary author of the title.
90. MORNING GLORY by Zoe Akins Here’s irony for you: this unproduced play yielded not one but two film versions of the story (the other known as Stage Struck) of a New England girl who heads to the bright light of New York, yes, to make it big on Broadway and manages to do so with some older mentors and a romance with a young playwright.
91. NO CHILD by Nilaja Sun A one-woman show, first performed by its author, based on her own experiences teaching in New York City, a fictionalized version of attempting to lead her students through a production of Our Country’s Good (see #95), paralleling the lives of the convicts in the play with those of the students themselves, in the high security, restrictive world of an inner-city public school.
92. NOISES OFF by Michael Frayn Perhaps the most ingenious backstage play ever invented, this remarkable farce and slapstick tour de force shows us the production of a lame sex comedy from three vantage points: on stage at a late rehearsal, backstage when everything that can go wrong is just about to do so, and back on stage as the production limps along late in its provincial tour.
93. ON THE 20TH CENTURY by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Cy ColemanThe musical version of #127 (damn you, alphabetical order), this train-bound farce has a down-at-his-heels producer desperate to convince his former protégé and lover, now a big star, to return to his troupe and, wouldn’t you know it, his embrace.
94. ORSON’S SHADOW by Austin Pendleton A fictionalized imagining of the circumstances surrounding Welles’ production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros for the National Theatre in 1960, as well as his distillation of Shakespeare’s Falstaff plays into Chimes at Midnight, requiring actors who could convincingly play Welles, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Olivier’s third-wife-to-be Joan Plowright.
95. OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD by Timberlake Wertenbaker Based upon both historical accounts (some which have proven to be fictional) as well as a novel by Thomas Kenneally (author of Schindler’s List), OCG chronicles the first theatrical production, Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer, on the continent of Australia, when it was still a British penal colony.
96. OUT OF THE FRYING PAN by Francis Swann Six young actors live together in an apartment strategically located just above that of a Broadway producer in this 1941 comedy, and they get their chance to showcase their talents when the unsuspecting producer stops upstairs to borrow a cooking ingredient needed for his vaunted gumbo recipe.
97. OUT-CRY by Tennessee Williams (aka The Two-Character Play) A brother and sister, he a playwright and she an actress, both struggling with their demons and faded dreams, attempt to make a comeback in a regional theatre production only to find that the rest of the company and the audience has fled in anticipation of their arrival.
98. PASSION PLAY by Sarah Ruhl This wildly ambitious triptych portrays three different towns – one in the middle ages, one in WWII Europe and one in the present day U.S. – as they mount productions of the biblical passion play of Jesus, showing how in each case, the story they enact bleeds into the everyday lives of those who perform it.
99. THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE by Peter Weiss. I think that pretty well sums it up, don’t you?
100. THE PLAY AT THE CASTLE by Ferenc Molnar/THE PLAY’S THE THING by P.G. Wodehouse/ROUGH CROSSING by Tom Stoppard We aren’t used to remakes in the theatre, but Molnar’s Hungarian original has begotten at least two remakes by celebrated writers, both drawn to the story of producers who must insure that their playwright isn’t distracted by the apparent dalliances of his paramour with another man. While the first two versions are set in a Mediterranean manse, Stoppard took it onto the high seas.
101. PRESENT LAUGHTER by Noël Coward Matinee idol Garry Essendine is beset on all sides by the people in his orbit, among them an obsessed fan, romantic entanglements, a pleading producer and the loyal secretary who tries to keep everyone – including her employer – on track.
102. THE PRODUCERS by Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan The realization that a corrupt producer could make more money with a flop than with a hit is the engine that drives this now widely well known musical tale, drawn from a film that had long been a cult favorite of those in the theatre biz. The stage musical softens some of the spikier edges of the film as it fashions three love stories, one between a man and the not-so-dumb blonde of his dreams, another between two men who complete each other, and between just about everyone in the story and the stage.
103. THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND by Tom Stoppard Prefiguring The Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf, two critics, Moon and Birdboot, voice their thoughts and opinions throughout the performance of a substandard country house mystery, often going off on tangents, until they’re drawn into the action of the play itself, blurring the line between stage life and real death.
104. THE REAL THING by Tom Stoppard Smart, witty and successful, Henry is a playwright with the perfect words for any moment and any script – but does he actually know what it means to be in love, and what price must he pay to learn it?
105. RED NOSES by Peter Barnes A medieval monk named Flote seeks to combat a corrupt church and the Black Death by establishing a rag-tag comic troupe of clowns and leading them on a sacred crusade against the inevitable.
106. RED PEPPERS by Noël Coward In the words of its author, who wrote it as a vehicle for himself and Gertrude Lawrence as one of the one-acts that make upTonight at 8:30, “a vaudeville sketch sandwiched between two musical hall songs.”
107. THE REHEARSAL by Jean Anouilh The jaded gamesmanship of the aristocratic set is contrasted with the eager innocence of a young ingénue when a count and his wife set out to mount their own production of Marivaux’s The Double Inconstancy.
108. ROOM SERVICE by Allen Boretz and John Murray An underfunded producer is holed up in his brother-in-law’s hotel with the cast of his newest show, Godspeed, but he has to come up with the money for the hotel bill and the show or risk losing everything to a rival producer.
109. ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD by Tom Stoppard An existential comedy that owes as much to Beckett as it does to Shakespeare, R&G makes this list because as these minor characters from Hamlet observe the real action of Shakespeare’s story, they spend a good bit of time with the troupe that are asked by the melancholy Dane to perform The Murder of Gonzago, or The Mousetrap.
110. THE ROYAL FAMILY by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber This once contemporaneous satire of the Barrymore clan transforms them into the Cavendishes, a theatrical dynasty of self-dramatizing performers, but the satire also allows for moments in which the love and power of theatre is not only acknowledged, but extolled, securing its enduring place in the canon.
111. SAY, DARLING by Abe Burrows, Marian Bissell & Richard Bissell, Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green Drawn from Bissell’s novel about his experiences when his earlier novel 7 1/2 Cents was adapted for Broadway as The Pajama Game, this is usually considered a play with lots of music because all of the songs are from the show within the show, rather than pieces that advance the story. All of the hallmarks of a show in production are here, with scenes of auditions, rehearsals and the fabled out-of-town tryout.
112. THE SCENE by Theresa Rebeck A dedicated Off-Broadway actor whose career never fully blossomed experiences a mid-life crisis as he sees more successful, but less talented and intelligent, individuals lighting up stages and screens, leading him to both question and risk his personal and artistic values.
113. THE SEAGULL by Anton Chekhov While it’s absolutely about more than just theatre, this classic work set at a Russian summer estate explores the timeless struggle between old art and new, both literary and human, with the great actress Arkadina clinging to her youth while confronted with the free spirit of a young aspirant, Nina and the experimental efforts of her playwright son Konstantin.
114. SIDES: THE FEAR IS REAL by the members of Mr. Miyagi’s Theatre Company Endorsed by no less than Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout as one of the funniest shows he’s ever seen, Sides is a collection of comic sketches portraying every possible iteration of what can go wrong at an audition.
115. SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR by Luigi Pirandello Another play in which the title serves as a fair synopsis, in this case the aforementioned sextet interrupt the rehearsal of a Pirandello play in order to ask that show’s director to complete their narrative by staging their story, thereby completing it. Be it satire, aburdist or surrealism, it’s unmistakably a seminal work that delves into the act of theatremaking, and the oft-discussed question of whether characters have lives beyond what appears on the page.
116. SMALL TRAGEDY by Craig Lucas Though rooted in the details of a minor production of Oedipus by a small theatre company in Cambridge and the interplay between its incongruous participants, ranging from an on-the-skids Hollywood director to a young mother returning to the stage after a failed marriage, the play expands beyond its theatrical beginning to contrast the production of a tragedy with how we confront one when it comes too close to our own lives.
117. SMITH by Dean Fuller, Tony Hendra and Matt Dubey A dull botanist is suddenly thrust into a musical comedy version of his life in this satire of theatrical conventions that eked out a few short weeks on Broadway in 1973.
118. STAGE DOOR by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber Living at the Footlights Club during the Depression, aspiring stage actress Terry Randall, newly arrived from her Midwestern home, juggles two beaus – playwright Keith and producer David – while living among the soap opera lives of her fellow boarders.
119. STAGE BLOOD by Charles LudlamThe founder and guiding light of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company took on Shakespeare and acting in general, andHamlet in particular, as a bedraggled troupe attempts their umpteenth performance of Hamlet even though their leading man is drunk to start and dead midway through the performance, at which point a mystery plot kicks in.
120. STAGE FRIGHT by Charles Marowitz Two actors kidnap a critic and threaten to kill him for his past writing, surely the fantasy of many a playwright made (fictional) flesh – although Marowitz has careers as both author and critic. Critic Michael Phillips has suggested that the play’s captured critic, F.F. Charnick, might be named as an almost-anagram of former New York Times drama critic Frank Rich.
121. THEATRE by Guy Bolton and Somerset Maugham Adapted from Maugham’s novel and (much) later adapted twice for the screen as Adorable Julia and Being Julia, this is the now-familiar tale of a married stage couple who are all smiles when the stage lights are on, but harpies (and unfaithful ones at that) in the light of day – until they realize the error of their ways. In its day, Time called it “not very pleasant fun.”
122. THIS IS A PLAY by Daniel McIvor A one-act comedy in which we see actors playing out a bad melodrama but also, more meaningfully, revealing to the audience what’s going through their heads as they act.
123. TICK, TICK…BOOM! by Jonathan Larson Originally performed by the composer himself, this musical quasi-autobiography of Larson questioning both his personal and professional life as he approaches as 30 was reworked by playwright David Auburn after Larson’s death into a three actor piece made all the more poignant because the success so desired by Jon in the show was only achieved posthumously with Rent.
124. [title of show] by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell The ultimate meta-musical is about two guys writing a musical. It began life (and plot) as the authors contemplated a submission to a New York musical festival and managed over the course of several productions to find its way to Broadway (as we see in the show, which kept morphing to match its own fortunes). No word on whether the authors have been adding new material for the countless amateur and college productions.
125. THE TORCHBEARERS by George Kelly A small-town amateur theatre group which cannot even decide if the play they’re staging is a comedy or tragedy is tracked through rehearsal, performance and post-show let-down in Kelly’s first play, a stinging satire of artistic poseurs.
126. TRELAWNY OF THE “WELLS” by Arthur Wing Pinero A young actress learns she can only achieve real success once she comes to truly love the craft of acting. After touring with a second rate company and falling for a young man whose parents disapprove of her profession, she captivates the young man’s grandfather, who funds the production that will make her a star.
127. 20TH CENTURY by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur and Bruce MilhollandSource of the aforementioned musical (see #93)
128. TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS by Richard Nelson I suppose the notorious rap wars of the 1990s might be the closest modern parallel, but it’s still difficult to imagine the populace getting incensed enough over dual and dueling productions of Shakespeare plays. But that’s exactly what gave rise to the Astor Place Riots of 1849 and the foundation for this historical play depicting the actions surrounding what may well be the most physical expression of critical opinion.
129. THE UNDERSTUDY by Theresa Rebeck A frazzled stage manager must conduct an understudy rehearsal for a new actor, who turns out to be an old beau who abandoned her, while he’s resentful of covering the part of a comparatively talent-free Hollywood star, who is in turn understudying the play’s actual star. Worth noting: the play in question is by Kafka.
130. WAITING IN THE WINGS by Noël Coward A retirement home for aged actresses is the setting for competition and revelations among great (and not so great) ladies of the stage even after their careers have faded in the twilight, with particular focus on May and Lotta, who haven’t spoken for 30 years.
131. WELL by Lisa Kron Using the construct of a performance piece about Kron’s youth and, in particular, her perpetually afflicted mother, Well slips back and forth across the line between being her story played out and a commentary on the story and its telling. Originally produced with Kron as herself, to heighten the effect.
132. WHAT’S THAT SMELL: THE SONGS OF JACOB STERLING by David Pittu and Randy Redd At a meeting of the fictional “Composers and Lyricists of Tomorrow” (CLOT), our host Leonard Swagg moderates a presentation by the eponymous composer, a ramble through an undistinguished and hilarious oeuvre of mangled musical comedy.

Enough already!

For their suggestions and background insight, my thanks to 
@allylouwho 
@annarains
@birdinboston 
@codydaigle 
@culpeperWalker 
@dloehr 
@doggiedog 
@dramaturgs
@elizabeth7577 
@ellagreeneyes 
@fronkensteen 
@galoka 
@gwydions 
@hilarysutton
@jilllawless 
@JimHebert 
@kamelrockprod 
@kevindaly 
@kingduncan42 
@levine_SM
@maurajudkis 
@megmcsweeney 
@mrtylermartins 
@nerdbombr 
@NewYorkTheater
@pawofthepanther 
@philrickaby 
@pksfrk 
@_plainKate_ 
@rmspiar 
@sbessr
@shamlesspromo 
@simsjames 
@survivorqueen 
@terryteachout 
@TheNYGalavant
@321sobel 
@TheaterSmart 
@tomoconnor 
@tyleryork 
@webcowgirl
and special thanks to the invaluable Bill Rosenfield.

This post originally appeared on the American Theatre Wing website.