Comedians (play)

Comedians is a play by Trevor Griffiths, set in a Manchester evening class for aspiring working-class comedians. It was first performed at the Nottingham Playhouse on 20 February 1975, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. The cast included Jonathan Pryce as the main character, Gethin Price, Stephen Rea and the comedian and music hall performer Jimmy Jewel as the teacher.^[1] The play deals with political issues such as sexism and racism. A BBC television version in the Play for Today series was tranasmitted 25 October 1979 with Bill Fraser as the teacher.

It reached Broadway during the 1976/77 season, and ran at the Music Box for 145 performances. The production was virtually recast. Milo O'Shea now played the teacher, but Jonathan Pryce retained his role and he was the only British actor in the first American production. He won the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a play. It was directed by Mike Nichols, who was nominated for the Tony as Best Director of a play.

Comedians was revived off-Broadway in 2003, with Jim Dale as the teacher, Raul Esparza as the student comedian, and David McCallum as the agent.

A London revival opened at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith on 7 October 2009, at the beginning of the Artistic Directorship of Sean Holmes. The production featured Matthew Kelly as the teacher, Keith Allen as the agent. The rest of the cast was Mark Benton, Reece Shearsmith, David Dawson, Billy Carter, Michael Dylan, Kulvinder Ghir, Simon Kunz, Paul Rider and Nick Williamson

See also

• Punchline (film)

References

1. ^ Trevor Griffiths: Plays 1, Faber 1996

External links

• Internet Broadway Database
• TV Cream review of the Play for Today production

Awards
Preceded by Equus	Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Foreign Play 1976–1977	Succeeded by none

This article on a play from the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: 1976 plays Broadway plays English plays Drama Desk Award winning plays Play for Today 1970s play stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Go-no-sen-no-kata Les Webber Look at other dictionaries: Comedians — are a type of entertainer who tell jokes. Comedians can also refer to: Comedians (film), a 1954 film Comedians (play), a 1975 play by Trevor Griffiths The Comedians, a 1940 concert suite by Dmitry Kabalevsky The Comedians (1941 film), a 1941 film …   Wikipedia Play 99.6 FM — Play 99.6 (99.6 FM) is an English language music radio station in Jordan. Founded in 2004, Play 99.6 is part of the Modern Media Company, which also owns Sunny FM. Using the Top 40 model, the station plays the best English hit songs from around… …   Wikipedia Pay to play — Not to be confused with Play or pay contract. Pay to play, sometimes pay for play, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage (play) in certain activities. The common… …   Wikipedia The Comedians of Comedy — is an occasional stand up comedy tour featuring alternative comedians Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford that was documented in a 2005 film and 2005 Comedy Central television series of the same name, both directed by …   Wikipedia Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play — The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, acting awards were given without making distinctions between roles …   Wikipedia List of contemporary comedians using blackface — The style known as blackface in which an actor or entertainer blacks up and sometimes affects a caricature of a racial stereotype is widely seen as dated, and confined to archive performances from the likes of Al Jolson and G.H.Elliott. However… …   Wikipedia The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians — was an animated half hour ABC television special produced by Rankin/Bass Animation (best known for their stop motion Christmas special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer). The show aired on April 7, 1970 before the airing of that year s Oscars. It… …   Wikipedia Richard III (play) — English actor David Garrick as Richard III just before the battle of Bosworth Field. His sleep having been haunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered, he wakes to the realisation that he is alone in the world and death is imminent. The… …   Wikipedia Double Dare (play) — Double Dare Format Drama Written by Dennis Potter Directed by John Mackenzie Starring Alan Dobie Kika Markham Joe Melia …   Wikipedia Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play — The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, directing awards were given without making distinctions between …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”