I show you mine, you show me yours?
Macbeth - Shakespeare
Hamlet - Shakespeare
A Doll’s House - Ibsen
Ghosts – Ibsen
Playboy of the Western World – Synge
The Crucible - Miller
Edmond – Mamet
Glengarry Glen Ross – Mamet
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
Angels In America - Kushner
What, if any, influence you?
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - Stoppard
Angels In America - Kushner
You got the two that first popped into my head. I've only seen the movie and read Stoppard, but I saw the first half of Angels in America at a play, read the books, and watched the movie. Angels is amazing.
Hurlyburly - David Rabe
The Infernal Machine - Jean Cocteau
Ile - Eugene O' Neil
The Glass Menagerie
Do Broadway Musicals count? Les Miserables is my favorite. I've seen it six times, and can't wait to see it again. It's the best play ever. When the priest hands the thief the rest of the silver and tells the police the stolen stuff was a gift, but he forgot the rest of the silver, I get chills. If anyone hasn't seen it, you should.
@ranch. I loved the book too. Thank you Victor Hugo! It's the story that started the whole thing, but yes I LOVE the musical. I've taken all my family and close friends to see it -- even bought tickets for some -- and I don't understand why they don't love it as much as I do. I have the sound track, the mugs and a t-shirt with that picture of Cozette. As a lover of Broadway Musicals, I have to say i did not like Phantam or CATS. I can see why those two would turn you off. I hated CATS. (I love my real kitty cats but i saw no point to the play.) Wicked is definately worth seeing. Les Miz is in a class of it's own for me. Go see it again!
Can i also add any play by Shakespeare if it is "Shakespeare in the Park" with some pasta salad and a bottle of wine?
@Cove - I love the musical of Les Miserables as well. You aren't alone!
Most influential stage play= Much Ado About Nothing. Almost every single romantic comedy that followed it followed the formula to a T. As far as influencing ME...hmmm that is tough. I'll have to visit back.
Lots of good stuff in this thread already. For me, my formative years were spent reading the theater of the absurd, so I have a soft spot for Albee, Pirandello, Ionesco, and Beckett (to whatever degree the term fits their styles.)
To pick some:
Zoo Story - Albee
Six Characters in Search of an Author - Pirandello
Rhinoceros - Ionesco
Play, Endgame, Ohio Impromptu, Not I, A Piece of Monologue, Happy Days... oh, who am I kidding, almost all of them... - Beckett
I also like farce:
Lady Windermere's Fan, The Importance of Being Earnest - Wilde
Loot, What the Butler Saw - Orton
A Comedy of Errors - Shakespeare
Also, Stoppard fans should see a production of The 15-minute Hamlet, which is actually a twelve-minute version and a three-minute version back to back.
For me: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Henry V, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
I'm going to have to go with William on this one.
Lolita (the Edward Albee adaptation)
Julius Ceasar -- read it in school. Phantom Of The Opera -- a very long time ago. Sweeney Todd -- to some degree or another. I don't watch to many plays as I hate hate hate musicals.
Yes you heard it first, a poet who hates musicals.
Julius Caesar: betrayal by best friends, the "Comes a Tide in the Affairs of Men" speech, consideration of tragedy.
To Kill a Mockingbird: (it's staged yearly in Monroeville, AL and also by high schools-- in particular a privileged local, almost all-white high school together with an inner-city almost all-black/hispanic high school) Scout's speech to lynch mob outside jail, Atticus's speech to the jury, and his talks with his children.
The Merchant of Venice: Portia's speech on the quality of mercy, treatment of justice, mercy, and discrimination.
Rent: great boiling down of the meaning of life: It's ALL about the Rent -- both real and symbolic.
I'd add Citizen Kane, but I don't think it was ever a stage play.
For me it was Avenue Q, The Devil and Daniel Webster and Caligula. Definitely Caligula. I love the stage version by Albert Camus. It's even a great read. I have it on my phone.
You're on the dark side, aren't you? -
I don't really get out a whole lot...
'Caligula' was good. I went into it thinking he was a horrible person (and still think he probably really was) but the play caused me to sympathize, if not with him personally then at least with the fictional dilemma of existence against the absurd and all that stuff.
Right? It's one of the most beautiful examples of absurdism in my opinion, especially the ending. I love the end. Oh my god, and the production I saw was just fantastic. It was really stripped down and minimalistic. Every one just wore like, dark suits and stuff (except for Caesonia who had a red dress) and the only set pieces were a bunch of different chairs and a few curtains. It was gorgeous.
I'd like to see more 20th-21st Century stuff live. I've only read it, along with basically everything else except Shakespeare.
I love seeing The Merry Wives of Windsor on stage. Mostly because I enjoy seeing women besting men in a time where they weren't equals, which also means I'm not so much a fan of The Taming of the Shrew, but that's another issue entierely. Othello is brilliant to me--love Iago (possibly most perfect villain, at least to me).
Have also seen Phantom of the Opera at least 5 times (and I'm going again in August) but I'll be the first to admit I love it more because of the book than the play. I could read that one 900 times and still be happy to read it again.
Is it wrong to admit I really loved Guys and Dolls? To be fair, it was the first play I'd ever seen in person so it may hold more sentimental value than anything else.
@ChristiLea: Guys and Dolls-- good choice! I love Damon Runyon's stories.
@JYH: This Is Our Youth is playing now in Chicago (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); it's 1982, but it's getting good reviews--supposed to get to Broadway next.
@kAndrezB: Henry V indeed. The movie version w/Kenneth Branaugh is very good, except for his "wooing" scene--a little stilted, but otherwise, excellent.
@JW --- Never heard of it. And I'm nowhere near Chicago.