About the Play:

Barrymore is a full-length biographical drama by William Luce. Legendary actor John Barrymore struggles to recreate his acclaimed performance of Richard III, while also recalling his past triumphs and scandals involving booze and women. Barrymore is a bittersweet portrait of one of the most famous Shakespearean actors of the Twentieth Century.

Barrymore is a glimpse into the world and artistic process of actor John Barrymore, one of America's great actors. Largely a one-man play, Barrymore depicts the idolized stage and screen star a few months before his death in 1942 as he rehearses a revival of his triumphant 1920 Broadway performance of Richard III. A second character, Frank, is never seen on stage – but is often heard sarcastically feeding the aging actor his lines of a play as the pair rehearse in a rented and run-down theatre. Each act begins with a stunning entrance onto a stage as the 60 year old legendary actor prepares for a comeback performance of Richard III, but the memorization of his lines fails him as the memories of his life claim him. He spends more time reminiscing about his life, his loves, his career, and the effect his alcoholism had on all of it. 

Barrymore premiered in 1996 at Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, toured several U.S. cities, and opened at Broadway's Music Box Theatre in 1997. For his haunted, passionate portrayal, Christopher Plummer won a Tony Award (his second) and also won the Drama Desk Award, the Edwin Booth Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Play.

Cast: 1 male, plus 1 offstage male voice

What people say:

"A dazzler! A portrait of riveting complexity and paradox that finds the balletic elegance in a drunken stagger, the poetry in a blue joke and the churning guts in rarefied verse. As [Barrymore] walks toward his own death it's with the jaunty panache of a boulevardier off to meet his new mistress." — The New York Times

"As good as one man shows get." — The New Yorker

"A staggering success... Must be seen, must be savored." — New York Post

"A perfect image of Barrymore." — New York Daily News

About the Playwright:

William Luce (1931-2019) was an American writer whose work for Broadway is legendary. He is best known for exploring the lives of historical figures in single-character dramas, most notably in the acclaimed plays Barrymore, about actor John Barrymore, and his first intercontinental triumph, The Belle of Amherst, based on the life of poet Emily Dickinson, which continues to excite audiences and awards committees above the rest. He also wrote the TV movies The Last Days of Patton starring George C. Scott, and the book for the musical Sayonara, based on James Michener's novel.