Caesar and Cleopatra (play) - Stage Productions

Stage Productions

• The play was first performed in March 1899 by Mrs Patrick Campbell's company at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle
• Shaw wrote the part of Caesar for Shakespearean actor Johnston Forbes-Robertson, who played it opposite his wife Gertrude Elliott.
• A 1925 Broadway production starring Lionel Atwill and Helen Hayes was a major hit that opened the Guild Theatre.
• Cedric Hardwicke and Lilli Palmer starred in a production of the play performed in 1949-50 at the National Theatre on Broadway.
• Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh played the title roles in repertory with Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra in 1951 at London's St James's Theatre and later on Broadway.
• John Gielgud played Caesar at the Chichester Festival in 1971. He was Shaw's first choice for the role in the 1945 film but declined the offer after meeting with the director Gabriel Pascal and taking an instant dislike towards him.
• Rex Harrison played Caesar on Broadway in 1977, recreating his Academy Award nominated role from the film Cleopatra (1963). Elizabeth Ashley portrayed Cleopatra.
• Between 1962 and 1963 a Greek stage production of the play was shown in Greece and Cyprus with actress Aliki Vougiouklaki in the role of Cleopatra.
• A 2008 Stratford Shakespeare Festival production, directed by Des McAnuff, starred Christopher Plummer as Caesar and Nikki M. James as Cleopatra. It has also been released as a film.