Barrymore

William Luce’s 'Barrymore' turned the stage of the Music Box Theatre into a spectacular, deeply moving dramatic crucible of theatrical history in 1997. The brilliant, bittersweet plot unfolds over a single evening in 1942 inside a rented theater, where the legendary, fading, and severely alcoholic actor John Barrymore attempts to rehearse for a desperate comeback production of Shakespeare's Richard III, collapsing into a series of razor-sharp anecdotes, classic line deliveries, and tragic confrontations with his own mortality. Directed by Gene Saks, the production achieved historic status due to Christopher Plummer’s monumental, Tony-winning tour-de-force performance, delivering an absolute masterclass in solo dramatic acting.