Elizabeth and Essex

Cast

Theatre World for the 1979-1980 season lists the performance total as 24, while The Best Plays of 1979-1980 and Off-Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007 by Dan Dietz list a performance total of 25. We believe 24 to be the correct total, at least if previews are included. This discrepancy is understandable as some newspaper announcements of the production said it would open on January 31, 1980, but it was common at the time for Off-Off-Broadway productions to state, especially in early announcements, that the date of the first performance was the opening. In this case, that date was January 31, 1980. Reviews for the production started appearing on February 25, 1980. (Most Off-Off Broadway productions of the period were never reviewed and so the date of the first performance was essentially the opening date.) In Douglas Watt’s review published in the edition of the Daily News dated February 25, 1980, he specifically stated that the production had opened the day before. On that day, reviews also appeared in The New York Times and The Record (sometimes known as The Bergen Record) and perhaps in other papers.

We list 15 previews and 9 performances, based on the Thursday through Sunday performance schedule that the production played, with only one performance each day. A possible reason for the discrepancy between the 24-performance total (including previews) that we and Theatre World list and the 25 performances listed by Best Plays and Dietz’s book is that the production gave a benefit performance for the Encompass Theatre, which produced the show, on Thursday, February 7, 1980. It may be that the Best Plays editorial team and Dietz thought this was an extra performance, but (as stated above) the production always played a Thursday evening performance.
 

Main Run

• South Street Theatre (New York, NY)
  February 24, 1980 - March 9, 1980

Commercial Recordings

• No commercial audio listed yet.

Private Recordings

• Original Off-Off Broadway Cast (1980)
  

  • Estelle Parsons
  • Richard White
  • Florence Lacey
  • Florence Lacey
  • Lisa Ann Cunningham
• Original Off-Off Broadway Cast (1980)
  

  • Estelle Parsons
  • Richard White
  • Florence Lacey
  • Florence Lacey
  • Lisa Ann Cunningham

Broadcast Recordings

• No broadcast audio listed yet.

Archival Recordings

• No archival audio listed yet.