George Bernard (GB) Shaw
London, the mid-1930s.
The Millionairess was first performed in German by the Burgtheater in Vienna on the 4th January 1936 and was performed by amateur groups in both England and Australia later in that same year. The details listed here refer to the first professional production in Dublin in 1938. The play's first West End production took place on 27 June 1952 at the New Theatre starring Katherine Hepburn in the role of Epifania.
"Though this play of The Millionairess does not pretend to be anything more than a comedy of humorous and curious contemporary characters such as Ben Jonson might write were he alive now, yet it raises a question that has troubled human life and moulded human society since the creation" (Preface, 1935). A play about the gaps between rich and poor, later made into a popular 1960 film starring Peter Sellars and Sophia Loren.
Plays General
Full-Length
6
3
9
04 July 1938
Produced by Sydney Russell.
Gaiety Theatre
The Bodley Head Bernard Shaw: Volume 6
1973
The Bodley Head
England
0370102258
Plays Extravagant: Too True to be Good; The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles; The Millionairess
1991
Penguin
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The information for this entry was taken from press cuttings, the published script and Nicholas Grene and Deirdre McFeely's compilation "Shaw Productions in Ireland, 1900-2009" published in Shaw Vol. 10 (2010).