Herzl is a 1976 play written by Dore Schary

Dore Schary

Isadore "Dore" Schary was an American motion picture director, writer, and producer, and playwright who became head of production at MGM and eventually president of the studio...

 and Amos Elon

Amos Elon

-Biography:Amos Elon was born in Vienna. He immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933. He studied law and history in Israel and England. He was married to Beth Elon, a New York-born literary agent, with whom he had one daughter, Danae. In the 1990s, Elon began to spend much of his time in Italy...

 based on the biography written by Elon. The show opened at the Palace Theatre, Broadway on November 30, 1976 and closed on December 5, 1976 after 8 performances.

Setting

It is set in the years 1891-1897 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Vilna, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, and Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

.

Plot

The show follows the life of the founder of Zionism

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

, with characters and events based on historical fact.

1976 Broadway production

The show was directed by J Ranelli, with scenery by Douglas W. Schmidt, costumes by Pearl Somner, lighting by John Gleason, production stage manager Frank Marino, stage manager Judith Binus, and press by Louis Sica, Suzanne Salter, and John Springer Associates, Inc.

The cast included Paul Hecht

Paul Hecht

Paul Hecht is an English-born Canadian stage, film, and television actor best known for playing radio newsman Ross Buckingham in Howard Stern's Private Parts....

 (Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl

Theodor Herzl , born Benjamin Ze’ev Herzl was an Ashkenazi Jew Austro-Hungarian journalist and the father of modern political Zionism and in effect the State of Israel.-Early life:...

), Louis Zorich

Louis Zorich

Louis Zorich is an American actor. He is well-known for his portrayal of Paul Reiser's father "Burt Buchman" in the NBC series Mad About You. He played the role from 1993 to 1999.-Life and career:...

 (Moritz Benedikt

Moritz Benedikt

Moritz Benedikt was an Hungarian-Austrian neurologist who was a native of Eisenstadt. He was an instructor and professor of neurology at the University of Vienna...

), Stephan Mark Weyte (Herman Bahr, Ibrahim), William Kiehl (Captain Henruach, Kaiser Wilheim), John Michalski (Heinrich Kana, Sultan Arthur Schnitzler), Leo Bloom (Russian General), Roy K. Stevens (Rabbi Gudeman), Jack Axelrod (Edouard Bacher), Eunice Anderson (Jeanette Herzl), Roger DeKoven (Jakob Herzl), Judith Light

Judith Light

Judith Ellen Light is an American actress. Her television roles include Karen Wolek on the soap opera One Life to Live, Angela Bower on the sitcom Who's the Boss?, Claire Meade on ABC's TV series Ugly Betty and Judge Elizabeth "Liz" Donnelly on Law & Order Special Victims Unit.-Early life:Light...

 (Julie Herzl), Rebecca Schull

Rebecca Schull

Rebecca Schull is an American film and television actress.Schull studied acting in the United States and in Dublin, Ireland...

 (Nursemaid), Ralph Byers (Nachum Sokolov

Nahum Sokolow

Nahum Sokolow was a Zionist leader, author, translator, and a pioneer of Hebrew journalism....

), Mitchell Jason (David Wolffsohn

David Wolffsohn

David Wolffsohn was a Jewish businessman, prominent early Zionist and second president of the Zionist Organization .Wolffsohn was born in Darbėnai, Lithuania, to religious parents, Isaac and Feiga. He received an observant religious education from his parents and in 1872 was sent to Germany to...

), Richard Seff (Baron De Hirsch

Maurice de Hirsch

Maurice de Hirsch was a German-Jewish philanthropist who set up charitable foundations to promote Jewish education and improve the lot of oppressed European Jewry. He was the founder of the Jewish Colonization Association which sponsored large-scale Jewish immigration to Argentina...

, Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X

Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...

), Ellen Tovatt (Fraulein Keller), Lester Rawlins

Lester Rawlins

Lester Rawlins was an American stage, screen, and television actor.Born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, Rawlins appeared in off-Broadway productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Richard III, Winterset, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel, and Nightride, for which he won the Drama Desk Award for...

 (Count Paul Nevlinski), David Tress (Menachem Issishkin), and Saylor Creswell (Martin Buber

Martin Buber

Martin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....

).