Strawhead
Encyclopedia
Strawhead is a play
by American
writers Norman Mailer
and Richard Hannum about Hollywood icon
Marilyn Monroe
. The play is a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance, an imaginary memoir told in Monroe's voice.
Strawhead takes place in New York City
during the last few days of Monroe's life in August 1962, a period in which she is alone with her memories, most of which revolve around the days when she lived in New York
. The play largely is composed of a fanciful collection of interviews that never took place between Monroe and Mailer during Marilyn Monroe's last hours. The play made its Off Broadway debut in January 1986, which included Mailer's wife Norris Church in the cast and subsequently his daughter Kate Mailer
in the Monroe role. Kate Mailer additionally appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair
cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead.
had adapted his 1955 novel The Deer Park
for an Off Broadway production. Thirteen years later, in 1980, Norman Mailer
's agent informed Mailer that Richard Hannum, then a Manhattan
roommate of Godspell
creator John-Michael Tebelak
, American
Pulitzer Prize
-winning film critic
Stephen Hunter
, and film director
and composer
Tom O'Horgan
were interested in a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance. Mailer agreed to work on the play since it would be a pleasant diversion: "Novel writing is a lonely business. Lonely business quickly becomes grim. In theater you're working with people. The climate is a lot warmer."
The stage adaptation was Mailer's second foray into the theater behind the The Deer Park adaptation. The play takes its title from an FBI code name for Monroe. According to Mailer, Strawhead represents "(Marilyn's) ironic, whimsical, tortured way of thinking." Mailer sees the fictional Monroe character in the play as "having an immensely dialectical mind; no sooner does she have a thought, than she comes on its opposite. That's the way life presents itself to her - in contrasts and sudden shifts."
In January 1981, Hannum and Hunter were listed as the producers of the play and O'Horgan was listed as the director. At that time, Mailer had hoped that the play would open on Broadway
in the spring 1981 or the fall 1981, but had not yet cast
the Monroe character. In addition, Hannum still was working on the play construction and Mailer was working on the play dialogue from his writing desk in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
.
To move the script along, Mailer presented the beginnings of Strawhead for critique to the Actors Studio Playwright And Directors Unit
, an exclusive group to which Mailer belonged. The early draft had a clichéd Monroe giving a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. In response to former Marilyn Monroe roommate and Academy Award
winning actress Shelley Winters
blasting Mailer's effort, Mailer rewrote the part to be a burly Maileresque feminist who burst into the play from the audience.
dinner party given by Claus von Bülow
, who at that time was on trial for the attempted murder
of von Bülow's wife, Sunny, and had been out of jail only two days on US$1 million bail. Also attending the party was Australia
n-based theatre
actress Kate Fitzpatrick
. Fitzpatrick was introduce to Mailer and spoke with Mailer during dinner after Mailer swapped the place cards to seat Fitzpatrick beside him. After deciding that Fitzpatrick was perfect to play Marilyn Monroe in Strawhead, Mailer, Hunter, and Hannum met with Fitzpatrick to give her the script. Fitzpatrick turned down the part, since she already was committed to playing Marilyn Monroe in Terry Johnson
's 1982 play, Insignificance.
The producers made additional efforts to find a noted actor to play the lead role. Prior to 1983, Mailer, Hunter, and Hannum also courted American
actress Susan Sarandon
to play the Marilyn Monroe character. Sarandon declined the lead role with the query, "Why should I perpetuate someone else's legend when I should be creating my own?"
On March 7, 1983, the American Repertory Theatre
at Harvard University
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, where Mailer is an alumni
, presented a staged reading of Strawhead. The presentation was part of the theaters noted Monday night series at the Loeb Drama Center. ART
actor Karen MacDonald played the lead role. At this point, the play was an unproduced spec script
, Mailer thought the play needed trimming, and there were no immediate plans to produce Strawhead.
In June 1983, it was announced that Strawhead would be produced by Marshall Oglesby at Provincetown Playhouse
in Manhattan
. At Mailer's recommendation, Oglesby selected ART
actor Karen MacDonald to play the Monroe character. In late August 1983, Strawhead was presented at Provincetown Playhouse
.
In November 1985, Mailer brought his play to the Actors Studio
, an Off Broadway theater and school that gained worldwide recognition under the leadership of Lee Strasberg
. The scenes presented were workshop
scenes and Mailer put himself in position of director of the two-act production. In addition to the cast including Robert Heller, Mickey Knox and Patrick Sullivan, Mailer added his wife Norris Church to the cast. There was no admission charge to the workshop.
, who shared a close relationship to Mailer and reviewed an initial version of the play, stated that what Mailer put on stage ultimately was not Monroe. Rather, the play was more about "chronicling all Mailer's life as The Great, White, Male Heterosexual, "Big Daddy", "The Man.""
In April 1986, it was first reported that Mailer's daughter Kate Mailer
was added to the cast in the lead role. The choice was in interesting one since the play characterizes a fictional interaction between Monroe and Mailer and an early draft had a clichéd Monroe giving a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. In explaining Mailer's choice of casting his 23-year-old, unknown actress daughter in his play, Mailer stated, "She was the best prep-school actress I'd ever seen." To bring publicity to the play and to sell the Vanity Fair
magazine, Kate Mailer appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead. In October 1987, the New York Times describe Kate Mailer's portrayal of Monroe as teenage punk rocker who is "less identified with her role."
After the 1986 performances, the commercial performance of Strawhead all but disappeared. In her 2005 book The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, author Sarah Churchwell notes that Strawhead was a commercial failure.
In April 2008, Harvard University
received the papers of the co-author of the play, Richard G. Hannum, formerly a resident of Sebastian, Florida
. Included with those papers were correspondence with Mailer and drafts and final script for Strawhead. The drafts and final script evidence the literary technique
s used in Strawhead and Mailer's efforts to continually improve his own writing for Strawhead and that of Hannums. Importantly, they convey research and teaching about how the style and substance of Strawhead was developed through layers of revision.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writers Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
and Richard Hannum about Hollywood icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
. The play is a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance, an imaginary memoir told in Monroe's voice.
Strawhead takes place in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
during the last few days of Monroe's life in August 1962, a period in which she is alone with her memories, most of which revolve around the days when she lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The play largely is composed of a fanciful collection of interviews that never took place between Monroe and Mailer during Marilyn Monroe's last hours. The play made its Off Broadway debut in January 1986, which included Mailer's wife Norris Church in the cast and subsequently his daughter Kate Mailer
Kate Mailer
Kate Mailer is an American stage and film actress who is the daughter of American author-playwright Norman Mailer and third wife journalist, Lady Jeanne Campbell, eldest daughter of the 11th Duke of Argyll...
in the Monroe role. Kate Mailer additionally appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead.
Development
In 1967, Norman MailerNorman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
had adapted his 1955 novel The Deer Park
The Deer Park
The Deer Park is a Hollywood novel written by Norman Mailer and published in 1955 by G.P. Putnam's Sons after it was rejected by Mailer's publisher, Rinehart & Company, for obscenity. Despite having already typeset the book, Rinehart claimed that the manuscript's obscenity voided its contract with...
for an Off Broadway production. Thirteen years later, in 1980, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's agent informed Mailer that Richard Hannum, then a Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
roommate of Godspell
Godspell
Godspell is a musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak. It opened off Broadway on May 17, 1971, and has played in various touring companies and revivals many times since, including a 2011 revival now playing on Broadway...
creator John-Michael Tebelak
John-Michael Tebelak
John-Michael Tebelak was an American playwright and director. He was most famous for creating the musical Godspell based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The music was by Stephen Schwartz...
, American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning film critic
Film criticism
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter is an American novelist, essayist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic.-Life and career:Stephen Hunter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Evanston, Illinois. His father was Charles Francis Hunter, a Northwestern University speech professor who was killed in 1975....
, and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...
were interested in a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance. Mailer agreed to work on the play since it would be a pleasant diversion: "Novel writing is a lonely business. Lonely business quickly becomes grim. In theater you're working with people. The climate is a lot warmer."
The stage adaptation was Mailer's second foray into the theater behind the The Deer Park adaptation. The play takes its title from an FBI code name for Monroe. According to Mailer, Strawhead represents "(Marilyn's) ironic, whimsical, tortured way of thinking." Mailer sees the fictional Monroe character in the play as "having an immensely dialectical mind; no sooner does she have a thought, than she comes on its opposite. That's the way life presents itself to her - in contrasts and sudden shifts."
In January 1981, Hannum and Hunter were listed as the producers of the play and O'Horgan was listed as the director. At that time, Mailer had hoped that the play would open on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in the spring 1981 or the fall 1981, but had not yet cast
Casting (performing arts)
In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...
the Monroe character. In addition, Hannum still was working on the play construction and Mailer was working on the play dialogue from his writing desk in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights is a culturally diverse neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Originally referred to as 'Brooklyn Village', it has been a prominent area of Brooklyn since 1834. As of 2000, Brooklyn Heights sustained a population of 22,594 people. The neighborhood is part of...
.
To move the script along, Mailer presented the beginnings of Strawhead for critique to the Actors Studio Playwright And Directors Unit
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
, an exclusive group to which Mailer belonged. The early draft had a clichéd Monroe giving a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. In response to former Marilyn Monroe roommate and Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
winning actress Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters
Shelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television; her career spanned over 50 years until her death in 2006...
blasting Mailer's effort, Mailer rewrote the part to be a burly Maileresque feminist who burst into the play from the audience.
Production
With the script finished, Mailer and the others set out to find the lead actress for the play. In October 1982, Mailer was attending a Park AvenuePark Avenue (Manhattan)
Park Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
dinner party given by Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow
Claus von Bülow is a British socialite of German and Danish ancestry. He was accused of the attempted murder of his wife Sunny von Bülow by administering an insulin overdose in 1980 but his conviction in the first trial was reversed and he was found not guilty in both his retrials.-Biography:Born...
, who at that time was on trial for the attempted murder
Attempted murder
Attempted murder is a crime in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.-Today:In English criminal law, attempted murder is the crime of more than merely preparing to commit unlawful killing and at the same time having a specific intention to cause the death of human being under the Queen's Peace...
of von Bülow's wife, Sunny, and had been out of jail only two days on US$1 million bail. Also attending the party was Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-based theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actress Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick
Kate Fitzpatrick is an Australian-based television, film and theatre actress.-Career:...
. Fitzpatrick was introduce to Mailer and spoke with Mailer during dinner after Mailer swapped the place cards to seat Fitzpatrick beside him. After deciding that Fitzpatrick was perfect to play Marilyn Monroe in Strawhead, Mailer, Hunter, and Hannum met with Fitzpatrick to give her the script. Fitzpatrick turned down the part, since she already was committed to playing Marilyn Monroe in Terry Johnson
Terry Johnson (dramatist)
Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. He is a Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre. At The Court he directed Dumb Show by Joe Penhall and opened his play Piano/Forte...
's 1982 play, Insignificance.
The producers made additional efforts to find a noted actor to play the lead role. Prior to 1983, Mailer, Hunter, and Hannum also courted American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
to play the Marilyn Monroe character. Sarandon declined the lead role with the query, "Why should I perpetuate someone else's legend when I should be creating my own?"
On March 7, 1983, the American Repertory Theatre
American Repertory Theatre
The American Repertory Theater is a professional not-for-profit theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, where Mailer is an alumni
Alumnus
An alumnus , according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is "a graduate of a school, college, or university." An alumnus can also be a former member, employee, contributor or inmate as well as a former student. In addition, an alumna is "a female graduate or former student of a school, college,...
, presented a staged reading of Strawhead. The presentation was part of the theaters noted Monday night series at the Loeb Drama Center. ART
American Repertory Theatre
The American Repertory Theater is a professional not-for-profit theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts...
actor Karen MacDonald played the lead role. At this point, the play was an unproduced spec script
Spec script
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio....
, Mailer thought the play needed trimming, and there were no immediate plans to produce Strawhead.
In June 1983, it was announced that Strawhead would be produced by Marshall Oglesby at Provincetown Playhouse
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the former bottling plant into a theater in 1918. Much of the original building was torn down in 2009 as New York University School of Law planned a new building on the...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. At Mailer's recommendation, Oglesby selected ART
American Repertory Theatre
The American Repertory Theater is a professional not-for-profit theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein, the A.R.T. is known for its commitment to new American plays and music–theater explorations; to neglected works of the past; and to established classical texts...
actor Karen MacDonald to play the Monroe character. In late August 1983, Strawhead was presented at Provincetown Playhouse
Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse is a theater in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. It is named for the Provincetown Players, who converted the former bottling plant into a theater in 1918. Much of the original building was torn down in 2009 as New York University School of Law planned a new building on the...
.
In November 1985, Mailer brought his play to the Actors Studio
Actors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
, an Off Broadway theater and school that gained worldwide recognition under the leadership of Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was an American actor, director and acting teacher. He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective"...
. The scenes presented were workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
scenes and Mailer put himself in position of director of the two-act production. In addition to the cast including Robert Heller, Mickey Knox and Patrick Sullivan, Mailer added his wife Norris Church to the cast. There was no admission charge to the workshop.
Debut and aftermath
In January 1986, Strawhead was debuted in full at the Actors Studio, with actor and playwright John Jiler playing Mr. Charles. American playwright and critic Bonnie GreerBonnie Greer
Bonnie Greer, OBE is an American-British playwright and critic.-Early life:Greer's father was born to a family of Mississippi sharecroppers. He was stationed in the UK during World War II and took part in the D-Day landings...
, who shared a close relationship to Mailer and reviewed an initial version of the play, stated that what Mailer put on stage ultimately was not Monroe. Rather, the play was more about "chronicling all Mailer's life as The Great, White, Male Heterosexual, "Big Daddy", "The Man.""
In April 1986, it was first reported that Mailer's daughter Kate Mailer
Kate Mailer
Kate Mailer is an American stage and film actress who is the daughter of American author-playwright Norman Mailer and third wife journalist, Lady Jeanne Campbell, eldest daughter of the 11th Duke of Argyll...
was added to the cast in the lead role. The choice was in interesting one since the play characterizes a fictional interaction between Monroe and Mailer and an early draft had a clichéd Monroe giving a blowjob to the Mailer-interviewer character. In explaining Mailer's choice of casting his 23-year-old, unknown actress daughter in his play, Mailer stated, "She was the best prep-school actress I'd ever seen." To bring publicity to the play and to sell the Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
magazine, Kate Mailer appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead. In October 1987, the New York Times describe Kate Mailer's portrayal of Monroe as teenage punk rocker who is "less identified with her role."
After the 1986 performances, the commercial performance of Strawhead all but disappeared. In her 2005 book The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe, author Sarah Churchwell notes that Strawhead was a commercial failure.
In April 2008, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
received the papers of the co-author of the play, Richard G. Hannum, formerly a resident of Sebastian, Florida
Sebastian, Florida
Sebastian is a city in Indian River County, in the Treasure Coast region of Florida, United States. The population was 16,181 at the 2000 census. In 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 18,671. As of 2010, the population recorded by the U.S...
. Included with those papers were correspondence with Mailer and drafts and final script for Strawhead. The drafts and final script evidence the literary technique
Literary technique
A literary technique is any element or the entirety of elements a writer intentionally uses in the structure of their work...
s used in Strawhead and Mailer's efforts to continually improve his own writing for Strawhead and that of Hannums. Importantly, they convey research and teaching about how the style and substance of Strawhead was developed through layers of revision.
See also
- Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (play)Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? is an original stage comedy in three acts and four scenes that opened on Broadway October 13, 1955, starring Orson Bean , Martin Gabel , Jayne Mansfield , Harry Clark , Carol Grace , Lou Gallo , William Thourlby and Walter Matthau .It...
- A 1955 play in which the Rita Marlowe character was an exaggerated lampoon of Marilyn Monroe. - After the FallAfter the Fall (play)After the Fall is a play by American dramatist Arthur Miller. The original performance opened in New York City on January 23, 1964, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Barbara Loden and Jason Robards Jr., with an early appearance by Faye Dunaway. Kazan also collaborated with Miller on the script...
- by Monroe's former husband Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
that use the Monroe persona as a character. - InsignificanceInsignificanceInsignificance may refer to:*Insignificance , a 1985 film directed by Nicolas Roeg*Insignificance , an album by Jim O'Rourke named after the film*Insignificance , a song by Pearl Jam*Insignificance...
- play by Terry JohnsonTerry Johnson (dramatist)Terry Johnson is a British dramatist and director working for stage, television and film. He is a Literary Associate at the Royal Court Theatre. At The Court he directed Dumb Show by Joe Penhall and opened his play Piano/Forte...
where Monroe's persona served as the unnamed Actress. - Finishing the PictureFinishing the PictureFinishing the Picture is Arthur Miller's final play. It was produced at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, Illinois in October 2004,just months before Miller's death on February 10, 2005.-Production:...
- by Monroe's former husband Arthur MillerArthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
that use the Monroe persona as a character.