Theatre Trivia Questions & Answers from

Theatre Trivia

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Passion and a Three-Time Tony Winner August 14, 2015
He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion and the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Sunday in the Park with George. What is his name?

Select Reveal Answer

That would be the multi-talented James Lapine.

Continue reading →

	Select Reveal Answer
That would be the multi-talented James Lapine.

Theatre Trivia Tweet: They Keep Pulling Him Back August 12, 2015

Al Pacino has appeared in about a dozen Broadway shows. His next one will be David Mamet’s new play China Doll. His first Broadway appearance was in 1969. What play was he in?

	Select Reveal Answer
His first Broadway appearance was in on February 25, 1969 in the play Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie where he played Bickham. The show closed on March 29^th of that same year.

Continue reading →

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Riding the Playboy Wave August 10, 2015
Irish actors Sara Allgood (“Widow Quin”) and J. M. Kerrigan (“Shawn Keogh”), in The Playboy of the Western World, Plymouth Theatre, Boston, 1911

What Irish playwright wrote Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World?

Select Reveal Answer

John Millington Synge, whose The Playboy of the Western World caused a riot at the Abbey Theatre.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Time Does Fly When the Rent Is Due July 31, 2015
How many minutes in a year and from what song in Rent do we get that fact?

Select Reveal Answer

Jonathan Larson wrote that there are 525,600 minutes in a year. The name of the song from Rent is “Seasons of Love.”

Continue reading →

	Select Reveal Answer
John Millington Synge, whose The Playboy of the Western World caused a riot at the Abbey Theatre.

	Select Reveal Answer
Jonathan Larson wrote that there are 525,600 minutes in a year. The name of the song from Rent is “Seasons of Love.”

Theatre Trivia Tweet: How High Is THAT corn? July 31, 2015

According to the lyric of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” how high is the corn and high tall might it grow?

	Select Reveal Answer
In the musical’s opening song, the “corn is as high as an elephant’s eye, An’ it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky.” Which is, mighty tall considering an average African elephant is 12-feet tall, putting it’s eye at about the 10- to 11-foot mark.

Continue reading →

Theatre Trivia Tweet: The Mystery of Rupert Holmes July 29, 2015

Rupert Holmes, the multi-talented artist, penned the Tony winning musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Holmes was first known as a pop singer/songwriter. His first international hit was “Timothy” recorded by the Buoys. What is “Timothy” about?

	Select Reveal Answer
“Timothy” is a song about a mine cave-in during which one miner, named Timothy, dies, and to survive the others cannibalize him. Leading to another type of mystery, as the lyric queries, “Timothy, where on earth did you go?”

Continue reading →

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Amazing Grace Writer July 27, 2015
The musical Amazing Grace focuses on the man, who was the son of a slave trader, who penned that song. What is his name?

Select Reveal Answer

The name of the writer, who is the main character in the musical Amazing Grace, is John Newton.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Not So Good to be the King July 17, 2015
A raging King Lear railing against one of his daughters.

In Shakespeare’s King Lear, which of his three daughters really does love him and is true to him?

Select Reveal Answer

Although Goneril and Regan claim that they love him, it is Cordelia, who he has banished, who truly does.

Continue reading →

	Select Reveal Answer
The name of the writer, who is the main character in the musical Amazing Grace, is John Newton.

	Select Reveal Answer
Although Goneril and Regan claim that they love him, it is Cordelia, who he has banished, who truly does.

Theatre Trivia Tweet: What a Riot! July 15, 2015

On May 10, 1949, the Astor Place Riot took place outside the Astor Opera House where a performance was to occur. There were more than 120 injured and 25 people we killed. What two feuding actors fueled the animosity for this night of violence?

	Select Reveal Answer
The ongoing dispute between Edwin Forrest, one of the most esteemed American actors of the mid-19^th century, and William Charles Macready, a similarly esteemed English actor, fueled the energies for the riot. The dispute between the two actors was over which of them was best at playing Shakespeare’s great roles.

Continue reading →

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Greg, Kate and…? July 13, 2015
Playwright A.R. Gurney

In this A.R. Gurney play Greg finds a new companion, which upsets his wife, Kate. The name of that companion is the same as the title of the play. What’s the name?

Select Reveal Answer

That would be Sylvia, the name of the stray dog who Greg befriends. The comedy will be on Broadway in September.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Do You Like the View from that Bridge? July 10, 2015
London revival of A View from the Bridge comes to Broadway this season.

Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, which will be revived on Broadway this season, was first a one-act play. What was the title of that play?

Select Reveal Answer

The one-act was entitled A Memory of Two Mondays.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Born Yesterday, Really? July 9, 2015
Who played Billie Dawn in the original 1946 production of Born Yesterday?

Select Reveal Answer

That was the inimitable Judy Holliday. Holliday played the same role in the 1950 film and won an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Willis Will Do It March 28, 2015
Bruce Willis is going to make his Broadway debut in 2015. In what show will he be performing?

Select Reveal Answer

He will star in John Goldman’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Try to Remember March 27, 2015
The original cast of The Fantasticks.

What year did The Fantasticks premiere in New York City?

Select Reveal Answer

It premiered Off-Broadway on May 3, 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. It ran for 17,162 performances.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Why NOT a Tony in 1975? March 26, 2015
Scott in Salesman.

The only time Death of a Salesman was not nominated for Tonys was for the 1975 Broadway production starring George C. Scott. Why was it not nominated?

Select Reveal Answer

Because the Tonys did not recognize revivals until 1977.

Continue reading →

	Select Reveal Answer
That would be Sylvia, the name of the stray dog who Greg befriends. The comedy will be on Broadway in September.

	Select Reveal Answer
The one-act was entitled A Memory of Two Mondays.

	Select Reveal Answer
That was the inimitable Judy Holliday. Holliday played the same role in the 1950 film and won an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

	Select Reveal Answer
He will star in John Goldman’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery.

	Select Reveal Answer
It premiered Off-Broadway on May 3, 1960 at the Sullivan Street Playhouse. It ran for 17,162 performances.

	Select Reveal Answer
Because the Tonys did not recognize revivals until 1977.

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Tennessee Williams’ Home Sweet Home March 20, 2015

Where was playwright Tennessee Williams born and where did he spend much of his childhood?

	Select Reveal Answer
Williams was not born in Tennessee. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi. When he was eight years old the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Williams, whose real name was Thomas Lanier Williams, took on the appellation “Tennessee” after spending time in the Volunteer State, his father’s home state, and finding solace in his grandparents.

Continue reading →

Theatre Trivia Tweet: Hedwig Hails From? March 18, 2015
In Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in what country was the title character born?

Select Reveal Answer

Hedwig was born in Germany, and thus the “w” in the character’s name is pronounced like a “v.”

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Gigi Source March 16, 2015
Gigi comes back to Broadway this month.

On what source material is the stage musical Gigi based?

Select Reveal Answer

It is based on two sources- the novella Gigi by Colette and 1958 hit musical film of the same name.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Gigi on Film March 7, 2015
Gigi, which was first produced on Broadway in 1973 and will star Vanessa Hudgens in the revival in April 2015, was originally a 1958 film. Who played Gigi in the original film?

Select Reveal Answer

Leslie Caron was Gigi in the hit film.

Continue reading →
Theatre Trivia Tweet: Adapting Dürrenmatt March 6, 2015
Who adapted the Friedrich Dürrenmatt play The Visit into the musical of the same name with music and lyrics by Kander and Ebb?

Select Reveal Answer

Playwright Terrence McNally wrote the book for The Visit, which premieres on Broadway in April with Chita Rivera in the lead.

Continue reading →

	Select Reveal Answer
Hedwig was born in Germany, and thus the “w” in the character’s name is pronounced like a “v.”

	Select Reveal Answer
It is based on two sources- the novella Gigi by Colette and 1958 hit musical film of the same name.

	Select Reveal Answer
Leslie Caron was Gigi in the hit film.

	Select Reveal Answer
Playwright Terrence McNally wrote the book for The Visit, which premieres on Broadway in April with Chita Rivera in the lead.

See All Trivia…