page_title: Ben-Hur (play)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ben-Hur (play) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Edward Morgan as Judah Ben-Hur and Corona Riccardo as Iras in the 1899 stage production of Ben-Hur
context_page_description: Ben-Hur was an 1899 theatrical adaption of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace. The story was dramatized by William W. Young and produced by Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. The stage production was notable for its elaborate use of spectacle, including live horses for the famous chariot race. The hippodrama had six acts with incidental music written by American composer Edgar Stillman Kelley. The stage production opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899, and became a hit Broadway show. Traveling versions of the production, including a national tour that ran for twenty-one years, played in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. By the end of its run in April 1920, the play had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office. There have been other stage adaptations of Wallace's novel, as well as several motion picture versions.
context_section_description: After Wallace's novel was published in 1880, there was widespread demand for it to be adapted for the stage, but Wallace resisted for nearly twenty years, arguing that no one could accurately portray Christ on stage or recreate a realistic chariot race. In 1899, following three months of negotiations, Wallace entered into agreement with theatrical producers Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger to adapt his novel into a stage production. Wallace would receive two thirds of the royalties from the production, while Harper and Brothers, the book's publisher, would receive one third.
  Playwright William Young wrote the stage adaptation, reducing it to six acts in thirteen scenes. The stage version closely followed the novel's plot and retained portions of its dialog. Edgar Stillman Kelley composed the play's music, but it was its elaborate staging and special effects that created a life-sized visual presentation of Wallace's novel.
  The character of Ben-Hur was initially cast with Walker Whiteside, but he was replaced by Edward J. Morgan at the last minute. William Farnum replaced Morgan after the show's first season. William S. Hart played Messala. Hart would go on to leading roles in silent films such as The Aryan (1916), and became a silent screen cowboy hero. Farnum also appeared in several films, including The Spoilers (1914). The character of Christ was "represented as a 25,000-candlepower beam of light" and not portrayed by an actor.
  The resulting production of Ben-Hur opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899. It ran for 194 performances in its first season, before closing on May 10, 1900. Critics of the three-hour-and-twenty-nine-minute performance gave it mixed reviews; however, the audience, many of whom were first-time theatergoers, packed the house. Ben-Hur became a hit show, selling 25,000 tickets per week. The play reopened in New York City on September 3, 1900, and ran for eighteen non-consecutive  years on Broadway. The play's twenty-one-year national tour included large venues in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Baltimore. International versions of the show played in London, England, and in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. When the play finally closed in April 1920, it had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office.
  Fans included William Jennings Bryan, who claimed it was "the greatest play on stage when measured by its religious tone and more effect". Its popularity is credited with introducing stage shows to a new audience, "many of them devout churchgoers who'd previously been suspicious of the stage". Adaptations of other novels with biblical settings followed Ben-Hur to the stage. These included Quo Vadis in 1901 and Judith of Bethulia in 1904.
caption: Edward J. Morgan as Judah Ben-Hur and Corona Riccardo as Iras
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