Plays and On Stage Trivia questions with answers about
Which Agatha Christie play opened in London in 12952 and became the
longest running show in the world?
A: The Mousetrap.
Which traditional British form of entertainment combined harlequinade
and burlesque?
A: Pantomime.
Which British actress was leading lady to Henry Irving 1878?
A: Ellen Terry.
Which famous actor was a pupil of Dr. Johnson?
A: David Garrick.
What is the name of the title character in The Merchant of Venice?
A: Antonio.
What is the American equivalent of the British music hall?
A: Vaudeville.
Which ventriloquist had a dummy called Lord Charles?
A: Ray Allen.
What was the title of George Bernard Shaw's play about Joan of Arc?
A: St. Joan.
What is the Latin expression used for the list of characters in a
play?
A: Dramatis personae.
What is the nickname of Broadway, New York?
A: The 'Great White Way'.
On which real-life person was Terence Rattigan's Ross based?
A: Lawrence of Arabia.
Which Italian opera composer said 'In the theater the public will
stand for anything except boredom'?
A: Verdi.
Which character in The Mikado was Lord High Everything Else?
A: Pooh-Bah.
Who created the role of Archie Rice in The Entertainer and later had
a London theatre named after him?
A: Laurence Olivier.
Which prolific comic playwright wrote the trilogy The Norman
Conquests?
A: Alan Aychbourn.
What was the stage name of Margarita Carmen Cansino?
A: Rita Hayworth.
Who is the actor thought to have first played the parts of Hamlet,
King Lear, and Othello?
A: Richard Burbage.
Which American composer is renowned for '4 minutes 33 seconds' in
which the audience is left waiting for a single note to be played?
A: John Cage.
What is odd about the principal boy and the dame in a pantomime?
A: They are played by members of the opposite sex.
Who is behind the character of Dame Edna Eeverage?
A: Barry Humphries.
Which was the first 'rock' musical?
A: Hair.
In which Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was Oscar Wilde's dandyism
parodied?
A: Patience.
In which other field did the playwright John Vanbrugh make his mark?
A: Architecture.
Which play by J M Synge caused riots when it was first performed at
the Abbey Theater, Dublin, in 1907?
A: The Playboy of the Western World.
What kind of comic play shows stereotyped characters in complex and
improbable situations, often involving extramarital relationships?
A: Farce.
What is the subtitle of Peter Pan?
A: The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.
In which of Shakespeare's plays do the 'rude mechanicals' perform the
legend of Pyramus and Thisbe?
A: A Midsummer Night's dream.
Where can a theater named after Gracie Fields be found?
A: Rochdale.
Which of Eugene O'Neill's plays was first seen 15 years after it was
written and after he had died?
A: A Long Day's Journey into Night.
Which US playwright wrote Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple?
A: Neil Simon.
