In this program, the Ziegfeld Theatre pairs Shakespeare’s tragic Antony and Cleopatra with Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra, a comic play that explores the life of a young Cleopatra.

Shaw was among the rare playwrights to share a playbill with Shakespeare—an honor he cherished. Ever the iconoclast, Shaw had great respect for the Bard, but little regard for bardolatry, and he often criticized the myriad Shakespeare productions of his time as a stumbling block to new and vital theater. Shaw’s hope was to reform the theater and to give breath to new playwrights.