God of Carnage plays final performance

Yasmina Reza's 2009 Tony Award-winning Best Play God of Carnage, translated by Christopher Hampton and directed by Matthew Warchus, played its final performance on Broadway on 6 Jun 2010.

The comedy, which opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 22 Mar 2009, following previews from 28 Feb 2009, played 24 previews and 452 regular performances.

The show opened to rave reviews: "the most fun you'll have in the theater this season."
(www.newyorktheatreguide.com); "a familiar comic journey ..., but it travels first class" (NY Times); "keeps the fur flying and the laughter landing" (NY Daily News); "gleefully nasty fun." (NY Post); "Evenings in the theater don't get any funnier" (The Record); "it's elegant, acerbic and entertainingly fueled on pure bile." (Variety).

God of Carnage: What happens when two sets of parents meet up to deal with the unruly behaviour of their children. A calm and rational debate between grown ups about the need to teach kids how to behave properly? Or a hysterical night of name calling, tantrums and tears before bedtime? Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse - much worse.

The show, which features four characters, had three casts during its Broadway run. The original Broadway cast starred Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden (28 Feb 2009 - 26 Jul 2009). The second cast starred Christine Lahti, Annie Potts, Jimmy Smits and Ken Stott (17 Nov 2009 - 28 Feb 2010, and the final cast, from 2 Mar 2010, featured Dylan Baker, Jeff Daniels, Lucy Liu and Janet McTeer.

The comedy won three Tony Awards: Best Play; Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play (Marcia Gay Harden); and Best Direction of a Play (Matthew Warchus).

God of Carnage transferred to Broadway following a London production, also helmed by Matthew Warchus, which starred Ralph Fiennes, Tamsin Greig, Janet McTeer and Ken Stott at the Gielgud Theatre where it played from 7 Mar - 14 Jun 2008. The london production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.