By far the most popular of Shakespeare's Roman histories, the work is believed to have been first performed in America in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1774. Most of the great 19th‐century tragedians appeared in it. Thomas Abthorpe Cooper long held a virtual monopoly on the role of Antony, although late in his career he was forced to portray Cassius while ceding the role of Antony to Edwin Forrest, who did not make a particular success of it. For decades the drama was a standby at the Bowery Theatre. The work also holds the dubious distinction of being the last play in which John Wilkes Booth appeared in New York, when he acted Antony in 1864 to Edwin Booth's Brutus and Junius Brutus Booth Jr.'s Cassius. The most memorable modern production was Orson Welles's modern‐dress version for the Mercury Theatre, staged in 1937 with antifascist slanting. It remains popular with collegiate and festival theatres, though it has rarely been seen in New York since the Welles production.

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.