When first acted at the Southwark Theatre in 1789, Shakespeare's comedy featured the younger Lewis Hallam as Benedick and Mrs. Morris as Beatrice. The play proved especially congenial to Victorian temperaments, so Benedick and Beatrice found their way into the repertory of many leading performers of the era. J. W. Wallack used Benedick for his farewell performance in 1859. Other noted artists who appeared in major revivals were Charles and Ellen Kean, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, and E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe. Ada Rehan was also admired for her Beatrice, although her Benedick, Charles Richman, received meager praise. Numbered among the better 20th‐century revivals were a 1959 rendering with John Gielgud and Margaret Leighton, a 1972 New York Shakespeare Festival production with Sam Waterston and Kathleen Widdoes set in pre–World War I America, a memorable Royal Shakespeare Company mounting on Broadway in 1984 with Derek Jacobi and Sinead Cusack, a 1988 Central Park version with Kevin Kline and Blythe Danner, and a Stratford Festival production from Canada in 1998 with Brian Bedford and Martha Henry.

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