Theatre Register

Max Adrian

Shows · Max Adrian

Actor 1903–1973 On stage 1934–1967

Max Adrian (born Guy Thornton Bor; 1 November 1903 – 19 January 1973) was an Irish actor and singer. He was a founding member of both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In addition to his success as a character actor in classical drama, Adrian was known for his work as a singer and comic actor in revue and musicals, and in one-man shows about George Bernard Shaw and Gilbert and Sullivan, and in cinema and television films, notably Ken Russell's Song of Summer, in which he played the ailing composer Frederick Delius.

On stage 7 productions, 33 years

1934 First Episode Ritz Theatre · Original · directed by Haddon Mason 40 perf.
1956 Candide Martin Beck Theatre · Revival · directed by Tyrone Guthrie 73 perf.
1957 Mary Stuart Phoenix Theatre · Revival · directed by Tyrone Guthrie 56 perf.
1958 The Chairs and The Lesson Phoenix Theatre · Original · directed by Tony Richardson 22 perf.
1960 The Deadly Game Longacre Theatre · Original · directed by William Gaskill 39 perf.
1963 The Hollow Crown Henry Millers Theatre · Original · directed by John Barton 46 perf.
1967 By George Lyceum Theatre · Original 13 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

In the literature4 passages

  • First performance: 29 October 1956, Boston, Colonial Theatre, cast incl. Barbara Cook (Cunegonde), Robert Rounseville (Candide), Max Adrian (Dr. Pangloss); Tyrone Guthrie (dir.), Samuel Krachmalnick (cond.)ebooks/Bernstein, Leonard/Leonard Bernstein Letters, The - Leonard Bernstein.txt
  • Act One: Overture (Orchestra); “The Best of All Possible Worlds” (Max Adrian, Chorus); “Oh, Happy We” (Robert Rounseville, Barbara Cook); “It Must Be So” (Robert Rounseville); Lisbon Sequence (Maria Novotna, Robert Barry, Chorus); “It Must Be Me” (Robert Rounseville); “Mazurka” (danced by Party Guests); “Glitter and Be Gay” (Barbara Cook)…ebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Michael Redgrave (behind table) in the title role of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. The cast also included Robert Lang, Rosemary Harris, Joan Plowright, Max Adrian, Sybil Thorndike, Laurence Olivier, and Lewis Casson. [Photograph courtesy of Arthur Cantor, Inc.]theatre-pdfs/McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 4 (O-S).txt
  • MAX ADRIAN, 69, Insh-bom stage and film actor, died Jan. 19, 1973 in his Surrey, Eng., home. He had a long and vaned career in London, and appeared in NY with The Old Vic, and in "College Sinners," "Candide," "Mary Stuart," "The Lesson," "The Deadly Game," and "By George," a one-man performance impersonating Shaw. No reported survivors.theatre-pdfs/Theatre World/Theatre World, 1972-73 Season, v. 29 (Willis).txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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