Plays of Allen

Not only has Allen written most of the scripts for his own movies, he has also done, at least, nine plays. Four of them have been professionally published so far, Don't Drink the Water, Play It Again Sam, The Floating Light Bulb and Central Park West. Don’t Drink the Water was a great hit on Broadway, with 598 performances. But it got awful criticism in 1969, when director Howard Morris made a film out of it. Allen hated his version. And in 1994 he re-made it for television, in his own direction. When Play it Again, Sam was first due on Broadway, Allen himself was in the leading role of Allan Felix. That’s were he first met Diane Keaton. The play ran to 453 performances, followed by the film starring Allen and Keaton. For years the Play it again, Sam was the eleventh most popular play on the American amateur stage - Don’t Drink the Water rating fifth.

The Floating Light Bulb is Allen’s only drama play. Not as famous as the previous two, but still made it to be one of the Best Plays in the 1981-1982 Broadway season. His latest play, Central Park West, is not in full length. It is a part of a three one-act plays put together in one, called Death Defying Act. The other plays were modified television sketches called Hotaline and An Interview, leaving Allen’s play a bit more ambitious. Some critics related the play to Allen’s relationship with Soon-Yi, but it is about an adult man leaving his wife for a twenty-one-year-old film student. The play did well and ran in 343 performances.

A list of his plays