Ben-Hur (play)

Ben-Hur
1899 poster from the Broadway premiere
Written by	William W. Young, Lew Wallace
Date premiered	1899 (1899)
Place premiered	Broadway Theatre (41st Street) in New York, NY
Genre	Hippodrama, Melodrama

Ben-Hur was an 1899 theatrical adaption of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) by Lew Wallace. The play was dramatized by William W. Young and produced by Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger. Inspired by the success of Wallace's popular novel, the stage production was notable for its elaborate use of spectacle. It had six acts with incidental music written by American composer Edgar Stillman Kelley. The stage production opened at the Broadway Theater in New York City on November 29, 1899, and became a hit Broadway show. Traveling versions of the production, including a national tour that ran for twenty-one years, played in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. By the end of its run in April 1920, the play had been seen by more than twenty million people and earned over $10 million at the box office. There have been other stage adaptations of Wallace's novel as well as several motion picture versions.

After Wallace's novel was published in 1880, there was widespread demand for it to be adapted for the stage, but Wallace resisted for nearly twenty years, arguing that no one could accurately portray Christ on stage or recreate a realistic chariot race. In 1899, following three months of negotiations, Wallace entered into agreement with theatrical producers Marc Klaw and A. L. Erlanger to adapt his novel into a stage production. Wallace would receive two thirds of the royalties from the production, while Harper and Brothers, the book's publisher, would receive one third.

Playwright William Young wrote the stage adaptation, reducing it to six acts in thirteen scenes. The stage version closely followed the novel's plot and retained portions of its dialog. Edgar Stillman Kelley composed the play's music, but it was its elaborate staging and special effects that created a life-sized visual presentation of Wallace's novel.

The character of Ben-Hur was initially cast with Walker Whiteside, but he was replaced by Edward J. Morgan at the last minute.William Farnum replaced Morgan after the show's first season.William S. Hart played Messala. Hart would go on to leading roles in silent films such as The Aryan (1916), and became a silent screen cowboy hero. Farnum also appeared in several films, including The Spoilers (1914). The character of Christ was "represented as a 25,000-candlepower beam of light" and not portrayed by an actor.