Strawhead

Strawhead
Written by	Norman Mailer Richard Hannum
Characters	Marilyn Mr. Charles Joe DiMaggio Arthur Miller
Date premiered	1986
Place premiered	Actors Studio, New York City,  United States
Original language	English
Subject	Fictional account of the last few days of Marilyn Monroe's life
Genre	Drama
Setting	New York City, August 1962

Strawhead is a play by American writers Norman Mailer and Richard Hannum about Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. The play is a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance, an imaginary memoir told in Monroe's voice.

Strawhead takes place in New York City during the last few days of Monroe's life in August 1962, a period in which she is alone with her memories, most of which revolve around the days when she lived in New York City. The play largely is composed of a fanciful collection of interviews that never took place between Monroe and Mailer during Marilyn Monroe's last hours. The play made its Off Broadway debut in January 1986, which included Mailer's wife Norris Church in the cast and subsequently his daughter Kate Mailer in the Monroe role. Kate Mailer additionally appeared on the April 1986 Vanity Fair cover as the Marilyn Monroe character in Strawhead.

In 1967, Norman Mailer had adapted his 1955 novel The Deer Park for an Off Broadway production. Thirteen years later, in 1980, Norman Mailer's agent informed Mailer that Richard Hannum, then a Manhattan roommate of Godspell creator John-Michael Tebelak,American Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Stephen Hunter, and film director and composer Tom O'Horgan were interested in a stage adaptation of Mailer's 1980 book, Of Women and Their Elegance. Mailer agreed to work on the play since it would be a pleasant diversion: "Novel writing is a lonely business. Lonely business quickly becomes grim. In theater you're working with people. The climate is a lot warmer."

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