The Great White Hope

For other uses, see Great White Hope (disambiguation).
The Great White Hope
Book cover of the play
Written byHoward Sackler
Characters
  • Jack Jefferson
  • Eleanor Bachman
  • Goldie
  • Tick
  • Pop Weaver
  • Dixon
  • Clara
  • Cap'n Dan
  • Al Cameron
  • Mama Tiny
  • Scipio
Date premiered1967
Place premieredArena Stage
Washington, D.C.
Original languageEnglish
SubjectPugilism; racism
GenreDrama
Settingyears before and during WWI

The Great White Hope is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same name.[1][2]

The play was first produced by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in October 1968, directed by Edwin Sherin with James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander in the lead roles. The play won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Play and the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Subsequent touring companies of the play featured Brock Peters and Claudette Nevins in the lead roles.

The play is based on the true story of Jack Johnson (fictionalized under the character name "Jack Jefferson") and his fight against Jim Jeffries, and also covers the controversy over his marriage to first wife, Etta Terry Duryea, and Duryea's death by suicide in 1912.[3]

  1. ^ Clive Barnes (October 4, 1968). "Theater: Howard Sackler's 'Great White Hope'" (PDF). The New York Times.
  2. ^ Vincent Canby (October 12, 1970). "'Great White Hope' Brought to Screen". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Unforgivable Blackness Retrieved May 11, 2016