Bernhardt/Hamlet on Broadway Tickets

It was a career-defining moment for French actress Sarah Bernhardt. In 1899, she took on the titular role in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” and now, nearly 120 years later, playwright Theresa Rebeck dramatizes the theatrical event. Tony, Olivier, and Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Janet McTeer takes on the titular role under the direction of Tony Award-nominated director Moritz von Stuelpnagel.

Commissioned by Roundabout Theatre Company, under the company’s New Play Initiative — devoted to the development of new works by significant writers — the work examines the moment that defined Bernhardt’s career. After all, in the words of Mark Twain: “There are five kinds of actresses: bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses. And then there is Sarah Bernhardt.”

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Playwright Theresa Rebeck dramatized this specific moment in Sarah Bernhardt’s career because, Rebeck said: “To me, it’s the turning point in her life.”

Following “Hamlet,” Sarah Bernhardt continued to play male roles. “It’s not that I prefer male roles,” she was once quoted, “it’s that I prefer male minds.”

For the famous graveyard scene, Sarah Bernhardt used a skull given to her by the novelist Victor Hugo, who penned “Les Misérables.”

Sarah Bernhardt is also the first actress to play Hamlet on film.