The Frogs
- This article is about the play by Aristophanes. The Frogs is also a controversial rock band. See The Frogs.
The Frogs is a comedy written by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 405 BC.
The play
The Frogs tells the story of how the god Dionysus, despairing of the quality of living tragedians, travels to Hades to bring Euripides back from the dead. Aeschylus challenges Euripides to a competition for the title of best playwright, which he wins. Dionysus chooses to bring Aeschylus back instead.
The title of the play derives from the chorus of frogs that greets Dionysus when he is ferried across the river Styx.
The musical
Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove "freely adapted" The Frogs into a musical, performed in Yale's gymnasium's swimming pool, in the mid-70s. Again Dionysus, despairing of the quality of living dramatists, travels to Hades to bring George Bernard Shaw back from the dead. William Shakespeare competes with Shaw for the title of best playwright, which he wins. Dionysus chooses to bring Shakespeare back instead, thereby improving the world, and its political situation. This original production is most famous for having Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Durang in its ensemble. Sondheim described the acoustics of the original production thusly: "It was like performing in a urinal."
A revival production, "even more freely adapted" by Nathan Lane, opened on Broadway in July 2004, with Nathan Lane and Roger Bart headlining. (Chris Kattan had co-starred in previews, but dropped out a week before the premiere and was replaced by Bart.) John Byner, Daniel Lewis, Peter Bartlett, Burke Moses, and
