What is your favorite classic play?

I like Hamlet the most. Death of a Salesman is a close second.

Define "classic"

Romeo and Juliet. Supposedly it took place in Italy, and Shakespeare described Verona very beautifully. Plus it's an authentic love story with tragedy.

what do you mean classic?

I'm not sure which plays are considered classic. Maybe "Glass Menagerie" by Tennessee Williams. As far as Shakespearean stuff, "Henry V".

macbeth or hamlet

Hamlet. ...by the way: Twanger, first of all RENT is a musical not a play. Secondly, I really thought that RENT sucked. Sorry, but it was just so sappy, melodramatic, predictable, and cliche - also, the whole AIDS things is just so overdone now (I've seen several excellent movies about AIDS that blow away RENT).

"Macbeth", with "The Bad Infinity" by Mac Wellman a close second.

awwww.. maybe it's Romeo & Juliet-- I'm such an old softy. or maybe Zoo Story.

A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Les Mis. Yes, I know, it's not a "play" but Hugo's book is certainly a classic :) Midsummer Night's Dream I guess would be my favorite "play." I usually see musicals or ballet or things like that. What can I say, I like music.

What the hell counts as classic? Shakespear? Euripedes? How about Ionesco? How about Mammet? Does the playwright have to be dead? Long dead? I'm not even going to answer, it's too arbitrary.

Les Misearables.

I might choose _Antigone_. I think it counts as "classic" regardless of your definition of same. I was just thinking a few weeks ago that Tennessee Williams, whose work I consider "classic," wrote all his plays during my mother's lifetime and she never read them in school. Maybe Sam Shepard would be an equivalent, in my era. That had me thinking about how authors become part of the canon and to what degree this is deserved.

"The Bacchae" by Euripides

First I want to object to "classic". That said, it's probably "Macbeth". ***TWANGER: It's not natural for a straight man to be this obsessed with a Broadway musical.

what's considered a classic play?? I guess i'll go with Hamlet

Classic? I'm not sure what you meant by classic dolemite, but I'd guess you put it so I wouldn't say RENT. Well, it didn't work. And nothing really comes close to that for me. The closest second that you would call a classic would have to be hamlet though. *bill: yes, i'm aware that rent is a musical, but as a theatrical experience nothing has ever come anywhere close to that for me. It changed my life in more ways than I can even express here, and is one of two keystones for my entire life philosophy. As for being melodramatic, one would be ignorant not to admit that my favorite playwrite (and apperently the favorite of many other users here), William Shakespeare's plays are heavily melodramatic and idealized in their representation of love (yes, even to the point of being "sappy" on many occations). As for being predictable/cliche, it's not "Usual Suspects" with the surprise ending, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful. I'd never cried in a play/movie before seeing this, and i've never left one with such a hopeful, carefree sensation. I'm an athiest, and RENT as a celebration of life and what one might call the human spirit is as close to a religious experience as I've ever had. Also, if you saw it as being "about AIDS," you really didn't get it. It's much more universal and deep than that. OK, now that you all think i'm a strange, obsessed individual, i'm going to stop now. (oh yeah, and the music kicks ass too) ***steve: Well, my girlfriend is too, we went and slept out for tickets 3 times together, it was quite an emotional experience for both of us. ***and I should add on Henry IV pt. 1 as up there with Hamlet in the classical dept.

I have no opinion.

the only old plays i've read/seen are shakespeare and a couple of the old greeks. out of this limited set, i'd have to give hamlet a slight edge over othello

Hamlet, or Much Ado about Nothing

I can't choose one. I like too many of them.

MacBeth

Now being a ex-history major, when someone says classic I start thinking Greek and Roman. If you mean Elizabethan there is a difference. The Oddesey for classic and MacBeth for Elizabethan.

I don't have one? I have seen a couple things by shakespere. he is pretty decent. other than that it has been contemporary.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hamlet.