Pygmalion and Galatea (play) Pygmalion and Galatea (play) Pygmalion and Galatea, an Original Mythological Comedy is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts based on the Pygmalion story. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on 9 December 1871 and ran for a very successful 184 performances. It was revived many times, including an 1883 production in New York starring Mary Anderson as Galatea, an 1883–84 revival at the Lyceum Theatre, again with Anderson, and an 1888 production at the Lyceum Theatre, with Julia Neilson as Cynisca. "Pygmalion" was Gilbert's greatest success to that date and is said to
Galatea (mythology) writer. No extant ancient text mentions the statue's name, although Pausanias mentions a statue of Calm, Galene (γαλήνης). As late as 1763, a sculpture of the subject shown by Falconet at the Paris Salon ("illustration") carried the title "Pygmalion aux pieds de sa statue qui s'anime" ("Pygmalion at the feet of his statue that comes to life"). That sculpture, currently at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, now bears the expected modern title "Pygmalion and Galatea". According to Meyer Reinhold, the name "Galatea" was first given wide circulation in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "scène lyrique" of 1762, "Pygmalion". The name had become