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
The Wicked World Mall Gazette", which had called "The Wicked World" indecent because of the references to "mortal love" in the script. Gilbert lost the case, but he had the satisfaction of having his play found inoffensive in a court of law. Like a number of Gilbert's blank-verse plays, "The Wicked World" treats the subject of the consequences that ensue when an all-female world is disrupted by men, and the romantic complications they bring. His plays "The Princess" (1870) and "Broken Hearts" (1875), and his operas "Iolanthe" (1882) and "Princess Ida" (1884), are all treatments of this basic idea. Stedman calls this a