Editing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (section)

===Original production===
The original Broadway production, which opened at the [[Morosco Theater]] on March 24, 1955, was directed by [[Elia Kazan]] and starred [[Barbara Bel Geddes]] as Maggie, [[Ben Gazzara]] as Brick, [[Burl Ives]] as Big Daddy, [[Mildred Dunnock]] as Big Mama, [[Pat Hingle]] as Gooper, and [[Madeleine Sherwood]] as Mae.<ref name="Williams 1983 4">{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Tennessee|title=Cat on a Hot Tin Roof|year=1983|publisher=Signet|location=New York|isbn=0-451-17112-8|page=4}}</ref> Bel Geddes was the only cast member nominated for a [[Tony Award]], and Kazan was nominated for Best Director of a Play.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search?start=0&year=&award=&lname=Elia+Kazan&fname=&show=|title=Tony Awards}}</ref> Kazan had enormous power in the industry at the time, sufficient to convince Williams to rewrite the third act to Kazan's liking.<ref name="billington12">{{cite web |last1=Billington |first1=Michael |title=Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: Tennessee Williams's southern discomfort |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/sep/30/cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof |website=theguardian.com |access-date=September 5, 2022 |date=September 30, 2012}}</ref> Kazan requested that Maggie be shown as more sympathetic, the dying Big Daddy make a reappearance, and Brick undergo some sort of moral awakening.<ref name="billington12"/> Williams capitulated, but when the play was published later that year by [[New Directions Publishing]], it included two versions of act three, the original and the Broadway revision, with his accompanying "Note of Explanation". For its 1974 revival, Williams made further revisions to all three acts, and New Directions published that version of the play in 1975.<ref>[8] Williams, Tennessee. Plays 1937–1955, pp. 1034–1035.</ref>

Both Ives and Sherwood reprised their roles in the 1958 film version. The cast also featured the southern blues duo [[Brownie McGhee]] and [[Sonny Terry]] and had as Gazzara's understudy the young [[Cliff Robertson]]. When Gazzara left the play, [[Jack Lord]] replaced him.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cat on a Hot Tin Roof: The Playbill for the Morosco Theatre|year=1955|publisher=Playbill Incorporated|pages=25, 27, 36, 38}}</ref> Others from the original Broadway production included [[R. G. Armstrong]] as Doctor Baugh, [[Fred Stewart (actor)|Fred Stewart]] as Reverend Tooker, Janice Dunn as Trixie, Seth Edwards as Sonny, Maxwell Glanville as Lacey, Pauline Hahn as Dixie, [[Darryl Richard (actor)|Darryl Richard]] as Buster, Eva Vaughn Smith as Daisy, and Musa Williams as Sookey.<ref name="Williams 1983 4"/>

In London, the play was directed by [[Peter Hall (director)|Peter Hall]] and opened at the Comedy Theatre on January 30, 1958. [[Kim Stanley]] starred as Maggie, [[Paul Massie]] as Brick, and [[Leo McKern]] as Big Daddy.<ref>''Theatre World Annual (London)'' number nine [editor: Frances Stephens], London 1958</ref>