Hillary and Clinton is a play written byLucas Hnath that premiered in 2016 at theVictory Gardens Theater in Chicago. The play is set in analternate universe^[1] and tells a story centering onHillary Clinton's2008 presidential campaign.

After one month ofpreviews, the play opened onBroadway on April 18, 2019, at theJohn Golden Theatre. The Broadway production starredLaurie Metcalf as Hillary Clinton andJohn Lithgow asBill Clinton.

Hillary and Clinton was written byLucas Hnath in 2008. Hnath drew inspiration for the play from watching the2008 Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses and how the caucus was conducted, as well as from watching a segment of a voter question to Hillary Clinton a few days afterwards.^[2] Hnath described it as "a play about the Clintons that's not a play about the Clintons."^[3] During its development stage, the play was workshopped atVictory Gardens Theater's Ignition Festival of New Plays in 2014 and then at theCape Cod Theatre Project in 2015. The firstread-through for the Victory Gardens Theater production took place in March 2016. Hnath had asked the original production team not to attempt to cast actors who resembled the real-life individuals they were to play, as he did not want the character portrayals to come across as impressions.^[3]

Hillary and Clinton premiered at the Victory Gardens Theater inChicago, where it was directed byChay Yew and ran from April 1 to May 1, 2016.^[4] Subsequent productions were staged in theaters inPhiladelphia,Richmond, andDallas. In all of these pre-Broadway productions,Hillary Clinton was portrayed by African-American women.^[5][6]

A Broadway production ofHillary and Clinton was announced in October 2018,^[5] andThe Hollywood Reporter reported that the play had gone through major changes since its original run.^[7] The Broadway production was directed byJoe Mantello and starredLaurie Metcalf as Hillary Clinton andJohn Lithgow asBill Clinton.^[8] It was produced byScott Rudin, with set design by Chloe Lamford, costume design by Ann Roth, and lighting design byHugh Vanstone.^[6]

Previews began on March 16, 2019 at theJohn Golden Theatre with the official opening on April 18.^[8] It was the first Broadway play to feature Hillary Clinton as a leading character.^[5]

The play closed on June 23, 2019. It was originally scheduled to close on July 21, 2019,^[9] but on June 18, 2019, it was announced the show was closing early due to poor ticket sales.^[10]

The play takes place in analternate universe and centers on a woman named Hillary Clinton who is running forPresident of the United States in 2008.^[5][11] A few days before theNew Hampshire primary, Clinton is in her hotel room trying to turn her struggling campaign around.^[1][11] Her campaign manager Mark advises her to concede the primary race and accept her opponent's offer to be hisrunning mate.^[1] Against Mark's advice, Clinton turns to her husband Bill for assistance, but the two disagree on how much vulnerability Clinton must show to win over voters.^[11]

Critical reception to the original Chicago production was mixed.^[5] Writing for theChicago Tribune,Chris Jones praised Hnath's "audacious, whip-smart, highly entertaining" writing but was disappointed with the casting choices.^[13]The New York Times'sCharles Isherwood found the play to be overly restrained,^[1] whileThe Economist felt thatHillary and Clinton was at its "most interesting" when it looked at the political demands Hillary Clinton has had to deal with due to her gender.^[11]

• 2016 plays
• American political plays
• Alternate history plays
• Broadway plays
• Works about Hillary Clinton
• Cultural depictions of Bill Clinton
• Cultural depictions of Barack Obama
• 2008 United States presidential election in popular culture

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• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from March 2019
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• Use mdy dates from March 2019