A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

That Championship Season

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  5m

Jason Miller

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award as best play of the season, this brilliant, powerful play brings pathos, humor and deep compassion to its penetrating study of four former teammates who meet for a reunion with their high-school coach.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    5m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Winner! 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
    Winner! Two 1973 Tony Awards, including Best Play
    Nominee: Five 1973 Tony Awards
    Winner! Four 1973 Drama Desk Awards, including Most Promising Playwright

Details

Summary

Following their annual custom, five men – a high-school basketball coach, now retired, and four members of the team that he guided to the state championship twenty years earlier – meet for a reunion. The occasion begins in a lighthearted mood but gradually, as the pathos and desperation of their present lives are exposed and illuminated, the play takes on a rich power of rare dimension.

One former player is now the inept mayor of the town and facing a strong challenge for re-election. Another, the frustrated principal of the local high school, is his ambitious campaign manager. A third, now a successful (and destructive) businessman, is wavering in his financial support of the mayor, while the fourth is a witty but despairing alcoholic. As the evening progresses, all that these men were – and have become – is revealed and examined with biting humor and saving compassion.

In the end, self-preservation, abetted by the unconscious cynicism and bigotry of their coach, draws them together. But they are lost, morally bankrupt men, holding onto fraudulent dreams that have poisoned their present lives, robbing them of a future that was once so rich in promise.

History
That Championship Season opened on Broadway at the Booth Theatre on September 14, 1972, starring Richard A. Dysart, Charles Durning and Paul Sorvino, under the direction of A.J. Antoon. On March 6, 2011, a Broadway revival opened at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, directed by Gergory Mosher and starring Brian Cox, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Noth, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland.

Coach
George Sikowski
Phil Romano
Tom Daley
James Daley

Voice of Announcer

  • Time Period 1970s
  • Setting The Coach's house, somewhere in the Lackawanna Valley. 1973.
  • Features Period Costumes
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

“A drama of searing intensity, agonized compassion and consummate craftsmanship.” – Time

“Wow! Here at last is the perfect Broadway play for the season… It is gorgeous and triumphant.” – The New York Times

“A straight-from-the-shoulder knockout… brimming with vitality.” – The New York Daily News

“A serious, honorable, funny and wholly original new play.” – The New Yorker

Licensing & Materials

  • Licensing available for professional groups only. Some restrictions apply.

Scripts

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Authors

Author

Jason Miller

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