Arthur and Barbara Gelb are the authors of the famous O'Neill biography "Life With Monte Cristo." The couple and Ric Burns co-wrote the script for the program, though the show is not based on the Gelbs' book. Ric Burns, the noted documentarist, will direct. "It will be shown on March 27 with an all-star cast," Arthur Gelb told Playbill.com columnist Harry Haun at the recent Broadway opening of O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet. Gelb said that celebrity talking heads will include Christopher Plummer, Zoe Caldwell, Liam Neeson and Tony Kushner.
O'Neill is often credited with bringing a distinct native realism to American drama and bringing the country's stage art into the modern era. His many landmark plays include The Hairy Ape, The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, Hughie, Desire Under the Elms, The Iceman Cometh, A Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day's Journey Into Night and Ah, Wilderness!. He died in 1953.
