his check, and leaves the town with Alfred's body in the casket that she brought with her when she arrived. Adaptations Premiered as Besuch der alten Dame at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, Ruedi Walter played in 1956 the blind eunuch Loby. The original 1956 play was adapted for British audiences by Maurice Valency as The Visit. It was directed by Peter Brook and starred Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. After being seen on tour in Britain in 1957–58, the production was taken to Broadway. The play was adapted as an opera libretto by the author and set to music by the composer Gottfried von Einem, under the title Der Besuch der alten Dame and translated as The Visit of the Old Lady, and was first performed in 1971. Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn starred in a much-altered film adaptation, also called The Visit, directed by Bernhard Wicki, in 1964. A significant alteration is in the ending. Just as Alfred Ill (Serge Miller in the movie) is about to be executed on the trumped-up charges the town has created, the billionairess stops the execution. She declares that she will give the money to the town as pledged. Her revenge on Miller is that now, as she declares, he must live in the town among the people who would have executed him on false charges for money. A Senegalese film adaptation written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty, Hyenas, reimagined the story as an allegory of neocolonialism and African consumerism. The film was entered into the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. The Visit was performed at Chichester Arts Festival of 1995. Players included Lauren Bacall and Joss Ackland. (The Lady Returns) is a 1996 Argentinian film directed by Jorge Polaco starring Isabel Sarli. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Amiens International Film Festival. A musical adaptation, The Visit, with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Terrence McNally, received its first production at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, starring Chita Rivera and John McMartin in 2001. That production was choreographed by Ann Reinking and directed by Frank Galati. The musical was revised and played from May 13 – June 22, 2008, at Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, in a production once again starring Rivera, this time with George Hearn. In 2015 Rivera and Roger Rees took this adaptation of The Visit to Broadway when it began preview performances on