and became Sherman's first published play when the dramatic rock musical was included in The Best Short Plays of 1970. In the 1970s, Sherman traveled to London where he worked with the founding members of the infamous Gay Sweatshop. After more than a decade of writing plays, Sherman found widespread fame in 1979 with his first blockbuster hit, Bent. First produced in London's West End starring Ian McKellen, the play tells the story of Max, a gay man in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. After Max and his boyfriend are forced to flee the city following the Night of the Long Knives, the two live in hiding for two years before being captured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. The play was considered extremely controversial. Despite the uproar, Bent transferred to Broadway, where it starred Richard Gere and became an instant hit, being nominated for a Tony Award. Following the success of this production, Sherman moved to London. Despite his status as an expatriate, Sherman continued to write successfully for both the British and the American stage. He had great success with his re-write of the book for the musical The Boy from Oz, based on Peter Allen's life and career, earning him a second Tony nomination. He has had a number of plays staged in the West End, including Messiah (1982) with Maureen Lipman, A Madhouse In Goa (1989) with Vanessa Redgrave and Rupert Graves, When She Danced (1991) with Vanessa Redgrave, Oleg Menshikov and Frances de la Tour and Onassis (2010) with Robert Lindsay. His play Some Sunny Day premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in 1996, with Rupert Everett and Corin Redgrave. He found success in the genre of one-woman plays with Rose, which was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play when it premiered in London in 1999. The show transferred to Broadway the following year, where it starred Olympia Dukakis. His most recent play, Gently Down The Stream, premiered at the Public Theatre in New York in 2017, directed by Sean Mathias and starring Harvey Fierstein. In 2003, Franco Zeffirelli directed Sherman's adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's Right You Are, if You Think So. The pair retitled the work Absolutely! {perhaps} when it premiered at the Wyndham Theatre on London's West End where it was nominated that year for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival. Following that critical acclaim, Sherman