Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo tickets are a formal invitation to enjoy a dark tale of the ravages of war, a bewildered tiger, and golden plumbing. The play will debut on Broadway at the Richard Rogers Theatre on March 30, 2011, with previews beginning March 11. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is hoping to slay audiences and pacify critics with this absurdly dark script and the return of Robin Williams to the Broadway stage.
The play debuted in Culver City, California, an unlikely destination for a Broadway show to emerge. In California it is more likely a writer like Rajiv Joseph would strive to write a television series or big budget blockbuster, but instead he emerged as a rare West Coast playwright. Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo tickets sold from May 10, 2009 to June 7, 2009, creating a stir at the Kirk Douglas Theatre with rave reviews that garnered interest on the East Coast.
Before heading east, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo spent a few months in Los Angeles at the Mark Taper Forum. The second California production ran from April 14, 2010 to May 30, 2010. That year Rajiv Joseph's script earned enough praise to be named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Though it would not win, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo already had a 2008 National Endowment of the Arts Award for Outstanding New American Play under its belt, as well as a date in New York City at the Richard Rogers Theatre.
The play is set in Baghdad in 2003. The Iraq War is raging and a tiger at the Baghdad Zoo begins with a monologue explaining that most of the animals have fled. Soon he fades back into the scene, re-erecting that fourth wall. American soldiers have come to guard the zoo. The Bengal tiger both afraid and hungry takes the hand of a soldier named Tom. Another solider, Kev, shoots and kills the tiger using a gun he has taken from the mansion of the late Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son. The Bengal tiger's death is slow and excruciating.
The tale of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is thus set. Tom remains in Iraq with a prosthetic hand and Kev is in the hospital after an incident searching a house. Tom visits Kev to discover the whereabouts of the gold-plated gun Kev used to shoot kill the tiger and the golden toilet seat they spotted while searching Uday Hussein's mansion. Tom intends to buy his way back to the United States and needs these items to raise funds for the return journey. Meanwhile, Uday's former gardener-turned Army translator Musa is in possession of the golden toilet seat. The ghosts of both the Bengal and Uday Hussein accompany these men on their journeys, haunting these men in the midst of the war and elaborate plans to leave the war-torn city.
