at the Adelphi in London in October 1868. The original duration was five hours, resulting in Fechter abridging the play, which, despite negative reviews, had a respectable sixteen-week run. Fechter moved to the United States in 1869 and Monte Cristo was chosen for the inaugural play at the opening of the Globe Theatre, Boston in 1870. Fechter last performed the role in 1878.
In 1883, John Stetson, manager of the Booth Theatre and The Globe Theatre, wanted to revive the play and asked James O’Neill (the father of playwright Eugene O’Neill) to perform the lead role. O’Neill, who had never seen Fechter perform, made the role his own and the play became a commercial, if not an artistic success. O’Neill made several abridgments to the play and eventually bought it from Stetson.
A motion picture based on Fechter’s play, with O’Neill in the title role, was released in 1913 but was not a huge success. O’Neill died in 1920, two years before a more successful motion picture, produced by Fox and partially based on Fechter’s version, was released. O’Neill came to despise the role of Monte Cristo, which he performed more than 6000 times, feeling that his typecasting had prevented him from pursuing more artistically rewarding roles. This discontent later became a plot point in Eugene O’Neill’s semi-autobiographical play Long Day’s Journey Into Night.
In 2008, the Russian theater of Moscow Operetta set a musical Monte-Cristo based on the book with music of Roman Ignatiev and lyrics of Yulii Kim. Six years later it won in Daegu International Musical Festival in South Korea. Original plot was slightly changed and some characters are not mentioned in the musical.
The Count of Monte Cristo is a musical based on the novel, with influences from the 2002 film adaptation of the book. The music is written by Frank Wildhorn and the lyrics and book are by Jack Murphy. It debuted in Switzerland in 2009.
Audio adaptations
1938: The Mercury Theatre on the Air with Orson Welles (Dantés), Ray Collins (Abbé Faria), George Coulouris (Monsieur Morrel), Edgar Barrier (de Villefort), Eustace Wyatt (Caderousse), Paul Stewart (Paul Dantés) Sidney Smith (Mondego), Richard Wilson (the Officer), Virginia Welles (Mercédès); radio broadcast 29 August 1938
1939: The Campbell Playhouse with Orson Welles (Dantés), Ray Collins (Caderousse), Everett Sloane (Abbé Faria), Frank Readick (Villefort), George Coulouris (Danglars), Edgar Barrier (Mondego), Richard Wilson (a Jailer), Agnes Moorehead (Mercédès); radio broadcast 1 October 1939
1939: Robert Montgomery on the Lux Radio Theater (radio)
1947–52: The Count of Monte Cristo radio program starring Carleton Young
1960s: Paul Daneman for Tale Spinners For Children series
1961: Louis Jourdan for Caedmon Records (LP)
1964: Per Edström director (radio series in Sweden)
1987: Andrew Sachs on BBC Radio 4 (later BBC Radio 7 and BBC Radio 4 Extra), adapted by Barry Campbell and directed by Graham Gould, with Alan Wheatley as L’Abbe Faria, Nigel Anthony as de Villefort, Geoffrey Matthews as Danglars and Melinda Walker as Mercedes 1989: Richard Matthews for Penguin Random House
2005: John Lee for Blackstone Audio
2010: Bill Homewood for Naxos Audiobooks
2012: Iain Glen on BBC Radio 4, adapted by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Sasha Yevtushenko, with Richard Johnson as Faria, Jane Lapotaire as the aged Haydee, Toby Jones as Danglars, Zubin Varla as Fernand, Paul Rhys as Villefort and Josette Simon as Mercedes
2017: The Count of Monte Cristo musical adaption by Berry & Butler
2021: Radio Mirchi Kolkata’s station aired The Count of Monte Cristo in Bengali, translated by Rajarshee Gupta for Mirchi’s Sunday Suspense Programme. Edmond Dantès was voiced by actor Gaurav Chakrabarty. Abbé Faria was voiced by RJ Mir, Fernand Mondego by Anirban Bhattacharya and the story was narrated by RJ Deep. Apart from being a 6-hours epic, this adaptation was famous for having “Pitcairn Story” as the background music. This BGM is now being more identified with this epic.
2024: Little Lucky Productions created the first-ever fiction podcast adaptation of” The Count of Monte Cristo,” split into two parts. Part 1 premiered in May 2024, Part 2 premiered in Fall 2024.
