Zorba the Greek

opened on October 16, 1983 at the Broadway Theatre, where it ran for 362 performances.  It was directed by Michael Cacoyannis and choreographed by Graciela Daniele opened with the music of Mikis Theodorakis. 

 The cast included Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova (who had both starred in the film version, the latter winning an Oscar for her performance). It is based on the novel Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. 

Zorbas was a real-life person and friend of Kazantzakis, who taught him how to love life and not to fear death.

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’ “Act as if death did not exist, and act with death in mind at every moment"   

"…I look on death every moment and I’m not afraid; yet I never say I like it. No, I don’t like it at all! Am I not free? I refuse to sign up!”

Those who met him speak of a person free of social conventions, illiterate yet ingenious, and profoundly philosophical, which is why he touched Kazantzakis’ soul. 

The fictional Zorba embodies the very essence of life in all its manifestations. His main traits are an indomitable life force and intuition. A life force that propels him forward, enabling him to overcome listlessness and inertia, with a deep-running instinct that guides him and keeps him in immediate contact with the essence of things. 

As to the major philosophical questions that preoccupy the narrator, through plain thinking and the experience of a tumultuous life, Zorba shows him that the answers - if they do exist - are not to be found in books, but in life itself, as long at it is lived passionately, free of hopes and expectations.

"I don't hope anything, I don't fear anything, I'm free" Nikos Kazantzakis