Flowers for Algernon at Deaf West Theatre

David Rogers.

Flowers for Algernon was first published as a short story in 1959 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was reprinted many times in many languages and won the Hugo Award. In 1961, the U.S. Steel Hour telecast a dramatic version called The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon, starring Cliff Robertson. From 1962 to 1965, Keyes worked on the novel-length version. It was published in 1966, winning the Nebula Award, and is now still available in both hardcover and Bantam paperback editions (Harcourt, Brace, 1966; Bantam, 1968, reissued in the Harcourt Brace Modern Classics series, 1995). It has been widely translated and is studied in schools and colleges around the world. Cliff Robertson won an Academy Award for his performance in the 1968 movie version, Charly. Developed as a dramatic musical in 1979, Charlie and Algernon was performed at the Queen's Theater in London's West End starring Michael Crawford; at the Terrace and Eisenhower theaters in Washington, D.C.; and at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway.