Despite a claim in the Playbill that "the story of this drama is essentially true and accurate," much of it is a fictionalized account of the life of Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.
While the plot refers to his rebellious anti-clerical views, the main focus is on Marlowe's romantic relationship with Emelia Bossano, a woman he supposedly lured away from William Shakespeare.
[2] While the production stopped performances after Sunday, November 22, 1981, the box office remained open, in the hopes that more tickets would be sold for the future.
[3] In his review in The New York Times, Frank Rich described Marlowe as "a wholly ridiculous show that is much more fun to sit through than many merely mediocre musicals .
Tacky-looking and sparsely populated, this show lacks the Titaniclike splendor and expenditure of Broadway's all-time fabulous wrecks.