But soon the strange occurrences invade his personal space, as his neighbor and best friend John (Zero Mostel) and his girlfriend Daisy (Karen Black) become part of the human-into-rhinoceros metamorphosis that is taking place.

The setting was switched from France to a contemporary United States, complete with a photograph of President Richard Nixon that was comically venerated and the lead characters Bérenger and Jean were renamed Stanley and John.

[2] Tom O'Horgan, a theater director best known for his staging of the original Broadway production of the musical Hair, directed Rhinoceros.

Mostel created a minor brouhaha during the production when he refused to smash any props during the rehearsal of his transformation scene – the actor claimed he had an aversion to destroying property.

Jay Cocks, reviewing Rhinoceros for Time magazine, faulted it for its "upbeat, frantic vulgarization" of the Ionesco text, arguing that O’Horgan "removed not only the politics but the resonance as well.