I saw *The Little Foxes* on Broadway on 6/27/17 and saw it again with Karen and Richard on 7/1/17. Why would I see a show twice, in such a short time span? This production has an unprecedented gimmick: Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon alternate in the two leading female roles. I saw Nixon as Regina and Linney as Birdie on 6/27 and Linney as Regina and Nixon as Birdie on 7/1. I only know of one other case where this was done on Broadway, and that was in a 2000 production of Sam Shepard's *True West*: Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly alternated in the two roles. This was the first time that women have alternated roles in a Broadway show.

The play is probably Lillian Hellman's best known play, it had its Broadway premiere in 1939. The best roles in the show are the two leading female roles, so it's no mistake that these two great actors were eager to do it. The story I heard (and I might be making this up) is that the producers called Laura Linney and said they wanted her to play Regina. She said, "Let me get back to you about that," called her friend Cynthia Nixon, and they hatched this idea of switching roles.