Othello: Paul Robeson as Othello, Jose Ferrer as Iago, Theater Guild, NY, 1943.

Msargaret Webster's greatest triumph was Othello (1943), starring Paul Robeson in the title role and Jose Ferrer as Iago, which ran for 296 performances, the longest run of a Shakespearean production on Broadway. Casting an African American as Othello had great impact, particularly in the USA: Lewis Nichols Wrote in the NY Times10/20/1943:"He looks like the part. He is a huge man, taller by inches than anyone on the stage, his height and breadth accentuated by the costumes he wears. His voice, when he is the general giving orders to stop the street brawl, reverberates through the house; when he is the lover of Desdemona, he is soft."It has now become customary to cast Othello from actors of Tropical African descent, not Arabic or European.http://www.clevelandmemory.org/copyright/ via Special Collections, Cleveland State University Library.