New York, 1935: The premiere of Clifford Odets’ masterpiece "Awake and sing!" at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway. This is a tale of a lower-middle-class Jewish family living in Bronx during the Depression years. Bessie, mother, behaves as a ruthless captain of the ship in the stormy sea, who would do anything to keep the ship afloat. Some members of the crew prefer dreaming of escape then fighting in reality. The grandpa Jacob, who likes Marx and Caruso (His favourite Caruso aria "Awake and sing" is an ironic counterpoint to the poverty and everyday despair), says: "If this life leads to a revolution it is a good life." This optimistic sentence of a miserable life, I like to use. 
The revival of the play, again in the Belasco Theatre, with Zoë Wanamaker as Bessie and Ben Gazzara as Marxist grandfather, directed by Bartlett Sher, won the Tony award in 2006 for Best Revival of a Play.