Robin Williams Plays A Tiger On Broadway

Robin Williams, the legendary comedian and Academy Award-winning actor, is back on Broadway with a dark comedy by Rajiv Joseph, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. In the play, Williams plays a tiger that travels through the streets of present day Baghdad on a spiritual journey, encountering both Americans and Iraqis and musing on the absurd nature of war. The performance, for which Williams has received mixed to positive reviews, marks the versatile performer's Broadway acting debut, not counting his 2002 one man show, Robin Williams: Live on Broadway. Of his character, the actor said that he has "a conscience, and then bitterness, and then nihilism," that he "returns to primal, feral Buddishm, so it's not a bad journey," he told CBS News.

The show, which opened on March 31, will be a limited engagement and was directed by Tony award-winner Moises Kaufman. After winning an Oscar for his performance as a conflicted psychologist with a haunted past in Good Will Hunting, the last decade saw Williams appearing in films such as Insomnia, One Hour Photo and The Night Listener, exploring darker and more serious roles than those with which he had been previously associated. –ZACHARY BLOCK