Show Plot A Tale of Two Cities

Authors: Stage and musical adaptations by various playwrights, including Tom Taylor (1860 Victorian version), Jill Santoriello (2008 Broadway musical), and Matthew Francis (dramatic play version), adapted from Charles Dickens 1859 novel

Time Period: 1775 to 1793 (late 18th century; eras of the American Revolution build-up and the violent French Revolution/Reign of Terror)

Setting: 

• London, England (safe, orderly, financial world of Tellson's Bank).
• Paris, France (chaotic, impoverished streets, the Bastille prison, and wine shops of the revolutionaries)

Summary:

Dr. Alexandre Manette is released after 18 secret years in the Paris Bastille. His daughter, Lucie Manette, travels from London to bring him home to safety in England. Lucie meets two men who look identical--Charles Darnay, a French aristocrat who fled his cruel family to live humbly in England, and Sydney Carton, a brilliant but depressed English lawyer--and marries Charles Darnay. When Darnay is persecuted and sentenced to death, Carton makes the ultimate sacrifice.