Margaret Webster was born in New York City, the daughter of two famous actors,
Ben Webster and
Dame May Whitty. She was their second child, her older brother died in infancy. Her birth was announced on stage at the theatre her father was performing in during a Shakespeare play. The family travelled extensively during her formative years as her parents moved between the US and UK with various touring theatre companies. At 13, she became a boarder at
Queen Anne's School, Caversham, an independent school in England. Given her unique parentage, she was allowed time off school to act in performances with her parents. This included being on stage alongside the renowned theatre actress
Ellen Terry. Terry and her family including her daughter
Edith Craig were good friends with the Websters. Upon graduating in 1923, she turned down the opportunity to attend Cambridge University in order to pursue her acting career. She went on to attend Etlinger Dramatic School, London, England where her mother Dame May Whitty was a manager and acting coach. She spent the early part of her career in England, where she became well known in the theatre. She worked for several established theatrical companies, including from 1929–1930 at
The Old Vic. It was while she was directing
Hamlet in 1938 that she began her long romantic relationship with actress
Eva Le Gallienne. Webster was also believed to have had a brief off or on relationship with the actress
Mady Christians during this same time frame. On Broadway, Christians played
Queen Gertrude in
Hamlet and Lady Percy in
Henry IV, Part I, staged by Webster. Webster and Christians became close friends: according to Webster biographer Milly S. Barranger, it is likely that they also were lovers. Webster was said to be devastated by Christians' death from a stroke in 1951. Webster was part of a small but influential group of
lesbian producers, directors, and actors in theater (a group that included Eva Le Gallienne and Cheryl Crawford). When Evans joined the army, Webster continued to have success directing classical plays on
Broadway, notably
The Cherry Orchard (1944), starring Le Gallienne, and her greatest triumph
Othello (1943), starring
Paul Robeson in the title role and
Jose Ferrer as
Iago, which ran for 296 performances, by far the longest run of a
Shakespearean production on Broadway, a record that has not been remotely approached since. Webster played Emilia in the production's initial year (she was replaced by
Edith King in 1944). In 1945, she staged the longest-running performance of Shakespeare's
The Tempest to play Broadway, with
Arnold Moss as
Prospero,
Canada Lee as
Caliban, and ballerina
Vera Zorina as Ariel. This production was only the second U.S. staging of a Shakespeare play to feature an African-American actor in a prominent role among an otherwise all-white cast. The production played for 100 performances, then took a short break and returned to Broadway for 24 more performances. staging such plays as
John Gabriel Borkman, Ghosts, and a legendary production of
Alice in Wonderland in which Webster played the
Cheshire Cat and the
Red Queen. Around 1953, she met the British author
Pamela Frankau with whom she fell in love, and by 1957, they were living together at 55 Christchurch Hill in Hampstead, London. In 1964, she directed
Leo Genn in
12 Angry Men in London. She also directed
Macbeth at the
New York City Opera. Frankau and Webster frequently moved between London and Webster's home in
Aquinnah on
Martha's Vineyard. They remained together until Frankau's death from breast cancer in 1967. Webster dedicated her first autobiography, titled
The Same, Only Different: Five Generations of a Great Theatre Family (1969), to Frankau. In 1968, Webster began a whirlwind romance with a married but separated American woman named Jane Brundred. She moved into Webster's Aquinnah home but within a few months was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Brundred bequeathed money to Webster in her will despite her family being against their relationship. The money was used for a memorial sculpture in Brundred's memory in a Shakespeare garden at Vineyard Haven public library. The remainder of the money helped Webster permanently move to London after her own cancer diagnosis two years after Brundred's death. The final play she directed was George Bernard Shaw's ''
Mrs Warren's Profession'', where she directed the actress and singer
Mary Ellis in 1970. Webster died from colon cancer at St Christopher's Hospice, 51 Lawrie Park Road,
Sydenham, England in 1972, aged 67. ==References==