Frank Galati's stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel premiered in 1988 at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. The play went on to win the Best Play Tony Award in 1990. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family as they leave their home and head west during the Dust Bowl. Dramatists Play Service (a play-licensing and theatrical publishing company) says that the play maintains "the simplicity and directness of the original novel."

The cast totals to twenty-two people in the stage adaptation. The play employs the use of narrators, in addition to the standard characters, to tell the story. The narrators help set the scene and also help Galati maintain much of Steinbeck's original text.

For example, a passage from the play is as follows:

Fourth Narrator. The boxcars, twelve of them, stood end to end on a little flat beside the stream. There were two rows of six each, the wheels removed. Up the big sliding doors slatted planks ran for cat-walks. They made good houses, water-tight and draftless, room for twenty-four families, one family in each end of each car. No windows, but the wide doors stood open. (The rusted side of a boxcar is revealed. The trough of water is open. Pa is standing in the open doorway. Ma and Uncle John are seated nearby. The fourth narrator moves out of sight.)

MA. It's nice. It's almost nicer than anything we had.

You can see how the Narrator provides the description, with additional action noted by the italicized stage directions in parenthesis. Ma comments on the boxcar set out before her. This scene is very similar to the passage in the novel:

The boxcars, twelve of them, stood end to end on a little flat beside the stream. There were two rows of six each, the wheels removed. Up to the big sliding doors slatted planks ran for cat-walks. They made good houses, water-tight and draftless, room for twenty-four families, one family in each end of each car. No windows, but the wide doors stood open. In some of the cars a canvas hung down in the center of the car, while in others only the position of the door made the boundary.

The Joads had one end of an end car. Some previous occu­pant had fitted up an oil can with a stovepipe, had made a hole in the wall for the stovepipe. Even with the wide door open, it was dark in the ends of the car. Ma hung the tarpau­lin across the middle of the car.

"It's nice," she said. "It's almost nicer than anything we had 'cept the gov'ment camp."

Galati's use of narrators allows the play to include Steinbeck's detailed descriptions in the performance.

In addition to descriptions from the narrators, there are many memorable quotes from the characters in the script.

Ma says to Tom when they leave Hooverville:

You got to have patience. Why, Tom—us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we’re the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people—we go on.... We keep a-comin'. Don you fret none, Tom. A different time’s a comin'.

This quote reflects hope and perseverance even when facing adversity.

Hope is also reflected in the following quote said by Rose of Sharon:

Well, we talked about it, me an' Connie. Ma, we wanna live in a town. Connie gonna get a job in a store or maybe a fact'ry. An' he's gonna study at home, maybe radios, so he can get to be a expert an' maybe...