When first produced by the Theatre Guild at the John Golden Theatre in New York City in 1928, Strange Interlude was an unexpected success. The play lasted nearly five hours (not including the one hour interval for dinner) and held the audience’s attention throughout. It went on to become the most successful American play produced up to that time, with 426 Broadway performances in its first production. According to literary critic Travis Bogard, writing in Contour in Time: The Plays of Eugene O’Neill, audiences at the time regarded it as a play ‘‘which dealt seriously with facets of human nature not yet fully explored’’ and which were just becoming more widely known in the work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and James Joyce. However, not all reviewers shared the enthusiasm of the play-going public. Bogard points out that some regarded it as ‘‘naïve in its use of psychological theory, overly long and unclear in its theme.’’ The play was also controversial and was banned in Boston because its content included topics such as abortion and adultery.

Strange Interlude was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1929, and when published, it became a national bestseller, the first time a play had attained this status. Over one hundred thousand copies were sold.

Largely because of its length, Strange Interlude was not performed frequently. But there was a production at the Hudson Theatre, New York City, in March 1963, which ran for 104 performances. Another revival on Broadway in 1985, starred Glenda Jackson as Nina.

In the early 2000s, Strange Interlude was generally regarded as the first play that revealed O’Neill’s full power as a dramatist, although it was not considered the equal of his greatest plays, such as The Iceman Cometh and A Long Day’s Journey into Night.