Rand's courtroom drama opened at the Ambassador Theatre, uniquely inviting an audience-drawn jury to decide the verdict each night; ran 283 performances.
On September 16, 1935, Ayn Rand's play Night of January 16th opened on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre. The production was innovative in its structure: each performance, a jury was selected from members of the audience, who would then deliberate and choose one of two pre-written endings — a verdict of guilty or not guilty for the play's central murder-trial defendant.
This interactive device made the play a sensation, and it enjoyed a substantial run of 283 performances, a considerable commercial success for a work by a still relatively unknown immigrant writer. The play showcased Rand's interest in individualism, moral ambiguity, and the psychology of a defiant, larger-than-life protagonist — themes she would return to in her novels.
The play's success provided Rand with her first true taste of American commercial and critical recognition, helping establish her reputation beyond the Hollywood screenwriting circles she had worked in during the late 1920s. It was later adapted into a 1941 Paramount film (loosely, and to Rand's dissatisfaction) and remains a staple of community and educational theater today precisely because of its unusual audience-participation gimmick.
The play stands as an early landmark in Rand's career, demonstrating her flair for dramatic tension and her willingness to experiment with form to engage her audience directly in questions of judgment and moral perspective.