Of all the reactions to "The Little Foxes" showing up on the Pittsburgh Public Theater schedule this season, Ted Pappas hadn't expected this:

"I don't think I've ever announced a show where more people have said to me, 'I loved the movie. I can't wait to see the play.' So I got a reaction I did not anticipate. I think these days titles sell and stars sell."

The play's director and the Public's producing artistic director says these days, it's all about the "wow factor" that was the subject of a recent New York Times story, even for a play that made it's debut in 1939. Tallulah Bankhead famously had the lead on Broadway and Bette Davis starred three years later in the William Wyler film (which received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture), while the writer, Lillian Hellman, was a flamboyant media target in her own right.

One thing the play at the O'Reilly Theater will have over the movie: It's in living color.

Davis cut a fine figure of ruthless energy in black and white, but Pittsburgh audiences will see Helena Ruoti's Regina Giddens descend the central staircase as the lady in vivid red.

Hellman wrote "The Little Foxes" as the anti-greed play for a post-Depression generation -- a topic that seemed a little too Marxist for some tastes back in the day. The play is set in the South circa 1900. Regina and her brothers in the Hubbard clan are "mired in their desire for more," as Pappas put it. Her father has left his fortune to the males of the family and Regina can't persuade her husband to invest in mechanizing the cotton industry, sparking the desperate woman to resort to despicable measures.

The cynical play about the evils of capitalism, as it has been described, gives it an instant connection with today, easily conjuring 21st-century villains like Bernie Madoff.

Pappas clearly admires how Hellman took topics that are still on the tip of the tongue and worked them into a compelling family drama -- a sort of "Dynasty" on steroids.

"When I reread it about a year ago, it struck me as more contemporary than ever," he said. "Not only because the language and characters hold up but because the situation is so apt. It is one of the first plays to really focus in on greed in such a uniquely American way. Business, contracts, family relations, wills, estates, investments -- all the particulars that are part of the American dream."

And yet "The Little Foxes" is not a political or economic treatise. "By personalizing the play she has essentially made it one of the great American works," Pappas said.

If that's not "wow factor" enough, it has ferocious roles for women.

The part of Regina has long been a stage magnet for acclaimed actresses, among them Anne Bancroft, Elizabeth Taylor, Stockard Channing and, just this past summer, Kelly McGillis at Pasadena Playhouse.

It struck Pappas that Ruoti should be added to that list, with a bonus player in the mix.

"I chose the play as a vehicle for two great actresses. For Helena Ruoti and Deirdre Madigan. Two of the great roles for women happen to be in the same play, Birdie and Regina," he said.

The esteemed New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson reviewed the original stage production in 1939, raving about Bankhead and declaring, " 'The Little Foxes' can act and is acted."

It's also a hotbed of emotions, with plenty of opportunities for scenery chewing. "Miss Hellman is telling a sordid story of how the brothers and the sister destroy each other with their avarice and cold hatred," Atkinson wrote. "They crush the opposition ... but they also outwit each other in sharp dealing and they bargain their mean souls away."

In writing about a recent production seven decades later for the Los Angeles Times, reviewer Charles McNulty noted "the drama's angry relevance." He concluded, "Just because a play creaks doesn't mean that it has lost its mojo."

Pappas was so enamored with the idea of bringing "The Little Foxes" to the Public, he secured Ruoti and Madigan before he tried for the rights to the play, which can be a sticking point.

The director recalled the day he revisited the play, settling into an armchair to read "The Little Foxes."

"I couldn't put it down," he said. "Usually I have to read an act, then get a sandwich, then do something else ... but I read it all, and I called [Ruoti] in the middle of the night. I said I have a play, please tell me that you want to do this play, because I want to do it for you, and I will do it with you in mind."

Ruoti ran to read it.

"She called me in the morning and said, 'Oh my God, you're right. Where has this play been?' And then I called Deirdre and Ross [Bickell], who are married and who I've worked with separately, and they both said yes immediately. And then Helena called me and said, 'You know who would be amazing as Birdie? Deirdre Madigan.' "

Pappas smiles triumphantly. "And I said, 'It's already done.' "

He had collaborated with the veteran Ruoti on Public productions of "Oedipus the King," "The Comedy of Errors" and "The Lady With All the Answers," in which she channeled Ann Landers in a one-woman show.

"It worked so well for Tom Atkins [in 'The Chief'], and it worked great for Helena," Pappas said. "Then I thought, we've done the Greeks, we've done the classics, we've done a one-woman show, let's do a great American play. So it's been a series of adventures. I wanted to watch her jump the hurdles [of 'The Little Foxes'], which she's done brilliantly.

"Deirdre has been a leading lady with the company for years, even before I became artistic director. But for me, quote unquote 'famously,' she played Beatrice in 'Much Ado About Nothing' and she played the title role in 'Mary Stuart' in one of the all-time great performances."

Pappas assembled his dream cast and crew, reuniting with some of his favorite collaborators, then set about taming the "Foxes."

"It's a treasure, and you don't want to fumble a treasure," Pappas said, although Hellman presents many opportunities to do so.

In rereading Act III just before the first run-through with his cast, it occurred to him that there were a series of climactic scenes unlike any play he's directed.

"There's Birdie's confession about her alcohol abuse; the reunion with [Regina's husband] Horace and Regina, where she speaks about her disappointment in their marriage; there's this collapse on the stairway; there's the confrontation where Regina threatens her brothers if she doesn't get her way; and then there's the great scene at the end with her daughter. So as a director, you have to grapple with how high do you take the pitch because you have to top it again, and then again, and then again."

That's a lot of "wow" written into the play's DNA, and why audiences still respond to "The Little Foxes," which Pappas refers to as a classic and a masterpiece, then explains:

"One of the definitions of a classic and a masterpiece is that it is still potent and relevant after its original performances. It feels like today. They're just wearing nicer clothes."

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.