Jeeter Lester, the patriarch, lives in squalor with his wife Ada, their two children, 16-year-old Dude and 18-year-old Ellie May, and his mother. The Lester family were once sharecroppers, but are now poverty-stricken and unable to cope with the bleak life they face. In desolate farm country in Georgia, the profitable tobacco crop has given way to cotton plantations, but poor planting practices have depleted the soil. The American Blues Theater production ran from May 21 through June 20, 2010.

The La Jolla Playhouse production ran from September 30 through October 26, 2008. Ellis also directed the production, possibly making her the first African American to direct a play on Broadway. The 1950 revival was staged by the Negro Drama Group, which recast the play with African-American actors, including Powell Lindsay as Jeeter and Evelyn Ellis as Ada. Tobacco Road was banned in the United Kingdom for many years, finally being licensed for public performance in 1949.

March 6 through March 18, 1950, at the 48th Street Theatre.

September 4 through October 30, 1943, at the Ritz Theatre.

From September 5 through October 3, 1942, at the Forrest Theatre.

Tobacco Road opened on Broadway at the Theatre Masque (now the John Golden Theatre) on December 4, 1933, transferred to the 48th Street Theatre (demolished in 1955), where it ran from Jthrough September 1934, and then moved to the Forrest Theatre (now the Eugene O'Neill Theatre) where it ran until for a total of 3,182 performances. As of 2018, it was still the 19th longest-running Broadway show in history, as well as being the second-longest running non-musical ever on Broadway. The play ran on Broadway for a total of 3,182 performances, surpassing Abie's Irish Rose to become the longest-running play in history at the time. Tobacco Road is a play by Jack Kirkland first performed in 1933, based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell. A farm in Georgia during the Great Depression

Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell