Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda ("Klute," "Coming Home") returns to Broadway after a 46-year absence, opening tonight in "33 Variations." Playwright Moises Kaufman ("The Laramie Project") also helms his work about a musicologist's investigation of a mysterious obsession by Beethoven. Among other notable names in the cast of eight are Samantha Mathis (who earned good notices opposite Chris O'Donnell in the 2002 revival of Arthur Miller's "The Man Who Had All the Luck") and Colin Hanks, who is making his Broadway debut. Like Hanks, whose father is two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, Fonda also had a famous actor father, Henry Fonda.

Jane Fonda made her Broadway debut almost half a century ago in the spring of 1960. She played the title character in "There Was a Little Girl" by Daniel Taradash and was directed by her father's good friend Joshua Logan. The celebrated Logan won the first three of an eventual eight Tony Awards in 1948 for co-writing, directing and producing "Mister Roberts," which also earned star Henry Fonda his only competitive Tony Award as well. Even though her show ran only two weeks, Jane Fonda was nominated as best featured actress in a play at the Tony Awards. She lost to Oscar winner Anne Revere ("National Velvet"), who was making her final Broadway appearance in Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic." Fonda would go on to play Hellman in the 1977 film "Julia," losing the lead actress Oscar race to Diane Keaton ("Annie Hall").

Just prior to coming to Broadway in 1960, Fonda had made her first film, "Tall Story," also under the direction of Logan. She can be seen below in an appearance she made at the time as the mystery guest on TV's "What's My Line?" to promote the picture, a frothy comedy in which she plays a college student who sets her sights on basketball player Anthony Perkins. See how charming Fonda is as she freely admits she didn't think the panel would be able to guess who she was even with their blindfolds off.

Fonda returned to the rialto that fall in the Arthur Laurents' comedy "Invitation to a March." While that play ran several months, her 1962 follow-up, the ill-named "The Fun Couple," closed after only three performances. Jane Fonda's final Broadway appearance till now was in the first revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" opposite Geraldine Page in the spring of 1963. Presented under the auspices of the Actors Studio, the production earned mixed reviews and only one Tony nod in the now defunct category of producers.

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