The Dance and the Railroad is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second play, it depicts a strike in a coolie railroad labor camp in the mid-nineteenth century. The play premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981. It had its professional debut on July 16, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Lone and Tzi Ma in the cast. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

The play was produced on television by the ABC Arts channel under the direction of Emile Ardolino. This production won a CINE Golden Eagle Award.

It is published as part of Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays by Theatre Communications Group and also in an acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service.

v • d • e The works of David Henry Hwang Full-length plays FOB (1980) · Family Devotions (1981) · Rich Relations (1986) · M. Butterfly (1988) · Face Value (1993) · Golden Child (1996) · Peer Gynt (1998, with Stephan Muller; from Henrik Ibsen) · Tibet Through the Red Box (2004, from Sis) · Yellow Face (2007) Short plays The Dance and the Railroad (1981) · The House of Sleeping Beauties (1983, from Kawabata) · The Sound of a Voice (1983) · As the Crow Flies (1986) · Bondage (1992) · Trying to Find Chinatown (1996) · Bang Kok (1996) · Merchandising (1999) · Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet (2001) Film/television Blind Alleys (1985, with Kimball) · M. Butterfly (1993) · Golden Gate (1994) · The Lost Empire (2001) · Possession (2002, with Jones and LaBute, from Byatt) Music theatre 1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988, with Glass and Sirlin) · The Voyage (1992, with Glass) · The Silver River (1997, with Sheng) · Aida (2000, with Woolverton & Falls, John and Rice, from Verdi) · Flower Drum Song (2001, with Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Fields, Hammerstein, and Lee) · Ainadamar (2003, with Golijov) · The Sound of a Voice (2004, with Glass) · Tarzan (2006, with Collins, from Burroughs) · Alice in Wonderland (2007, with Chin, from Carroll) · The Fly (2008, with Shore)