NEW YORK -- The audience at the opening night on Broadway of a new stage adaptation of George Orwell's dystopian fantasy "1984" will include a special guest -- the author's son.

Richard Blair, whose father finished the book in 1949 when he was a young boy, was in New York on Thursday to cheer on the cast amid a huge jump in interest of his father's nightmarish vison of the future.

Says Blair: "It's still fresh today as it was then."

The novel tells the story of a man who works at the Ministry of Truth falsifying war news and promoting adoration of the mythical leader Big Brother. The play version stars Olivia Wilde, Tom Sturridge and Reed Birney.