I don't think that makes any sense, Bob. What is it supposed to mean?

... was a thunderous / an enormous success.
... struck a nerve with the audience

I might say here, depending on further context

I think my suggestion is fine, but if no one likes it, there is always

The premier performance had an electrifying effect.

I don't think it's just me, Bob. Your suggestion gets exactly one google hit, and that's your suggestion: http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rl...

I just think it makes one wonder about the meaning of it. News might strike like lightning, but that usually means it's really bad news, and I don't think that's what's meant here.

I was not able to resolve this by googling, and you, apparently, weren't either.

It would help to hear from others on this.

"to go down like a bomb" ?

Might just work here.

Phillipp, isn't that uncomfortably close to

the performance bombed

?

However:

The performance struck like a bombshell

would work.

I put a question mark and a "might just" after it, because without further context I can't say if it would work here. But in principle it's right:

[General] go like a bomb = bomb down
www.usingenglish.com › ... › Ask a Teacher - Diese Seite übersetzen
11.01.2011 – You can also use 'go down like a bomb' to denote success: 'The West End opening was a great success. The show went down like a bomb.' ...

(At any rate, I'm very unkeen on your lightning bolt. "was an enormous success" is fine, I would say, and the "struck a nerve" thing too, depending on context, register, etc.)

Or, as American teens might say: it was da bomb!

Lightning bolt doesn't work for me, either.

Overnight success might, but I like dude's thunderous success :-)

Interesting that no one caught the misspelling in my first attempt.

Perhaps I should have written

The premiere performance of the play struck like a lightning bolt.

Quite a few things can strike that way: true love, inspiration, Tampa Bay, political cartoons, great ideas, etc., etc.

(http://www.google.ca/#q=%22strike+like+a+ligh...)

So why not a premiere performance? Please explain.

Because none of your examples denotes - per se - success. They only denote that something hit fast and furious, and most likely in an unexpected way. If I read your suggestion in a newspaper, for instance, I'd have to read (more of) the article to know what was meant by that sentence. By itself it might mean, to me, that the play was most unexpected in its existence; it just came out of nowhere. It struck and then evaporated. Or whatever.

Yes, quickness is an attribute of lightning. But so equally are it's shattering effects. Many of the examples in the link I provide do in fact highlight the impact of lightning bolts.

Anyway, I by no means get credit for first use of strike like a lightning bolt for theatrical and film productions:

"Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros, struck like a lightning bolt with its damning portrayal of contemporary Mexican society."
(http://filmjamblog.com/2013/02/27/24th-cork-f...)

And there's more:

http://books.google.ca/books?id=y9YRzodtmKcC...

"The appearance in 1978 of Susan Mann Jones and Philip A. Kuhn’s landmark Cambridge History of China article on the early nineteenth century “Dynastic Decline and the Roots of Rebellion” struck like a lightning bolt, precisely because, unlike most of the other articles in that volume."

(http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary...)

Here, too, I have to wonder what it really means, mainly because the very next sentence says the following:
Like Quai Des Brumes, the film’s story was filled with moral indifference and apathy, but also possessed a brutal streak which shattered Mexico’s old exoticism and replaced it with a new one defined by urban landscapes and violent death.

It "shattered Mexico’s old exoticism and replaced it with a new one." How can you not understand that?

Then there's this:

"The appearance in 1978 of Susan Mann Jones and Philip A. Kuhn’s landmark Cambridge History of China article on the early nineteenth century “Dynastic Decline and the Roots of Rebellion” struck like a lightning bolt,"

(http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary...)

I'm only on page four. Shall I keep going?

Look, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it.

You just go on being right, Bob. I'm outta here.

Will do.

FWIW, I find Bob's "lighting bolt" a fair translation of "...Blitz", but wonder what that's supposed to mean in the OP. Lightning strikes start fires, kill people etc. Is there some positive effect that Germans experience and others don't? ;-)

mike, if I understand you, that's a fair question, but can't you ask the same thing of the English equivalents?

until Ali explains whether s/he means devastation or setting the scene alight in a positive manner, arguing about it seems futile
so is it a case of causing furore? spectacular success or failure?

Bob, I think the English usage of "like lightning" etc. is positive when it means something happened very quickly -like falling in love, for example :-), but it's ambiguous here, or at least unclear what's meant.

mike, I agree with you and noli: until we know the effect that the play in question had on audiences and critics, we can't say whether it was well or ill received.

I'm not sure if that matters all that much; either way I'd say it involves some degree of sensationalism:

http://www.redensarten-index.de/suche.php?suc...
"Der erste ausgetragene Wettbewerb in Johannesburg ist wie ein Blitz bei Zuschauern und Sandboardern eingeschlagen, was darauf schließen lässt, dass dieses Jahr ein super Sandboardjahr für Namibia werden wird"
"Teamchef.at - das ultimative Fußball-Managerspiel von T-Online - hat in der fußballbegeisterten Internetgemeinde eingeschlagen wie ein Blitz";

http://www.wordreference.com/deen/Blitz
wie ein Blitz einschlagen Nachricht etc.: take everyone by surprise; stärker: come like a bomb;

I went with the thunderous success. It works best in my context, and still has the stormy connotation that Blitz has.

make a splash - but then I am not too keen on thunderous success which I might call a roaring success...