Plot
Harry and Nan, a middle-aged couple, are constantly at odds. Harry is having an affair with his emotionally unstable secretary. "Your secretary, Harry?" snipes Nan. "You're past cliché and into archetype." [2] This tone of acid comedy is replaced, however, by deep anguish, when their adult son, Isaac, announces that he has fallen in love with a child. He wants to return home and live with his parents, who have to struggle between their love for him and their guilt and horror at his transgression. They finally come to a compromise, which is almost as shocking as Isaac's offense: he can live with them, but must be blinded first, to keep him from ever being attracted to another boy.
Critical response
Reviews were mixed. Most reviewers were struck by its similarity to Edward Albee's recent international success, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? , and indeed, The Goat and Beautiful Child are similar in their explorations of sexual transgression in affluent domestic settings, as well as their edgy amalgams of comedy and horror. Some critics, like Adrienne Onofri, dismissed Silver's play as a poor imitation of Albee [3] Others, like Simon Stoltzman, acknowledged the similarity to Albee's work, but found Silver's approach distinctive. [4]
Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), and A Delicate Balance (1966). Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
Penny Fuller and George Grizzard were widely praised for their performances. Reviewer Dan Bacalzo observed, "Grizzard has the uncanny ability to convey volumes with a murmured word or dismissive gesture." [5]
Ben Brantley in his New York Times review called the play a "grim comic drama", and wrote: "Swerving from the brittle, accusatory dialogue of a bitterly married couple to a scene of ritualistic sacrifice à la Sophocles, Mr. Silver has composed an ambitious but ungainly answer to Edward Albee's plays of domestic existentialism, works like 'A Delicate Balance' and 'All Over.' Ultimately 'Beautiful Child' isn't much more than ersatz Albee." [6]
Benjamin D. Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
James David Van Der Beek is an American actor best known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery in the WB series Dawson's Creek. He played a fictionalized version of himself on the cult ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, and starred in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo. His film roles include Varsity Blues (1999) and The Rules of Attraction (2002). He currently stars as Matt Bromley on the FX drama Pose.
Linda Lavin is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her stage performances, both on Broadway and Off-Broadway.
Penelope Ann "Penny" Fuller is an American actress. She received two Tony Award nominations for her performances on Broadway stage: for Applause (1970), and The Dinner Party (2001). For her television performances, Fuller received six Emmy Award nominations, winning once, in 1982 for playing Madge Kendal in The Elephant Man.
Lewis Jefferson Mays is a Tony Award-winning American actor.
Three Tall Women is a play by Edward Albee, which won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Albee's third.
Walter Bobbie is an American theatre director, choreographer, and occasional actor and dancer. Bobbie has directed both musicals and plays on Broadway and Off-Broadway, and was the Artistic Director of the New York City Center Encores! concert series. He directed the long-running revival of the musical Chicago.
The American Dream is an early, one-act play by American playwright Edward Albee. It premiered in 1961.
The Sandbox is a play written by Edward Albee in 1959.
The Play About the Baby is a play by Edward Albee.
Christopher Shinn is an American playwright. His play Dying City (2006) was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and
Where Do We Live (2004) won the 2005 Obie Award, Playwriting.
The People in the Picture is a musical with book and lyrics by Iris Rainer Dart and music by Mike Stoller and Artie Butler. The musical is about a grandmother recalling her life in the Yiddish theater and the Holocaust.
The Lyons is a play by Nicky Silver. The play first ran Off-Broadway in 2011 and then premiered on Broadway in 2012. This marks the Broadway debut of a Nicky Silver play. The setting is mainly in a hospital where Ben, the husband and father, is dying from cancer.
Pam MacKinnon is an American theatre director. She has directed for the stage Off-Broadway, on Broadway and in regional theatre. She won the Obie Award for Directing and received a Tony Award nomination, Best Director, for her work on Clybourne Park. In 2013 she received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for a revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She was named Artistic Director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California on January 23, 2018.
Alexandra I. Gersten-Vassilaros is an American playwright and actress.
She is the co-author, with Theresa Rebeck, of Omnium Gatherum which was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Anne Kauffman is an American director known primarily for her work on new plays, mainly in the New York area. She is a founding member of the theater group The Civilians.
Michael James Esper is an American actor, best known for his stage work.
Kid Victory is a musical with the story by John Kander and Greg Pierce, and music by John Kander, book and lyrics by Greg Pierce, co-produced by Vineyard Theatre and Signature Theatre.
