Bosoms and Neglect

Last updated
Bosoms and Neglect
Written by John Guare
Date premiered1979
Place premiered Goodman Theatre
Chicago, Illinois
Original languageEnglish
Genre Black comedy
SettingHenny's apartment, Deirdre's apartment, and Henny's hospital room.

Bosoms and Neglect is a play by American playwright John Guare, first staged in 1979 at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Contents

Productions

Bosoms and Neglect opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on May 3, 1979, where it ran for 4 performances. Direction was by Mel Shapiro, scenery by John Wulp, and costumes by Willa Kim. The cast included Kate Reid (Henny), Paul Rudd (Scooper), and Marian Mercer (Deirdre). For her performance, Kate Reid was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. [1]

The play had premiered in a limited engagement at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, that opened on March 1, 1979. [2]

A revised version was presented at the New York Theatre Workshop on March 26, 1986. Directed by Larry Arrick, the cast starred Anne Meara (henny), Richard Cavanaugh, and April Shawhan. [2]

The play opened Off-Broadway, produced by the Signature Theatre Company at The Peter Norton Space on December 1, 1998 and closed on January 10, 1999. The play was directed by Nicholas Martin, with fight director Rick Sordelet, set design by James Noone, costume design by Gail Brassard, lighting design by Frances Aaronson, and sound design by Red Ramona. The cast starred David Aaron Baker (Scooper), Katie Finneran (Deidre), and Mary Louise Wilson (Henny). [3] The production was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play. [4]

Reception

In its original form, the play's prologue was a dialog between Henny, an aged, ailing mother whose breast cancer is referenced in the play's title, and Scooper, her son; the first act involved Scooper and Deirdre, a girl who is another patient of Scooper's psychiatrist; and the second act focused again mainly on Henny and Scooper. This segmented structure, and the play's rapid shifts between comedy and suffering, were not successful with early critics and audiences.

Although the play had received positive reviews in its March 1979 tryout in Chicago, the initial New York production was not well received and closed after only four performances. [5] John Simon wrote in New York that the play was the latest in a "series of unconsideredly churned-out catastrophes" that Guare had written after his early success. Simon characterized the play as having "three levels that stubbornly refuse to bend, and are not worth much individually either." [6] Richard Eder of The New York Times had a similar opinion: "John Guare, whose recent plays contained a real allure in their crevices, has missed out completely this time. The crags of 'Bosoms and Neglect' show the geological markings of nothing much besides lead." [7]

Despite its failure on Broadway, the play soon received other productions, which met with more positive results and, over time, led to a re-evaluation of the play's position among Guare's works. [5] Mel Gussow of The New York Times wrote that the Yale Repertory Theater's "minimally revised" October 1979 production was "far better than the Broadway production"; although he still thought the play had "basic dramatic flaws", the new production humanized the characters (especially Henny) and offered "a clearer picture of the play's possibilities and the playwright's intentions." [8] Gussow also reviewed a 1986 Off-Broadway production at the Perry Street Theatre and found that "the play has kept its assets and its flaws intact"; he thought that the play's structure "still seems like two disparate one-act dialogues sewn together to make up a full-length play" but that "it is more interesting than many other current plays" and that Anne Meara's performance as Henny "reaches to the heart of the mother, offering a portrait of a woman flailing for life support." [9]

The 1998 Signature Theatre Company production (which revised the structure to integrate the prologue into the first act) also met with critical approval. [5] The New York Post's Donald Lyons called it a "triumph", [10] while Vincent Canby in the Times thought "Mary Louise Wilson's performance as the old lady" was "viciously articulate", and he characterized the play as "a way station between the playwright's first major work, The House of Blue Leaves (1971), and his last hit, Six Degrees of Separation (1990)." [11] Later writers about Guare have called Bosoms and Neglect a "finely balanced work which moves from wild comedy . . . to a beautifully modulated second act" [12] and "one of Guare's best plays". [5]

Playwright Paula Vogel called Bosoms "one of the more influential and devastating experiences in her years of going to the theatre" (In a 1997 interview with Playbill On Line). [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>Torch Song Trilogy</i> Collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein

Torch Song Trilogy is a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein rendered in three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The story centers on Arnold Beckoff, a Jewish homosexual, drag queen, and torch singer who lives in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The four-hour play begins with a soliloquy in which he explains his cynical disillusionment with love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guare</span> American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

<i>The Heidi Chronicles</i> 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein

The Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manhattan Theatre Club</span> Theatre company in New York City

Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a theatre company located in New York City, affiliated with the League of Resident Theatres. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Director Chris Jennings, along with Executive Producer Emeritus Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1972 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country's most acclaimed theatre organizations.

William Marchant was a playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for writing the play that served as the basis for the 1957 Walter Lang movie, The Desk Set.

<i>The House of Blue Leaves</i> Play written by John Guare

The House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare which premiered Off-Broadway in 1971, and was revived in 1986, both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, and was again revived on Broadway in 2011. The play won the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play and the Obie Award for Best American Play in 1971. The play is set in 1965, when Pope Paul VI visited New York City.

The Ritz is a comedic farce by Terrence McNally. Rita Moreno won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, which she and many others of the original cast reprised in a 1976 film version directed by Richard Lester.

<i>The Belle of Amherst</i> 1976 play about poet Emily Dickinson

The Belle of Amherst is a one-woman play by William Luce.

Mel Shapiro is an American theatre director and writer, college professor, and author.

<i>The Lisbon Traviata</i>

The Lisbon Traviata is a play by Terrence McNally. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 1989. It revolves around several opera fans, especially of the opera singer Maria Callas, and their gay relationships.

Happy New Year is a musical with a book by Burt Shevelove and music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

Melvin Bernhardt was an American stage and television director. He was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and much of his work has been in the New York City area. He is known for his productions of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Da, and Crimes of the Heart. Bernhardt began his career as a stage manager; he made his directorial debut in 1965 with Conerico was Here to Stay at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

John Wulp was an American scenic designer, producer, director, and artist.

Charles Thomas Cole was a playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the screenplay for Smooth Talk.

Cara Duff-MacCormick is a Canadian actress, predominantly in the theatre.

Robert Whitehead was a Canadian theatre producer. His first production was Medea, starring Judith Anderson and John Gielgud, and he won the Outer Critics Circle Award five times. He was nominated for 19 Tony and Drama Desk Awards, winning 4 Tony Awards and 5 Drama Desk Awards.

All Over is a two-act play written in 1970 by Edward Albee. He had originally developed it in 1967 as a short play entitled Death, the second half of a projected double bill with another play called Life.

Tony Straiges is a scenic designer for the stage and ballet. He has designed the sets for 17 Broadway musicals, plays and specials. His sets "often have a sparse elegance or sense of fantasy about them." Robert Brustein said of Straiges: "Today, he is considered one of the visual poets of the stage." Straiges attended the Yale School of Drama at Yale University.

Sybille Pearson is a playwright, musical theatre lyricist and librettist.

Heidi Ettinger, also known by her former married name Heidi Landesman, is an American theatre producer and set designer. She studied at Occidental College and the Yale School of Drama. She was the first woman to win a Tony Award for set design, which she won for the musical Big River. She has also won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle awards and an Obie Award.

References

  1. ↑ Bosoms and Neglect listing IBDB.com
  2. 1 2 Guare, John. "Introduction", Bosoms and Neglect, Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1999, ISBN   0822217287, p. 4
  3. ↑ Bosoms and Neglect listing Archived 2014-02-23 at the Wayback Machine Lortel Archives Internet off-Broadway Database
  4. ↑ "Drama Desk Loves A 'Parade'", Daily News (New York) , April 20, 1999
  5. 1 2 3 4 Jane Kathleen Curry, John Guare: A Research and Production Sourcebook (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002), ISBN   978-0-313-31252-6, p. 20ff. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  6. ↑ John Simon, "Folie a Deux", New York , May 21, 1979.
  7. ↑ Richard Eder, "Theater: Bosoms and Neglect", The New York Times , May 4, 1979 (subscription required)
  8. ↑ Mel Gussow, "Theater: Guare's 'Bosoms and Neglect' at Yale Rep", The New York Times , October 14, 1979.
  9. ↑ Mel Gussow, "Stage: John Guare's 'Bosoms And Neglect'", The New York Times , April 13, 1986.
  10. ↑ Donald Lyons, "Don't Neglect a Guare Gem", The New York Post , December 16, 1998.
  11. ↑ Vincent Canby, "Bosoms and Neglect" (review), The New York Times , January 10, 1999, reprinted in The New York Times Theatre Reviews 1999-2000 (Taylor & Francis, 2002), ISBN   978-0-415-93697-2, p.9. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  12. ↑ C. W. E. Bigsby, Modern American drama, 1945-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), ISBN   978-0-521-79410-7, p.381. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  13. ↑ Haun, Harry; Lefkowitz, David; and Simonson, Ribert. "NY's Signature Opens OB Season with a Guare Solo, Sept. 27-Oct. 25" Playbill, September 26, 1998

Further reading

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.