Women of Manhattan

Last updated

Women of Manhattan is a play written by John Patrick Shanley and originally produced in 1986.

Contents

Production

Women of Manhattan premiered Off-Broadway in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the City Center Theater on May 26, 1986, and closed on June 15, 1986, after 25 performances. Directed by Ron Lagomarsino, the cast featured Nancy Mette as Billie, J. Smith-Cameron as Rhonda, Jayne Haynes as Judy, Keith Szarabajka and Tom Wright. [1] [2]

The play was revived in New York City by The Barrow Group, at the John Houseman Studio Theater, running from May 30, 1997, officially on June 6, and ending June 29, 1997. [3]

The play was produced in Santa Ana, California, in a Way Off Broadway production in February and March 1990. [4] The play ran in San Francisco at the Next Stage in January 1999. [5]

Plot overview

The play revolves around the lives of three women who are living in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rhonda has recently split with her boyfriend, Billie is married, and Judy is considered a "fag hag" by the other two as she often unknowingly dates men who turn out to be homosexual.

Critical response

Robert Coe wrote "this play, while beautifully written and complete, feels a little weightless", while a critic reviewing the 1999 San Francisco production for SF Weekly called it "an ordinary play, universal without being timeless". [5] Mel Gussow, in his review for The New York Times , wrote: "These are the upper depths, specifically, the Upper West Side where conversation automatically becomes competitive, where everyone's consciousness is raised by the elixir of trendiness. The intention may have been to write a kind of Noel Coward comedy of Columbus Avenue, but the result mistakes brittleness for wit. Archness finishes in a dead heat with artificiality." [1] The AP reviewer called the play a "slender character study masquerading as a play." [6] The Los Angeles Times reviewer of the 1990 production noted: "Of course, providing accessible characters is one of Shanley's trademarks. He's written many, in both his plays ('Danny and the Deep Blue Sea' and 'Savage in Limbo') and screenplays ('Moonstruck'), and it's no surprise that we can get close to this threesome. That's really 'Women's' strength, and what makes it enough of a pleasure." [4]

In reviewing the 1997 New York revival, the New York Times reviewer wrote: "In less capable hands, the trials of these lonely women in this light comedy of Upper West Side manners would be exercises in archness. But the trio of actresses who portray them -- Katie Davis as Billie, Fiona Gallagher as Rhonda Louise and especially Elizabeth Hanly Rice as Judy -- are so at home with Mr. Shanley's biting, smart-girl banter that Women of Manhattan radiates a surprising urbanity and wit...Mr. Shanley's 90-minute play consists of four vignettes in the social lives of the young women, the sharpest being a hilarious brunch in Rhonda's apartment that explicates the three unequal sides of their triangular relationship. The playwright and the director, Paul Rice, appreciate the high drama in the minor problems that overwhelm these 30-ish women..." [7]

Notes

  1. 1 2 Gussow, Mel. "Stage: From Shanley, 'Women Of Manhattan'" The New York Times, May 26, 1986
  2. ↑ " Women of Manhattan Listing" lortel.org, accessed January 18, 2014
  3. ↑ Lefkowitz, David. "Catch 'em Now! -- 4 Broadway Shows Close This Weekend" playbill.com, June 25, 1997
  4. 1 2 Smith, Mark Chalon. "Stage Review : Love Is Topic for the 'Women of Manhattan'" Los Angeles Times, February 21, 1990
  5. 1 2 Moore, Michael Scott. "Stage" SF Weekly . January 13, 1999, accessed January 19, 2014
  6. ↑ Kuchwara, Michael. "'Women of Manhattan,' A New Play, Opens Off-Broadway" apnewsarchive.com, May 27, 1986
  7. ↑ Marks, Peter. Theater in Review" The New York Times, June 18, 1997

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Beth Peil</span> American actress and singer (born 1940)

Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and soprano. She began her career as an opera singer in 1962 with the Goldovsky Opera Theater. In 1964 she won two major singing competitions, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; the latter of which earned her a contract with the Metropolitan Opera National Company with whom she performed in two seasons of national tours as a leading soprano from 1965–1967. She continued to perform in operas through the 1970s, notably creating the role of Alma in the world premiere of Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke at the Minnesota Opera in 1971. She later recorded that role for American television in 1982. With that same opera company she transitioned into musical theatre, performing the title role of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate in 1983. Later that year she joined the national tour of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I as Anna Leonowens opposite Yul Brynner, and continued with that production when it opened on Broadway on January 7, 1985. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her portrayal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Patrick Shanley</span> American writer

John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Moonstruck. His play, Doubt: A Parable, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play; he wrote and directed the film adaptation and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Kuhn</span> American actress and singer (born 1958)

Judy Kuhn is an American actress, singer and activist, known for her work in musical theatre. A four-time Tony Award nominee, she has released four studio albums and sang the title role in the 1995 film Pocahontas, including her rendition of the song "Colors of the Wind", which won its composers the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Richard Livingston Coe was a theater and cinema critic for The Washington Post for more than forty years. Coe became known as one of the most influential theater critics outside New York City. He was the leading theater reviewer in Washington when that city was a major tryout stop for shows headed for New York. It was the postwar period that was considered Broadway's last golden era of prolific production. Consequently, it was often Coe's reviews that directors used to help smooth out productions before heading to the harsher lights of Broadway.

Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie White</span> American actress (born 1961)

Julie K. White is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Little Dog Laughed in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performances in Airline Highway in 2013, Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus in 2019 and POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022. She played Sam Witwicky's mother in Transformers film series (2007-2011)

Judy Kaye is an American singer and actress. She has appeared in stage musicals, plays, and operas. Kaye has been in long runs on Broadway in the musicals The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, Mamma Mia!, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivian Beaumont Theater</span> Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York

The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Broadway theater outside the Theater District near Times Square. Named after heiress and actress Vivian Beaumont Allen, the theater was one of the last structures designed by modernist architect Eero Saarinen. The theater shares a building with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and contains two off-Broadway venues, the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater and the Claire Tow Theater.

<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 Producer Barry Grove, Manhattan Theatre Club has grown since its founding in 1970 from an Off-Off Broadway showcase into one of the country's most acclaimed theatre organizations.

Edwin Sherin was an American director and producer. He is best known as the director and executive producer of the NBC drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1991–2005).

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.

WP Theater is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater based in New York City. It is the nation’s oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female-identified theater artists at every stage in their careers. Currently, Lisa McNulty serves as the Producing Artistic Director and Michael Sag serves as the Managing Director.

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

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

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

Italian American Reconciliation is a play by John Patrick Shanley. It premiered Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1988.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Mirror Theater Ltd</span> Theater company in New York City

The Mirror Theater was founded by Sabra Jones in 1983, who was also the Founding Artistic Director. The first program of the theater was the Mirror Repertory Company (MRC). Founding members of the company included Eva Le Gallienne, John Strasberg, and Geraldine Page. Sabra Jones reached out to Ellis Rabb, artistic director of the APA Phoenix Repertory Company, John Houseman of the Mercury Theater, and Eva Le Gallienne of the Civic Repertory Theatre Company. The company was intended to be "an alternating repertory company in the classic sense" of actor-manager leadership, which Rabb, Houseman, and La Gallienne pioneered. Alternating repertory refers to when one company performs a variety of plays in the same season with the same actors, which was formerly a mainstay of theater tradition. This system has been attributed with helping actors grow in their craft through a wide variety of roles. MRC was funded in its inception primarily by philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller, with additional donations from philanthropists and actors such as Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and others.

Seret Scott is an American actress, director, and playwright, best known for her roles in the films Losing Ground and Pretty Baby, as well as guest appearances on the televisions shows The Equalizer, Miami Vice, and Cosby. She is also known for her theatrical roles on Broadway and the many plays she has directed on national and regional stages.

Ellen McElduff is an American film, television, and stage actress, best known for roles in JFK, Oz, Homicide: Life on the Street, and many acclaimed stage productions.

References

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.