Marilyn Stasio

Marilyn Stasio had a wonderful idea here - to analyze the "failures" of five excellent plays that failed to thrive in the Broadway environment, as well as offering the texts of the plays themselves for the discriminating reader. It makes for a wonderful book that should have remained perpetually in print instead of only being known to a few theater cognoscenti. Stasio's accounts of the plays' histories are informative and thought-provoking. In my opinion, three of the plays - S.J. Perelman's show more "The Beauty Part," Saul Bellow's "The Last Analysis," and Jack Richardson's "Xmas in Las Vegas" - are masterpieces, while the other two - Hugh Wheeler's "Look, We've Come Through" and Mary Mercier's "Johnny No-Trump" - are highly accomplished and interested. No one with the slightest interest in theater and dramatic literature should hesitate for a moment to plunge into this great volume. show less