Love! Valour! Compassion!
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| Love! Valour! Compassion! | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Terrence McNally |
| Characters | Gregory Mitchell John Jeckyll James Jeckyll Perry Sellars Buzz Hauser Ramon Fornos Arthur Pape Bobby Brahms |
| Date premiered | October 11, 1994 |
| Place premiered | Manhattan Theatre Club New York City, New York |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | Comedy; Drama |
| Setting | Summer holiday weekends; Dutchess County, New York |
Love! Valour! Compassion! is a play by Terrence McNally. The play opened Off-Broadway in 1994 and transferred to Broadway in 1995. It won the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.
Contents
Production history
Love! Valour! Compassion! premiered Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 11, 1994, running for 72 performances. The production transferred to Broadway to the Walter Kerr Theatre on February 14, 1995, and closed on September 17, 1995 after 248 performances and 28 previews. Directed by Joe Mantello, the cast featured Nathan Lane (Buzz Hauser), John Glover (John and James Jeckyll), Stephen Bogardus (Gregory Mitchell), John Benjamin Hickey (Arthur Pape), Anthony Heald (Perry Sellars) (originally played by Stephen Spinella), Justin Kirk (Bobby), and Randy Becker (Ramon Fornos).[1][2]
The play was produced at the Edinburgh Fringe, and won The Stage Awards for Best Actor (Chris Pickles) and Best Ensemble. This production then ran in London at the Tristan Bates Theatre in October 1998.[3]
Plot
The setting is at a lakeside summer vacation house in Dutchess County, two hours north of New York City where eight gay friends spend the three major holiday weekends of one summer together for Memorial Day, July Fourth, and Labor Day. The house belongs to Gregory, a successful Broadway choreographer now approaching middle age, who fears he is losing his creativity; and his twenty-something lover, Bobby, a legal assistant who's blind. Each of the guests at their house is connected to Gregory’s work in one way or another – Arthur and longtime partner Perry are business consultants; John Jeckyll, a sour Englishman, is a dance accompanist; die-hard musical theater fanatic Buzz Hauser is a costume designer and the most stereotypically gay man in the group. Only John's summer lover, Ramon, and John's twin brother James are outside the circle of friends. But Ramon is outgoing and eventually makes a place for himself in the group, and James is such a gentle soul that he is quickly welcomed. "Infidelity, flirtations, soul-searching, AIDS, truth-telling and skinny-dipping mix monumental questions about life and death with a wacky dress rehearsal for Swan Lake performed in drag."[4]
Film adaptation
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In 1997, a film adaptation written by McNally reunited much of the original cast, with Jason Alexander and Stephen Spinella replacing Nathan Lane and Anthony Heald.
Awards and nominations
Source: Playbill Vault[2]
- 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Play[citation needed]
- Obie Award for Best Performance (entire cast, winner)[5]
- Obie Award for Best Playwright (winner)
- Tony Award for Best Play (winner)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (John Glover, winner)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Stephen Bogardus, nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Anthony Heald, nominee)
- Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play (Joe Mantello, nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play (winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Nathan Lane, winner)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (John Glover)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play (Joe Mantello, nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design (Jess Goldstein, nominee)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, nominee)
References
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- ↑ "1994–1995 OBIE Awards" infoplease.com
Further reading
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