This is a wonderful anthology. For its price, it is probably the best single volume anthology on the market for American theater of the last thirty-some years. These playwrights have dominated the New York Off-Broadway scene for as long as most of us can remember. If you came to New York in 1975 you would have heard the very same names. If you search the theater directory this season you will find their names, not with new works but with revivals of plays written two decades ago. This might be good for the playwrights, but is it good for the theater? Durang and Co. were first produced in edgy little theaters that were at the cutting edge of the theater. Since then these theaters have become institutions with new buildings, long lists of donors, gala openings, and corporate sponsors. Isn't it ironic that instead of producing new work, they do revivals of old-standards by Beth Henley? It is the equivalent of little theaters in the boonies doing revivals of Kauffman and Hart, Noel Coward, and Behrman. And the New York audiences are just like the little theater audiences in towns like Oklahoma city, Bakersfield and Memphis. They're all over 60, drive Cadillacs, and need hearing aids. People attending the revival of Tina Howe's play remember having seen the original production. They go, hoping to see the original cast, who are now all retired. How could this be and why? Virtually every play here anthologized has as its theme, primary or secondary, some form corruption or hypocrisy, yet none in the theater community seems to make the connection between the mega-buck donations they seek and their inability to find and produce new works as exciting as these.
