Eastern Standard
Written by | Richard Greenberg |
---|---|
Date premiered | May 1988 |
Place premiered | Seattle Repertory Theatre |
Original language | English |
Genre | Comedy |
Setting | Manhattan The Hamptons |
Eastern Standard is a play by
, and urban malaise.Plot
In the first act, very successful but disenchanted architect Stephen Wheeler is lunching with his best friend from their days at Dartmouth College, rising avant-garde gay artist Drew Paley, in a trendy restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Seated at the adjoining table are Wall Street investment counselor Phoebe Kidde and her television producer brother Peter, who has just revealed he has AIDS to her. When boisterous homeless woman May Logan enters the restaurant and creates a scene, the four diners and their frazzled waitress Ellen find themselves thrown together, and they eventually strike up an unlikely alliance.
In the second act, six months have elapsed, and the sextet are spending the weekend at Stephen's summer house in The Hamptons. Stephen and Phoebe find they share a mutual attraction, while Peter, unprepared to discuss his recent diagnosis, is trying to discourage Drew's amorous advances. Representing the lower class are Ellen and May, whose presence forces everyone to reexamine their lives and reevaluate their priorities.
Productions
The play's premiere production was at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in May 1988. Directed by Michael Engler, the cast included Harry Groener as Stephen, Tom Hulce as Drew, Valerie Mahaffey as Phoebe, Michael Cerveris as Peter, Barbara Garrick as Ellen, and Marjorie Nelson as May.[1]
The Manhattan Theatre Club presented the play at the Off-Broadway New York City Center, opening on October 27, 1988, and closing on December 4, 1988. Again directed by Michael Engler, the cast included Dylan Baker as Stephen, Peter Frechette as Drew, Patricia Clarkson as Phoebe, Kevin Conroy as Peter, Barbara Garrick as Ellen, and Anne Meara as May.[2]
A critical success, the production transferred to
Eastern Standard was the first of Greenberg's plays to run on Broadway. The New York Times noted that the play "was ensconsed on Broadway... after successful engagements at the Seattle Repertory and Manhattan Theatre Club."[3] The play had six sold-out weeks off-Broadway.[4]
Critical reception
In his review in
Michael Kuchwara, in his review for the Associated Press, wrote: "Alternately compassionate and caustic, funny and sad, Eastern Standard marks the arrival of a major playwrighting talent who has been percolating on the theater scene for several years....With Eastern Standard, the playwright tackles bigger, more ambitious themes. He mixes his materialistic and upwardly mobile characters with such up-to-the-minute social concerns as the homeless and AIDS. It makes for an intriguing theatrical confrontation as his complaisant people face some unpleasant aspects of their society as well as their own social conventions."[6]
References
- ^ Eastern Standard at Google Books
- ^ " Eastern Standard Off-Broadway" lortel.org, accessed December 16, 2016
- ISSN 0362-4331
- ^ Hubbard, Kim. "A New, Young Playwright Risks Success for His Art" People Magazine, February 13, 1989
- ^ Rich, Frank. " Review" New York Times, October 28, 1998
- ^ Kuchwara, Michael. "'Eastern Standard,' A Play by Richard Greenberg, Opens Off-Broadway" apnewsarchive.com, October 27, 1988