Generic One Word Play Titles

What happened to the good old days of "Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "All My Sons," "Long Day's Journey into Night?"

It seems like most plays these days have generic one word titles like: Eclipsed, Ruined, Sweat, Indecent, Disgraced. How is anyone supposed to keep these straight or even distinguish one from the other?

Future playwrights of the world -- please give us an interesting title. End of rant.

Updated On: 12/14/16 at 09:55 AM

And what alternative titles would you suggest for each play? I'd love to hear some ideas, since you seem to think you know better than several Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights.

Did you actually see Ruined or Indecent or Disgraced? Because each of those titles have a specific meaning within the world of the play.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of New York City

The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures

Slavs! Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Important Hats of the Twentieth Century

The Tale of the Allergist's Wife

The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

The Legend of Georgia McBride

Wild Animals You Should Know

Our Mother's Brief Affair

And on and on and on. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Updated On: 12/14/16 at 10:10 AM

QueenAlice said: "I would expect the playwrights to come up with something more evocative. Yes, I saw the plays and I'm not questioning their merit, only the merit of their titles. You could essentially assign those one word titles to all the classic plays I mention in my original thread.



"

I'm still waiting to hear some of your suggestions for more acceptable titles.

DISGRACED:

The Portrait of Amir

Defense of the Imam

The Word of God

Advantage of Assimilation

Those are terrible titles that lack the punch of one well-chosen word.

Indecent: Don't Put Lesbians On Broadway

I prefer Bulldykes Over Broadway

"I prefer Bulldykes Over Broadway"

Only with an exclamation point!

"I think those are great titles - but they aren't one word verbs"

Oh, the parameters shift! So it's only titles comprised of single verbs (present or past tense) that annoy? That would make Indecent acceptable. Unless single adjectives are also out. So single nouns are good; single verbs and adjectives are out? What about adverbs, gerunds, or conjunctions?

Spreading our net wide, how are these?

If (Kipling)
Kidnapped (Stevenson)
The novels of Henry Green (Loving, Living, Concluding, etc.)
Trainspotting (novel, play, and film)
Red (play and film)
Frozen

RUN - the musical version of Forrest Gump; score by Andrew Lippa

TRASHED - a young woman climbing the corporate ladder is temporarily undone by addiction issues; while homeless, she learns the true meaning of life from her fellow bums, and makes a comeback marketing Skid Row-chic housewares, fashions, and furnishings.

BEACHED - a la Hands On A Hardbody, a group of disparate clichéd characters each get to sing their own hackneyed song while attempting to rescue a stranded whale in Malibu. Spoiler alert: the whale dies.

DOWN - an evening of monologues about oral sex.

JUMPED - A daredevil (played by Andy Karl) seeks exceedingly higher and more dangerous places from which to freejump, until he finally meets that one special woman (Annaleigh Ashford) who makes him want to remain on the ground.

POOP - a delightful review of numbers from the worst shows of the past decade (Finding Neverland, Amazing Grace, American Psycho, Tuck Everlasting, Doctor Zhivago, It Shoulda Been You, The Last Ship, Big Fish, First Date, etc.)

Updated On: 12/14/16 at 11:19 AM

On the other hand, "Time Stands Still" might've been "Maim."

And to be clear - I have no problem with one word play titles. As many examples have been cited - a brilliant one word choice when it is truly evocative is indeed a very powerful punch.

I'm nagging on plays that seem pretentious in their one word non specificity.

Imagine if instead of HAMLET we got a play called ANGST

Or instead of HEDDA GABBLER we got BOREDOM

or instead of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF we got a play called WEAKNESS

My argument is that the playwright is not doing their play any service by calling it something like DISGRACED or RUINED. Those titles could be used for almost any play with a central conflict in them.

^Or DOUBT or RUINED

Updated On: 12/14/16 at 02:23 PM