The Children's Hour

Many other shows could be revived like Sweet Bird Of Youth & The Rose Tattoo.

Roxy, I really liked "Rose Tattoo" when I read it, but the Williams' shows I'd love to see revived on Broadway are "Summer and Smoke", "Orpheus Descending", and "Suddenly Last Summer". I still need to read "Sweet Bird of Youth", but Mr. Williams is my favorite playwright, so I expect it to be wonderful.

I'm not sure about that - Hellman's "The Little Foxes" has done well in revival, but that may be because of the popular film.

Roxy, the same could be said for the film version of "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof", which is memorable only for Taylor and Ives' performances. Surprisingly, "Suddenly Last Summer" was similarly sanitized, yet I find the film very successful.

Homosexual panic plays have gone out of fashion because, nowadays, they seem tedious. The audience is always half an hour ahead of the action. Same with Tea and Sympathy. However worthy, they are relics of the times in which they were written.

Disagree . Think any of these could work with the right cast. Many millenials may not have even read them much less seen them performed live and the roles are still meaty ones.

Oddly, the final scene between Karen and Martha is a very popular scene for young actresses.

I don't disagree with what others have said. My point is simply that there's a reason we don't see much of those plays anymore.

missthemountains said: "I was lucky enough to catch the London revival, it was heart-wrenching. While yes - homosexuality isn't as scandalous at it maybe once was, I still think we need pieces like these to remind us of where we were, but also, in certain parts of America - let alone the world - I think this story could still be relevant.



That's an interesting point you raise, missthemountains.

Another Hellman play that has never been revived is "Toys in the Attic".

I'm not sure why but maybe it's because alot of these plays are a bit on the melodramatic side?

Some of the situations in these plays have lost their "shock value".

Some are just plain over-the-top [e.g.: Chance Wayne's castration in "Sweet Bird", The cannibalistic murder of Sebastian Venable in "Suddenly Last Summer"] but even that may not be it. It seems these plays get revived in the UK more often than here on Broadway.

"Sweet Bird" had 2 revivals in the UK. One starring Diane Lane and the other Kim Cattrall.

Updated On: 4/4/16 at 11:10 AM

""Sweet Bird" had 2 revivals in the UK. One starring Diane Lane and the other Kim Cattrall. "

There are at least three West End productions of "Sweet Bird" that I know of. Bacall's in 1985, Christian Slater's in 2005 and Kim Cattrall and Seth Numrich's in 2013. Diane Lane did the play opposite Finn Wittrock in 2012 at the Goodman in Chicago.



There's been talk over the years of a Broadway revival. Nicole Kidman seemed to be attached to one around ten years ago but it did not happen. Lane's production was rumored to have intended to transfer, but that never happened either.



People mistakenly view "The Children's Hour" as a homophobic play because it is not about a proud, open woman. Shirley MacLaine all but apologizes for having done the film in "The Celluloid Closet." Whether Martha is a proud lesbian or not, homophobia has a deadly effect on her, and this, which the play is actually about, stops it from being a dated piece. It deserves a good revival.

What makes it dated is that, while a progressive play for its time, it still traffics and is driven by two tropes that are completely out of vogue: homosexual panic and the tragic queer character. The latter has stuck around for a long time and we are only finally moving past its use as a way to sympathetically depict queer characters.

While it's a work that should be kept around and has earned its place in the American theatre canon, I'm not sure- especially since there is a noticeable lack of queer female characters in major American theatrical works- it needs major revival.

Yes, Kad, excellent points -- especially about the tragic queer character. I have a personal weakness for the play, but wonder how much it would speak to a contemporary audience today (other than a look at "how far we've come".)