The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

So I had some free time before class the other day and found the Edward Albee section in my University library and read The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?

I was just wondering who here has seen the 2002 production and what they thought of it? I know it won "Best Play" and "Outstanding New Play", and I thought it was hilarious considering the subject of the whole thing.

I was just wondering how the tone came across, how intense it was, etc.

Albee is my favorite playwright and I have yet, unfortunately, to see a play of his performed live.

I saw it several times with both casts. I preferred Ruehl but I also preferred Pullman. In general I'd say it was pretty intense, certainly not played for laughs for long. I think it is a brilliant play, maybe his third best, but definitely top 5.

It had the audacity of a playwright a quarter his age. It's themes of "we can't control our sexual urges, why should we be punished for who or what arouses us" don't completely land, but it was still thought provoking and surprising. I saw this on Broadway and then again in London with a pre-star Eddie Redmayne as the son and Jonathan Pryce, improving on Bill Pullman (it could have only been Pryce not being forced to go head to head with the blistering Mercedes Rheul giving the performance of her life).

As funny as it was, I consider the play to be a tragedy.

I saw it twice, both times with the original cast. The first time, late in previews, I thought it was a wild dark comedy, and the audience was laughing like they were at Noises Off. The second time, after the reviews had told audiences that it was significant, there was barely a laugh to be heard all night, although the performances hadn't changed.

I've never before or since seen the same play received so differently by different audiences - the closest was seeing Angels in America late in its run, with a tourist audience that clearly had no idea what they were seeing, and sat like stones throughout.

I heard someone on a podcast years ago from the original cast (I believe it was the Theatre Guilds podcast Downstage Center) talking about how when

@Promises, I'd say Virginia Woolf and Thee Tall Women, though I could be persuaded to put Delicate Balance up there too.

re the tone of the original-it did evolve several times, and there was a concerted effort to stifle the laughing. There are interviews discussing this. I don't think one can lay this on the audience. Albee provided the relief of laughter, but most assuredly did not have a dark comedy in mind. At the same time, the audience needs to make the wrong judgments early in order to generate the desired effect, and that manipulation of course is classic Albee.

The story I heard about the subject of khakis' spoiler is that when it evoked laughter at the first preview, steps were taken to make sure that was not triggered and they tweaked it until the communicated the moment in all of its intensity because it was no laughing matter.

Thanks HogansHero! I knew Virginia Woolf would be up there (it's my favorite play, period.)



Becky, thanks for that addition. Reminds me a little of when I saw Of Mice and Men, but probably not to that affect since the book is usually widely read in public schools and probably the majority of people knew of the ending.

I've only ever seen a production here in Chicago at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company and it was one of the top 3 plays I've ever seen on/off Broadway (not that I've seen a lot on Broadway). It was so intense and I was sobbing at the spoiler posted previously and also when he talks about going to a group counseling session and seeing someone who is so ugly you can hardly stand to look at them. Just so raw and gut-wrenching. The performances in Chicago were phenomenal and seeing it in a 200-seat theatre was intense. I remember there being a handful of inappropriate laughs, but none that ruined it for me.

I would like to see it again, but I'd have to read the reviews first to make sure it's excellent - I don't want to ruin the memory I already have of it!

Not enough attention in this thread has been paid to Mercedes Ruehl, who gave a performance to be remembered for all time.


The greatest thing this play did was actually make you feel and feel DEEPLY for this man who, before you stepped foot into the theater if you'd heard about it, was ready to laugh at and think was disgusting. But at the same time your heart ends up breaking for him, you understand what she did and sympathize with her as well. It's brilliant writing at it's absolute best. And I remember the last line was the sons, I think? He just stood there in the silence while everyone's lives were destroyed and said "Mom...?" and my jaw dropped. With all that had just happened, for Albee to make that the last line, I think is just...Genius. It's the "what do we do now?" that nobody has the answer to.

Updated On: 7/6/16 at 11:58 PM

I can't think of a Broadway play since The Goat that has challenged audiences in such a way. It's a blistering work that disquiets and confronts the morality of its audience in a way very few works do.

Jan Maxwell would be absolutely ferocious as Stevie. A shame she's never had the opportunity, and probably won't, given her retirement from stage.

The climate of commercial theater has changed so much since the beginning of this century that I cannot imagine this play being produced on Broadway today, much less running nearly a year. It's a work of genius, and probably Albee's greatest for since 1970.

I saw it with Sally Field. I'm trying to think of a better word, but INTENSE covers it. Loved it.

AC126748 said: "Are you joking? Do you really think an experimental, controversial play with no bankable stars (Pullman and Ruehl don't sell out houses) would not only open on Broadway in a commercial production but run for 10 months, mostly in the red (it closed far from turning a profit)? "

Apparently you know nothing of the play, nothing of the actors and nothing of the current (i.e., most recent) season or its plays and actors. I continue to find what you say unfathomable. More so now than before.