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| Alan Bates, Geraldine Sherman. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
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| Alan Bates. |
BUTLEY [Comedy-Drama/Alcoholism/British/Homosexuality/University]
A: Simon Gray; D: James Hammerstein; S: Eileen Diss; L/C: Neil Peter Jampolis;
P: Lester Osterman Productions i/a/w Michael Codron; T: Morosco Theatre;
10/31/72-02/24/73 (135)
 |
| Barbara Lester, Alan Bates, Hayward Morse. |
A
day in the crumbling life of Ben Butley (Alan Bates), London University English
professor. Butley’s life as a practicing homosexual was briefly interrupted by
a failed marriage during which he fathered a daughter. He must now face the
pain of hearing his wife, Anne (Holland Taylor), announce that she wants to
remarry. Worse, his male love, Joseph Keyston (Hayward Morse)—a former student
and current colleague—walks out on him. He is also forced to recognize his own
professional ineptness in being incapable of finishing a book he is writing on
T.S. Eliot.
 |
| Alan Bates, Christopher Hastings. |
The
antiheroic Butley was viewed as bitchy, garrulous, alcoholic, sadistic,
indecisive, witty, slovenly, egotistical, cynical, and anguished. The play
seemed not much more than his nagging, acrimonious encounters with his wife,
his lover, and his lover’s new boyfriend, Reg Nuttall (Roger Newman). Except
for a body blow from the latter that floors Butley, the other characters were
accused of doing little of interest other than to act as pins for him to bowl
down.
 |
| Holland Taylor, Alan Bates. |
This
disturbed several reviewers, while others, like Walter Kerr, thought Butley’s “sick
passion” was “in any explicit sense, unmotivated.” A few were at pains to
explicate the social conditions that had led to Butley’s state of mind, and
thus the reasons for the sympathy he provoked, despite his venom.
Bates
was on stage throughout. He made “the evening blazingly his,” wrote T.E. Kalem,
“as a man slouching towards bedlam—hair bedraggled, trousers rumpled, eyes aglaze,
and with an adder’s tongue in his cheek. It is an indelible image that will
find its way into dramatic legend.” Jack Kroll added, “It is a performance that
makes you fall in love with the human organism.” His memorable performance handed
Bates a Tony for Best Actor in a Play, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding
Performance. Hayward Morse’s excellence was recognized with a Tony nomination
for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Previous entries:
Abelxard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed