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| William Atherton. |
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| Lee Lawson, William Atherton. |
“[T]he erosion of
innocence,” as Edith Oliver put it, was the subject of David Wiltse’s
well-liked piece that, unfortunately, was given only a limited run of 20
showings.
A cheerful,
optimistic young Kansan, George Suggs (William Atherton), arrives in the Big
Apple to pursue a career as a broadcast sports announcer. He begins his New
York life with the rosiest of attitudes, but gradually finds his initial good
will crumbling under an onslaught of the city’s ills. Many of his frustrations
are forthrightly delivered in direct address.
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| Robert Levine, Lee Lawson, Joan Pape. |
Conventional in its
sideswiping blows at the hassles of urban survival, an existence “overrun by
derelicts, drug addicts, panhandlers, muggers, prostitutes, depressed and
case-hardened employers, dissatisfied wives, [and] crooks,” in Harold Clurman’s
words, Suggs remained “engagingly
ironic, swift in pace, [and] happily devoid of portentousness.” Henry Hewes
thought it was “neatly crafted, highly entertaining.”
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| Ralph Bell, William Atherton. |
William Atherton, “always seemingly unaware of what is
happening to him as his jauntiness and trust slowly ebb away, gives a
first-rate comic performance,” wrote Oliver.
David Wiltse won a
Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright, and Drama Desk Awards also went
to William Atherton and director Dan Sullivan, then at the outset of his prolific
career. Atherton also snared a Theatre World Award.
Next up: Summerfolk
