Night of the Iguana, The

Night of the Iguana, The (1961), a play by Tennessee Williams. [Royale Theatre, 316 perf.; NYDCC Award.] At a seedy resort on the west coast of Mexico that is run by the man‐hungry Maxine ( Bette Davis), her old friend, the defrocked minister Shannon ( Patrick O'Neal), arrives with a busload of tourists whom he is guiding through the desert. Staying at the resort is the spinster Hannah Jelkes ( Margaret Leighton) and her aged poet father ( Alan Webb) and an attraction develops between the volatile Shannon and the reserved Hannah. In the end, the poet dies, Hannah moves on, and Shannon stays to revive his relationship with Maxine. Critical reaction was mostly positive, aisle‐sitters agreeing that it was “one of Williams' saddest, darkest and most contemplative plays.” The drama was revived in New York in 1976 with Richard Chamberlain, Dorothy Malone, and Sylvia Miles, in 1988 with Nicholas Surovy, Maria Tucci, and Jane Alexander, and in 1996 with William Peterson, Cherry Jones, and Marsha Mason.