Sweet Bird of Youth

Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), a play by Tennessee Williams. [Martin Beck Theatre, 375 perf.] Under the name of Princess Kosmonopolis, the boozy, drug‐addicted, fading screen star Alexandre Del Lago ( Geraldine Page) comes to a small Gulf Coast town with her handsome gigolo, Chance Wayne ( Paul Newman). Wayne had grown up in the town and had left after giving the political boss's daughter a case of venereal disease. Boss Finley ( Sidney Blackmer) has not forgotten and has determined to be avenged. Suddenly Alexandre discovers she has made a huge success in a new film and appears on the verge of a major comeback. She walks out on Chance, telling him, “You've gone past something you couldn't afford to go past; your time, your youth, you've passed it. It's all you had, and you've had it.” Recognizing the truth of what she has said, Chance decides not to follow her but to stay and await Finley's men who are coming to castrate him. Louis Kronenberger recorded, “At its best, Sweet Bird of Youth has force and fascination. But far too often everything seems excessive, with a fuming and rioting depravity.” Cheryl Crawford produced the drama, which proved to be one of Williams's last commercial successes. The play was given a memorable revival in 1975 featuring Irene Worth and Christopher Walken.