Three Tall Women is a two-act play by Edward Albee that premiered at Vienna's English Theatre in 1991. The three unnamed women, one in her 90s, one in her 50s, and one in her 20s, are referred to in the script as A, B, and C. The character of A, the oldest woman, is based in part on Albee's mother. In the first act, B is the caretaker and C is the lawyer for A, while in the second act they become personifications of A from earlier in her life.
23-591: An off-Broadway production of Three Tall Women in 1994 won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama , Albee's third Pulitzer. Critics widely considered the play a return to form for Albee, after a string of critically derided plays in the 1980s. Three Tall Women premiered on Broadway in 2018, again earning significant acclaim, including star Glenda Jackson winning the Tony Award for Best Actress . Notable productions The protagonist,
46-401: A compelling woman more than 90 years old, reflects on her life with a mixture of shame, pleasure, regret, and satisfaction. She recalls the fun of her childhood and her early marriage, when she felt an overwhelming optimism. She also bitterly recalls negative events that caused her regret: her husband’s affairs and death, and the estrangement of her gay son. The woman’s relationship with her son
69-664: A street intersecting Broadway in Midtown Manhattan 's Theater District , the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Previously, regardless of
92-613: Is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres , but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play , musical , or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on
115-466: Is discouraged by B, who is clearly used to A and her habits. Act 1 ends when A, in the middle of one of her stories, has a stroke . The play picks up with a mannequin of A lying in a bed. A, B, and C are no longer the separate entities of Act 1, but represent A at different times in her life (their ages corresponding to those of A, B, and C in Act 1). Since A, B, and C in this act are all very coherent (unlike
138-498: Is the clearest indication that Albee was working through some troubled memories of his own in Three Tall Women . Raised by conservative New England adoptive parents who disapproved of his being gay, he left home at 18, as does the son in this play. Albee admitted to The Economist that the play "was a kind of exorcism. And I didn’t end up any more fond of the woman after I finished it than when I started." A study guide to
161-688: The 11th Canadian Screen Awards in 2023. In August 2022, still translated as Três Mulheres Altas, the play once again premiered in Brazil, but this time at the Teatro Copacabana Palace located in Rio de Janeiro directed by Fernando Philbert and starring Suely Franco as A, Deborah Evelyn as B and Nathalia Dill as C. The play also premiered at the TUCA Theater later that year Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre
184-610: The Golden Theatre on March 29, 2018, directed by Joe Mantello and starring Glenda Jackson as A, Laurie Metcalf as B, and Alison Pill as C. A 2021 performance at the Stratford Festival in Canada starred Canadian stage icon Martha Henry as A, in her final performance before her death. A film of the production was broadcast by CBC Television in 2022, and received three Canadian Screen Award nominations at
207-547: The Lucille Lortel Award (created in 1985 by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers), and the Drama League Award . Although off-Broadway shows are not eligible for Tony Awards , an exception was made in 1956 (before the rules were changed), when Lotte Lenya won Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for the off-Broadway production of The Threepenny Opera . Capacity
230-872: The Boy. Translated as Tres mujeres altas , the play premiered in Madrid at the Teatro Lara in September 1995. It was directed by Jaime Chávarri and adapted by Vicente Molina Foix . The cast featured María Jesús Valdés (A), Magüi Mira (B), and Sílvia Marsó (C). The play was revived in London at the Wyndhams Theatre in October 1995, with direction by Anthony Page and featuring Maggie Smith, Sara Kestelman, and Samantha Bond . The play premiered on Broadway at
253-766: The Middle-Aged Woman, Cynthia Bassham as the Young Woman, and Howard Nightingall as the Boy. The play opened off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre on January 27, 1994, and closed on March 13, 1994. Directed by Lawrence Sacharow, the cast featured Jordan Baker (as C), Myra Carter (as A), Michael Rhodes (as the Boy), and Marian Seldes (as B). The production moved to the Promenade Theatre on April 13, 1994, where it ran to August 26, 1995. During
SECTION 10
#1732798246727276-1135: The Park with George , Rent , Grey Gardens , Urinetown , Avenue Q , The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee , Rock of Ages , In the Heights , Spring Awakening , Next to Normal , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Fun Home , Hamilton , Dear Evan Hansen , Hadestown , and Kimberly Akimbo . In particular, two that became Broadway hits, Grease and A Chorus Line , encouraged other producers to premiere their shows off-Broadway. Plays that have moved from off-Broadway houses to Broadway include Doubt , I Am My Own Wife , Bridge & Tunnel , The Normal Heart , and Coastal Disturbances . Other productions, such as Stomp , Blue Man Group , Altar Boyz , Perfect Crime , Forbidden Broadway , Nunsense , Naked Boys Singing , Bat Boy: The Musical , and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change have had runs of many years off-Broadway, never moving to Broadway. The Fantasticks ,
299-595: The end of the play. The play ends with A, B, and C debating about the happiest moment in their life. A has the last word, saying, "That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop." Three Tall Women had its world premiere at the English Theatre, Vienna, Austria, in June 1991. The play was directed by Albee, with a cast that included Myra Carter as the Old Woman, Kathleen Butler as
322-681: The longest-running musical in theatre history, spent its original 42-year run off-Broadway and had another off-Broadway run from 2006 to 2017. Off-Broadway shows, performers, and creative staff are eligible for the following awards: the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award , the Outer Critics Circle Award , the Drama Desk Award , the Obie Award (presented since 1956 by The Village Voice ),
345-584: The play noted, "Besides exorcising personal demons, Albee regained the respect of New York theater critics with the play. Many of them had despaired that the playwright, who showed such promise during the 1960s and 1970s, had dried up creatively. In fact, Three Tall Women was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1994, as well as the Drama Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Outer Critics Circle awards for best play." The play opens with
368-683: The play opened at the Teatro Hebraica theater in São Paulo , Brazil, directed by José Possi Neto and starring Beatriz Segall as A, Nathalia Thimberg as B and Marisa Orth as C. The play opened in Washington, DC , at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater on November 9, 1995. Directed by Lawrence Sacharow, the production starred Marian Seldes as A, Michael Learned as B, Christina Rouner as C, and Michael Rhodes as
391-533: The run, Seldes assumed the role of A, with Joan Van Ark and Frances Conroy assuming the role of B. The play premiered in the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre in October 1994, directed by Anthony Page and featuring Maggie Smith (Elder Tall Woman), Frances de la Tour (Middle Tall Woman), Anastasia Hille (Younger Tall Woman), and John Ireland (the Boy). In April 1995, translated as Três Mulheres Altas ,
414-663: The salary requirements of the union for Broadway theatres. The adoption of the 499-seat criterion occurred after a one-day strike in January 1974. Examples of off-Broadway theatres within the Broadway Box are the Laura Pels Theatre and The Theater Center . The off-Broadway movement started in the 1950s as a reaction to the perceived commercialism of Broadway and provided less expensive venues for shows that have employed many future Broadway artists. An early success
437-402: The senile A of Act 1), the audience gets a much clearer insight into the woman's past. At one point, the son comes in to sit by the mannequin. A and B (who are invisible to him) are not happy to see him, because of the rift between them. C (also unseen by the son) is none the wiser, because she is from a period in the woman's life before her marriage. He says nothing throughout, and leaves before
460-506: The size of the venue, a theatre was considered a Broadway (rather than off-Broadway) house if it was within the "Broadway Box", extending from 40th Street north to 54th Street and from Sixth Avenue west to Eighth Avenue , including Times Square and West 42nd Street . This change to the contractual definition of "off-Broadway" benefited theatres satisfying the 499-seat criterion because of the lower minimum required salary for Actors' Equity performers at Off-Broadway theatres as compared with
483-536: The three major characters together in A's bedroom. Throughout the scene, A does most of the talking, frequently reminiscing and telling stories about her life. B humors her, while helping her do everyday things that have become difficult to do alone (sitting down, going to the bathroom, getting into bed). C, while getting a rare word in edgewise about the duties she is there to accomplish, is most often deterred by A's slipping into long-winded storytelling. C often challenges A's contradictory and nonsensical statements, but she
SECTION 20
#1732798246727506-457: The time, however, that "Broadway is just as eclectic – and just as footless – as 'Off-Broadway'." Theatre Row , on West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan, is a concentration of off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theatres. It was developed in the mid-1970s and modernized in 2002. Many off-Broadway shows have had subsequent runs on Broadway, including such musicals as Hair , Godspell , Little Shop of Horrors , Sunday in
529-524: Was Circle in the Square Theatre 's 1952 production of Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams . According to theatre historians Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, off-Broadway offered a new outlet for "poets, playwrights, actors, songwriters, and designers. ... The first great Off-Broadway musical was the 1954 revival" of The Threepenny Opera , which proved that off-Broadway productions could be financially successful. Critic John Gassner argued at
#726273