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breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
kimberly_levaco's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I normally love Auburns work, but this was a disappointment, a bland character study that never brought anything exciting or new to the table.
haveloved's review against another edition
4.0
Apparently this got John Lithgow a Tony nomination in 2012. I started Googling some of the people mentioned in Fellow Travelers to see if they were real and found out that Joe Alsop really was a gay journalist who worked in Washington, D. C. and that this play existed. I loved Proof when I read it in college so I wanted to check it out.
Brief biographical play about Alsop from 1954, when he's blackmailed in Moscow after being photographed being intimate with another man, to the summer of 1968 as protests against the Vietnam War really develop. Gives insight into his home life (he married a woman who knew he was gay and became a stepfather to her teenage daughter), his relationship with his brother with whom he cowrote for a time, the JFK assassination (he and JFK were friends), and his struggle to accept the changing tide of journalism (he disliked how younger reporters portrayed the Vietnam War as unacceptable loss of life).
Reading this so close after Fellow Travelers definitely did deepen my appreciation for both, so I'm contemplating continuing on and reading more fiction and nonfiction about the era. The Moscow blackmail incident was apparently not all that well known for a while so I'm glad Auburn really did his research and cared about portraying the intersection of Alsop's identity and his relationships with his wife and brother. Especially when there was a debate several years ago about how Broadway was simply reviving old queer plays instead of spotlighting new talent, I wish we could get more works like this centered on historical figures who haven't gotten much attention (though preferably spotlighting BIPOC and trans voices).
Brief biographical play about Alsop from 1954, when he's blackmailed in Moscow after being photographed being intimate with another man, to the summer of 1968 as protests against the Vietnam War really develop. Gives insight into his home life (he married a woman who knew he was gay and became a stepfather to her teenage daughter), his relationship with his brother with whom he cowrote for a time, the JFK assassination (he and JFK were friends), and his struggle to accept the changing tide of journalism (he disliked how younger reporters portrayed the Vietnam War as unacceptable loss of life).
Reading this so close after Fellow Travelers definitely did deepen my appreciation for both, so I'm contemplating continuing on and reading more fiction and nonfiction about the era. The Moscow blackmail incident was apparently not all that well known for a while so I'm glad Auburn really did his research and cared about portraying the intersection of Alsop's identity and his relationships with his wife and brother. Especially when there was a debate several years ago about how Broadway was simply reviving old queer plays instead of spotlighting new talent, I wish we could get more works like this centered on historical figures who haven't gotten much attention (though preferably spotlighting BIPOC and trans voices).
jessieadamczyk's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.5
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