Come Back, Little Sheba | The Laureate of Longing
In this review of a 1984 revival production of Come Back, Little Sheba, Henry offers a favorable appraisal of the play and reaffirms Inge's place among America's best playwrights.
When Come Back, Little Sheba opened on Broadway in 1950, critics hailed its author, William Inge, as an authentic voice of the plain people west of the Mississippi. He burnished his reputation for passionate simplicity with Picnic (winner of a 1953 Pulitzer Prize), Bus Stop (1955) and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957). Never a master of plot or construction, Inge was incomparably tender, a poet laureate of adolescent sexuality and middle-aged longing. An honored place in theater history seemed assured. Then all went sour. Flop followed flop; drink and...
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