Word: misbegottens
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...MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN by EUGENE O'NEILL...
Broadway is a noble word again. Power, beauty, passion and truth command the stage of the Morosco Theater where A Moon for the Misbegotten has been revived in unmitigated triumph. We owe it all to the sensitive direction of Jose Quintero, the matchless performances of Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst and Ed Flanders and the piercing vision of Eugene O'Neill, who could laugh over humanity's impish follies and grieve over the sad agony of man's fate...
...Archie Smith as old Captain Shotover (father to Hesione and Ariadne), equal the women in skill, if not charm. Terrence Currier and Bernard Frawley, both excellent in Moon for the Misbegotten, are again assets to the production as the charming prevaricator Hector Hushabye and Ellie Dunn's mild-mannered, yet understanding father Mazzini. Really all the inhabitants of Heartbreak House--except the industrialist who may represent the type that is leading Europe over the brink of disaster--manage to make themselves, as Ellie's father describes them, "very charming people, most advanced, unprejudiced, frank, humane, unconventional, democratic, free-thinking...
When A Moon for the Misbegotten finally reached Broadway in 1957, it did not enjoy a long run. It was not acclaimed in this country until beautifully produced off-Broadway in 1968. It may be that American theater of the time, unlike the Swedish stage which successfully adopted the play in 1953, could not accept a work so unaccustomedly slow-moving and uneventful. It is still difficult to maintain unflagging interest in the drama. But, despite several handicaps, the Loeb production, with good acting and careful pacing, manages to interest the audience consistently...
...thus freed from torturous guilt, he leaves Josie forever, able to die as he has died spiritually long before. The walking ghost passing from night to dawn is a familiar figure in O'Neill's work, but nowhere is he so effective a presence as in Moon for the Misbegotten...