30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #16: "Morning, Noon, and Night" by Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally, and Leonard Melfi

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #16

Morning, Noon, and Night by Israel Horovitz ("Morning"), Terrence McNally ("Noon") and Leonard Melfi ("Night")

This trio of one-act plays that comprised a full evening by the Circle Square on Broadway must have seemed very strange to the audiences... for one, these do not particularly feel like Broadway shows of that era (1968), but rather the type of plays you might find Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway. In fact, Clive Barnes in writing about the production (which he liked, and included in the "Best American Plays 1967-1973) called it an "invasion" of Off-Broadway onto Broadway. The three playwrights had certainly garnered some attention previously, Isarael Horovitz with The Indian Wants the Bronx which starred a young Al Pacino (who would collaborate with Mr. Horovitz again, including on an underrated movie I really like called Author! Author!.... side note: Horovitz is the father of Adam Horovitz, the Beastie Boy), Terrence McNally, the only one who had been on Broadway before, with And Things That Go Bump In The Night, and Melfi who had had plays produced all over the world. 

The show was not successful on Broadway, closing after 42 performances. Each play is for five actors, and the five actors were Charlotte Rae, Robert Klein, Sorrell Booke, John Heffernan, and Jane Marla Robbins. Despite the fact that the show was not a huge success, Charlotte Rae was nominated for a Tony. 

Clive Barnes wrote that the theme of each play was "Outrage"... I definitely agree in terms of Horovitz's Morning. The play is about a black family that has taken a miracle pill that turns them all white. While I understand the satire, and how Horovitz is intentionally playing with stereotypes, I cannot imagine this play being produced today without controversy. While one can appreciate the fact that the play, perhaps, is trying to give white people a mirror in which to see what the black experience in America may be like, it is tough to read stage directions saying things like "acting really black." Don't get me wrong--- I am a big one for satire, and I do think this play is not punching down, but taking shots at white culture liberal lip service... but it is still tough. I can't imagine watching a production with a group of white actors doing stereotypical voices as the play often suggests without feeling completely uncomfortable. 

On a side note:  Mr. Horovitz, before his death in 2020, was accused of sexual harassment by six different woman when they worked for him in the early 1990s (years after this play). He apologized, and his son, Adam, sided with the women, saying he believed them. 

Noon may be the most accessible of the three one acts. It is no secret that the late Mr. McNally (dying in 2020 of Covid-19, sadly) was very funny, and this short play is a sexual farce of sorts, with people answering a personal ad for a sexed-up afternoon with the mysterious "Dale", who never shows up. We have a gay young man, a stuffy uptight academic, a bored, married young looking to give steamy French lessons, and a married couple into Sado-Masochism. Hilarity and confusion abounds when they all realize Dale perhaps has brought them all here as a kind of prank. 

Night by Leonard Melfi is a strange (really a strange) night funeral scene. Though not explicitly stated, the attendees appear to be his wife, his mistress, his boyfriend and perhaps a friend. The deceased, a "cocky little bastard" named Cock Certain apparently wanted a night funeral. And he got one. A very strange one, that is ultimately interrupted by a man in a white suit burying a dog. 

So, yeah--- definitely an Off or Off-Off-Broadway invading Broadway, as Mr. Barnes suggested. And I think that's very cool.