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Condolences extended to friends and family of this prize-winning playwright.
Film aficionados should also be aware of the cinematic adaptation of Albee's A Delicate Balance in addition to the more-well-known Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
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Posted: |
Sep 17, 2016 - 5:22 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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it is a shame only two of his works became films.
Edward Albee wrote a stage adaptation of "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" based upon the 1951 novella of the same name by Carson McCullers. The original Broadway production of "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York on 30 October 1963 and ran for 123 performances until the play closed on 15 February 1964.
The Broadway stage production was nominated for six Tony Awards: Best Play, Best Scenic Design, Best Director (Dramatic), Best Producer(s) (Dramatic), Best Actress in a Play (Colleen Dewhurst), and Best Featured Actor in a Play (Michael Dunn), but the production failed to take home an award in any category.
Film producer Ismail Merchant became aware of the work in 1972 when his friend Anthony Korner gave him a copy of the book to read. Merchant was impressed by it, but after inquiring into the rights, learned that they had been given by the Carson McCullers estate to Edward Albee. Merchant also discovered that the play and the rights to the story had merged. Years passed while Albee waited for an interest in the property from a Hollywood studio; but none materialized, and in 1988 Merchant acquired an option. By then Merchant had already discussed the project with Vanessa Redgrave, who admired the work and was interested in taking on the challenging role of "Miss Amelia." Financing for the $3.5 million project proved extraordinarily difficult to obtain, but was finally underwritten, in part, by England's Channel Four television, Curzon Films, and Joseph Saleh's Angelika Films, which distributed the film in the U.S. The film had its World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, 1991. It was a box-office flop in the U.S., grossing less than $200,000.
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