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"Balm In Gilead is why people bother with live theatre... |
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ABOUT Balm In Gilead RAINDOGS is a musical based on Balm in Gilead, Lanford Wilson's first full length play. He was a new arrival to the early '60s counter-culture scene in downtown Manhattan, and decided to write what he saw. Living above (and spending many nights in) an all-night coffee shop under his hotel, at 76th and Broadway.. he wrote down the actual words, lives and conversations of the drug addicts, hookers, pimps, and hustlers who inhabited the cafe nightly. This became the basis of an astonishing ground-breaking piece of theatre. The hard-hitting and overwhelming Balm in Gilead premiered to raves at NYC's famed La Mama and eventually transferred to the stage of the Circle in the Square company that Mr. Wilson and his cohort, director Marshall Mason had founded. Gradually centering around a young prositute who meets a somewhat inept drug-pusher, Balm in Gilead is a graphic and gritty look at the junkies, pushers, prostitutes and other freaks that inhabit the upper West Side greasy spoon. The play was revived in 1984 by Steppenwolf (Director John Malkovich) in a hugely successful production with Gary Sinise, John Mahoney, Laurie Metcalf, and interestingly enough, Michael Moore (of 9/11 fame). It transferred to the new Minetta Lane theatre, with new raves and awards. 17 years after its premiere, Mr. Wilson's take on the downtrodden sub-culture of pimps, pushers and victims was still overwhelming. |
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