''Lemon Sky'' is a 1970 play by

Lanford Wilson Lanford Wilson (April 13, 1937March 24, 2011) was an American playwright. His work, as described by ''The New York Times'', was "earthy, realist, greatly admired ndwidely performed." Fox, Margalit"Lanford Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright ...

Production history

''Lemon Sky'' was developed at the

Eugene O'Neill Theater Center The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit theater company founded in 1964 by George C. White. It is commonly referred to as The O'Neill. The center has received two Tony Awards, the 1979 Special Awa ...

's National Playwrights Conference in 1968, with

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the A ...

in the cast.Kuchwara, Michael. "'Lemon Sky' Revival Opens Off-Broadway" ''The Day'' ( Google News Archive). December 16, 1985, p. 13. It was then produced

off-off-Broadway Off-off-Broadway theaters are smaller New York City theaters than Broadway and off-Broadway theaters, and usually have fewer than 100 seats. The off-off-Broadway movement began in 1958 as part of a response to perceived commercialism of the pro ...

at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan in 1970. The play was then produced at the Studio Arena Theater in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, then off-Broadway at the

Playhouse Theatre The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt i ...

, running from May 17 to May 31, 1970. Directed by Warren Enters, the off-Broadway cast featured

Charles Durning Charles Edward Durning (February 28, 1923 – December 24, 2012) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, television shows and plays.Schudel, Matt (December 26, 2012) "''In real life and on the screen, he played countless role ...

as Douglas, Christopher Walken as Alan, and

Bonnie Bartlett Bonnie Bartlett (born June 20, 1929) is an American actress. Her career spans seven decades, with her first major role being on a 1950s daytime drama, ''Love of Life''. Bartlett is known for her role as Grace Snider Edwards on the Michael Land ...

as Ronnie. Walken won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.

Clive Barnes Clive Alexander Barnes (13 May 1927 – 19 November 2008) was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for ''The New York Times'', and, from 1978 until his death, '' The New York Post.'' Barnes had sig ...

, in his ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' review of the 1970 production, wrote: "On many levels ''Lemon Sky'' is a play very well worth seeing. It has the immediacy of the way we live, and something of the smooth-spoken hysteria." A revival was produced off-Broadway at the

Second Stage Theatre Second Stage Theater is a theater company founded in 1979 by Robyn Goodman and Carole Rothman and located in Manhattan, New York City. It produces both new plays and revivals of contemporary American plays by new playwrights and established wri ...

in December 1985, starring Jeff Daniels as Alan,

Wayne Tippit Wayne Tippit (December 19, 1932 – August 28, 2009) was an American television and stage character actor. He was best known to television audiences for playing Ted Adamson on the 1970s and 1980s CBS soap opera, ''Search for Tomorrow'', for five ...

as the father,

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

as Carol, and

Jill Eikenberry Jill Susan Eikenberry (born January 21, 1947) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is known for her role as lawyer Ann Kelsey on the NBC drama '' L.A. Law'' (1986–94), for which she is a five-time Emmy Award and four-time Go ...

, and directed by Mary B. Robinson. Eikenberry won the 1986 Obie Award for Performance.

Plot summary

The story is about a teenager named Alan who has recently graduated from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

. He moves from the Midwest to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

, California, in the 1950s to live with his estranged father and his new family. Attempting to overcome the past, Alan is confronted with problems in his new family.

Television film

Wilson adapted the play for a

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

of the same name on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

. The film was broadcast in February 1988 as part of ''

American Playhouse ''American Playhouse'' is an American anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Overview It premiered on January 12, 1982, with ''The Shady Hill Kidnapping'', written and narrated by John Cheever an ...

''. Directed by Jan Egleson, the film starred

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

as Alan, with Tom Atkins as the father Doug and

Lindsay Crouse Lindsay Ann Crouse is a retired American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of ''Much Ado About Nothing'' and appeared in her first film in 1976 in ''All the President's Men''. For her role in the 1984 film ''Places in the ...

as Doug's second wife.

Kyra Sedgwick Kyra Minturn Sedgwick (; born August 19, 1965) is an American actress, producer and director. For her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama ''The Closer'', she won a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Awa ...

, who met future husband Bacon during rehearsals, played Carol, a teenaged boarder: "pill-popping, promiscuous... who seems to spend most of her time with the US Navy." In his review for ''

'', John J. O'Connor wrote that the film is "terrific", praising the "uncommonly fine performances".O'Connor, John. J
"TV Reviews; Lanford Wilson's 'Lemon Sky,' on Channel 13"
''

'', February 10, 1988.

Casey Affleck Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt (born August 12, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Satellite Award. He ...

made his screen debut in the film as Alan's stepbrother, Jerry.

References

External links

''Lemon Sky''
on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

* * Notes and drafts for ''Lemon Sky'' are held in th
Lanford Wilson Collection
at the University of Missouri Libraries {{Lanford Wilson 1970 plays Television shows based on plays Television shows set in San Diego