A DELICATE BALANCE, Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning masterwork returns to Broadway with an extraordinary cast.
In A DELICATE BALANCE, Agnes (Glenn Close) and Tobias (John Lithgow), a long-married couple, must maintain their equilibrium as over the course of a weekend they welcome home their 36-year-old daughter (Martha Plimpton) after the collapse of her fourth marriage, and give shelter to their best friends (Bob Balaban and Clare Higgins), all the while tolerating Agnes' alcoholic sister Claire (Lindsay Duncan).
The Daily News calls A DELICATE BALANCE "a beautiful play- easily Albee's best and most mature, filled with humor and compassion and touched with poetry." It "proves that old-fashioned stage virtues- originality of voice, depth of feeling, richness of language- can still provide a thrill" (TIME Magazine). "If you really care about serious theatre, brilliant theatre, great acting, and great playwriting, this is the only play to see on Broadway" (New York Post).
, : I will tell you now that you can't miss these performances -- including British actress Clare Higgins. Albee's play is a masterpiece and this group conveys it very well. There is some shaky direction by Pam McKinnon...Albee's play about family, friendship, love, and loss is devastating. 'Balance' maintains its own balance as a conventional drawing room comedy of manners that becomes an existential jigsaw puzzle. Close and Lithgow have an amazing rapport, as do Balaban and Higgins. Martha Plimpton gives it all heft as the voice of reason. The amazing Lindsay Duncan is there for upheaval, and for playing the accordion. I wish she did more on Broadway.
'A Delicate Balance' proves to be the perfect vehicle for Close...On the surface, Agnes seems like an easy role to play -- a cold, emotionless monster who always appears to be in control. But Close paints a much more complex portrait. Her Agnes is a woman carrying layers of sadness and loss under that strength; A woman who allows herself to breathe through humor and love. It's a transfixing performance. Understated, yet the glue that holds everyone together. And Albee's words -- often presented in long, compound, poignant paragraphs -- will sound like pure poetry coming out of Close's mouth...Lithgow never lets us think that Tobias is a fool. He's just walked away from the battlefield. And when Tobias eventually returns to the fight in a pivotal scene in the play's third act, Lithgow leaves him raw, exposed and completely defenseless. MacKinnon, who won a Tony for directing the 2012 revival of Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf,' guides these greats through the author's lengthy literature wisely, striking her own delicate balance between pacing and performance.
1966 | Broadway |
Broadway |
1996 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2014 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2022 | Off-Broadway |
Transport Group Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
Videos