Author Archives: dgsweet

About dgsweet

I write for and about theater. I spent a number of years as a resident playwright of a theater in Chicago which put up 14 of my plays, and I still think of Chicago as my primary theatrical home, though I actually live in New York. I serve on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. Between plays, I write books, most notably SOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY (about Second City), THE O'NEILL (about the O'Neill Center) and THE DRAMATIST'S TOOLKIT (a text on playwriting craft). I also occasionally perform a solo show called YOU ONLY SHOOT THE ONES YOU LOVE. I enjoy visiting theaters outside of New York. I can be reached at dgsweet@aol.com.

“Winter Adé”

Posted on June 22, 2022 by dgsweet

On an impulse, I watched Helke Misselwitz’ documentary, Winter Adé on Mubi streaming. The film is mostly a collection of interviews by the director of women in East Germany. The interviewees are of various ages. Two teenagers who don’t want … Continue reading →

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“The Bedwetter” and “Mr. Saturday Night”

Posted on June 20, 2022 by dgsweet

Two new musicals are co-written by people who came to fame via stand-up comedy. Mr. Saturday Night, the Billy Crystal vehicle (which he co-wrote with Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, composer Jason Robert Brown and lyricist Amanda Green) is about … Continue reading →

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Telling it Clearly — “Macbeth” vs. “Cyrano”

Posted on May 23, 2022 by dgsweet

I’m a story guy. I think the roots of the theater lie in people sharing stories. I’ve written before about a conversation I had in the mid-Seventies with novelist Louis L’Amour that influenced my thinking. He described how Native Americans, … Continue reading →

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“American Buffalo” on Broadway

Posted on May 20, 2022 by dgsweet

In 2001, I served on a grand jury. At one point, an ADA played for us a recording from a wiretap. It was a conversation between two members of a violent drug gang. One was assigning the other to kill … Continue reading →

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Reviewing or Criticism?

Posted on May 9, 2022 by dgsweet

I’m going to make a purely personal discrimination. It seems to me that reviews and pieces of criticism are different things. A review exists to give the reader advice on whether or not the work being covered is worth attending. … Continue reading →

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“Plaza Suite”

Posted on May 7, 2022 by dgsweet

Neil Simon wrote a lot of plays I admire and have watched with pleasure multiple times. But inevitably there are some that appeal to me more than others. I saw the original production of Plaza Suite. It was directed by … Continue reading →

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“The Weissensee Saga”

Posted on April 5, 2022 by dgsweet

It’s common for the author of historical fiction to want to cram in as many aspects of the period being covered as can be managed. Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War and War and Remembrance moves various branches of “Pug” … Continue reading →

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Lee Grant

Posted on March 28, 2022 by dgsweet

One of the treats about living where I have (and do) on the upper west side is that, walking my dog, I kept (and keep) running into Lee walking her dog. We always stop and swap stories. One time, I … Continue reading →

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SPACE DOGS and ENGLISH

Posted on March 8, 2022 by dgsweet

It’s no surprise that American playwrights usually write plays set in America. It is a little surprising that three current off-Broadway plays by American playwrights are, in fact, set outside our borders. I wrote recently about Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for … Continue reading →

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ALICE ADAMS — book and film

Posted on March 5, 2022 by dgsweet

Finished reading Booth Tarkington’s Alice Adams recently and watched George Stevens’s film adaptation. The racism in the book is dismaying but not entirely surprising for a book that was published in 1921. The good stuff in it is very good … Continue reading →

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