Sweet Bird of Youth

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Sweet Bird of Youth is a 1959 play by Tennessee Williams about Chance Wayne, a young gigolo who drifts back to his hometown with an aging movie star, Alexandra del Lago, who travels incognito as Princess Kosmonopolis. Chance hopes to use her fame to break into movies and to win back his childhood sweetheart, Heavenly Finley, who was driven out of town years earlier.

On the road back to Hollywood, Chance plans to revive his past with Heavenly and make a Hollywood-style comeback for both of them. But in St. Cloud, Heavenly has changed. She became pregnant on a previous visit, had an abortion, and the abortion left her sterile. The town shows Chance that he has lost his youth and power. Del Lago’s comeback is praised, but she no longer wants to help him start an acting career. With his youth gone, Chance doesn’t know how to move forward, and he decides to stay in St. Cloud and face his fate.

Sweet Bird of Youth began around 1956 as two plays: a two-character version with only Chance and the Princess, and a one-act piece called The Pink Bedroom, which later became Act Two and features Boss Finley and his family. Williams wrote it for his friend Tallulah Bankhead.

The original production opened March 10, 1959, at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York, directed by Elia Kazan. It starred Paul Newman as Chance Wayne and Geraldine Page as Alexandra del Lago, with Sidney Blackmer, Madeleine Sherwood, Diana Hyland, Logan Ramsey, and Rip Torn in the cast. The show ran for more than a year and was nominated for three Tony Awards, including Best Actress for Page.

There were notable revivals: a 1975 version at the Harkness Theatre directed by Edwin Sherin with Christopher Walken as Chance and Irene Worth as the Princess Kosmonopolis (Worth won the 1976 Tony for Best Actress). London’s West End staged the play in 1985 with Lauren Bacall, and a 2013 Old Vic production directed by Marianne Elliott starred Kim Cattrall as Del Lago. A 2017 revival at the Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Jonathan Kent, featured Marcia Gay Harden as Alexandra and Brian J. Smith as Chance.

The story was made into a 1962 film directed by Richard Brooks, with Paul Newman and Geraldine Page leading the cast. It received three acting Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Page and Best Supporting Actor for Ed Begley, who won. A 1989 television version directed by Nicolas Roeg starred Elizabeth Taylor and Mark Harmon.