View source for After the Fall (play)

{{Short description|1964 play by Arthur Miller}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{No plot|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox play
| name       = After the Fall
| image      = File:After the Fall Playbill - 1964.jpg
| image_size = 
| image_alt  = Color image of the front cover of the Broadway premier playbill of After the Fall
| caption    = 
| writer     = [[Arthur Miller]]
| chorus     = 
| characters = {{plainlist|
* Quentin
* Mother
* Louise
* Holga
* Maggie
* Father}}
| mute       = 
| setting    = New York
| premiere   = January 23, 1964
| place      = [[ANTA Washington Square Theatre]]
| orig_lang  = English
| series     = 
| subject    = 
| genre      = 
| web        = 
}}

'''''After the Fall''''' is a play by the American dramatist [[Arthur Miller]].

==Productions==
The play premiered on Broadway at the [[ANTA Washington Square Theatre]] on January 23, 1964, and closed on May 29, 1965 after 208 performances. Directed by [[Elia Kazan]], who collaborated with Miller on the script, the cast starred [[Barbara Loden]] as Maggie and [[Jason Robards]] Jr. as Quentin, along with [[Ralph Meeker]] as Mickey,<ref name="obituary">{{cite news |last=Rothstein |first=Mervyn |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/06/obituaries/ralph-meeker-67-star-of-picnic-and-featured-actor-in-films-dies.html |title=Ralph Meeker, 67, Star of 'Picnic' And Featured Actor in Films, Dies |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=August 26, 1988 }}</ref> [[Salome Jens]] as Holga, and an early appearance by [[Faye Dunaway]] as Nurse.<ref name=anta>{{cite news|url=http://www.playbill.com/production/after-the-fall-anta-washington-square-theatre-vault-0000013310# |title= 'After the Fall' Broadway|work= Playbill|access-date= December 18, 2016}}</ref>

Barbara Loden, who would become Kazan's wife in 1967, won the 1964 [[Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play]], and [[Jason Robards]] was nominated for the 1964 [[Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play]].<ref name=anta/>

In 1984, the play was revived [[Off-Broadway]] at Playhouse 91, where it ran from October 4 to December 2 that year. Directed by [[John Tillinger]], the cast starred [[Frank Langella]] and [[Dianne Wiest]].<ref name=rich/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lortel.org/Archives/Production/1895 |title= 'After the Fall' 1984|website= Lortel.org|access-date= December 18, 2016}}</ref>

In 2004, the play was revived on Broadway at the [[American Airlines Theatre]] in a [[Roundabout Theatre Company]] production from June 25 (previews) to September 12 that year. Directed by [[Michael Mayer (director)|Michael Mayer]], the cast starred [[Peter Krause]] and [[Carla Gugino]].<ref>{{cite news|author=Hernandez, Ernio|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/peter-krause-and-carla-gugino-revisit-arthur-millers-after-the-fall-on-broadway-july-29-com-121111# |title=Peter Krause and Carla Gugino Revisit Arthur Miller's 'After The Fall' on Broadway, July 29|work= Playbill|date=July 29, 2004}}</ref> The play was nominated for the 2005 [[Drama Desk Award]] for Outstanding Set Design of a Play (Richard Hoover).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/after-the-fall-13593/#awards |title= 'After the Fall' 2004, Awards|website=IBDb|access-date= December 18, 2016}}</ref>

==Analysis==
{{more citations needed section|date=December 2016}}
''After the Fall'', one of Miller's more personal plays, is a thinly veiled personal critique centered on Miller's recent divorce from [[Marilyn Monroe]]: the plot takes place inside the mind of Quentin, a New York City Jewish intellectual who decides to reexamine his life, in order to determine whether or not he should marry his most recent love, Holga.

The play has been roundly criticised by some for being too similar to Miller's actual life because Maggie's suicide is similar to the overdose death of Miller's former wife, Monroe. The feelings of the protagonist, Quentin, are often believed to be Miller's own reflections about his failed marriage.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}

For example, according to Sarah Bradford, in her biography ''America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis'', "Jackie, who had admired Arthur Miller enough to seat him at her table at the Malraux dinner, turned on him for his betrayal of Marilyn in his play ''After the Fall'', which opened in New York on January 23, 1964. For [Jackie Kennedy] loyalty was the ultimate test of character, and in portraying Marilyn as a self-destructive slut whom he had abandoned for her own good, Miller had dismally failed it."<ref>{{cite news|author=Bradford, Sarah| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quSGedVr4ZEC&q=%22Arthur+Miller%22+%22Sarah+Bradford+%22&pg=PA64 |title=Arthur Miller|work=America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|publisher=Penguin|year=2001|isbn=1101564016|page=225}}</ref>

==Reception==
[[File:Barbara Loden in 1964.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Barbara Loden (pictured in 1964) received critical acclaim for her stage performance as Maggie. She was awarded the 1964 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.]]

[[Barbara Loden]] received critical acclaim for her performance as Maggie. [[Howard Taubman]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called Loden's performance "stunning"; he further noted she "all but enkindles the stage, in her early scenes as the warm, childlike enchantress and in her later ones as the sick, frenzied demon of allure bent on self-destruction".<ref>{{cite news |last=Taubman |first=Howard |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/24/archives/theater-after-the-fall-arthur-millers-play-opens-repertory.html |title=Theater: 'After the Fall' |work=The New York Times |page=18 |date=January 24, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240506143308/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/01/24/archives/theater-after-the-fall-arthur-millers-play-opens-repertory.html |archive-date=May 6, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Earl Wilson (columnist)|Earl Wilson]], in a column for the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'', wrote Loden "is so good as Marilyn Monroe in Arthur Miller's ''After the Fall'' that she has officially tossed her pajama tops into the ring to be the new American Sex Symbol ... and she deserves it".<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilson |first=Earl |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/151118289/ |title=New American Sex Symbol? |work=San Francisco Examiner |page=27 |date=January 29, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711154107/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner/151118289/ |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=live |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> John Chapman of the ''[[New York Daily News]]'' called Loden's performance "magnificently played", as well noted she is "ash blonde, very beautiful and very sexy, [and] is an astonishing reminder of the late Marilyn Monroe."<ref>{{cite news |last=Chapman |first=John |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/151118902/ |title=After the Fall 'Overpowering'; 'The Last Savage' Riotous Fun |work=New York Daily News |page=49 |date=January 24, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711155325/https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/151118902/ |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=live |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref>

A review in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine called the play "endlessly fascinating, emotionally harrowing, and consumingly committed to telling the truth as Miller sees it." It also noted Kazan had charged the play "with theatrical electricity", while calling Robards Jr.'s performance as Quentin " brilliant, grueling".<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/archive/6832121/theater-the-millers-tale/ |title=Theater: The Miller's Tale |magazine=Time |date=January 31, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711162747/https://time.com/archive/6832121/theater-the-millers-tale/ |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hobe Morrison of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' described ''After the Fall'' as an "almost exactly three hours of guilt confession and self-justification". In summary, he felt Miller's play is "interesting, but exhausting. In short, ''After the Fall'' is a play of contrasts and despite its faults, not to be dismissed."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Morrison |first=Hobe |url=https://archive.org/details/variety-1964-01/page/n569/mode/1up |title=Show on Broadway |magazine=Variety |page=68 |date=January 29, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> [[Claudia Cassidy]] was more critical of Miller's play, calling it "a three hour monolog of self-justification, with interruptions and conjurations, by a guilt-ridden man who has bad luck with women".<ref>{{cite news |last=Cassidy |first=Claudia |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/151119485/ |title=On the Aisle: Miller's 'After the Fall' Flaunts Emotional Strip Tease at the Blackstone |work=Chicago Tribune |at=Section 2, p. 1 |date=December 29, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240711163117/https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/151119485/ |archive-date=July 11, 2024 |url-status=live |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> [[Frank Rich]] reviewed a 1984 revival, in which he felt the play "is never as moving or profound as it wants to be. The play remains a collection of sporadically arresting autobiographical fragments—all floating in a glutinous interior monologue that substitutes tortuous rhetoric for psychological or metaphysical insight."<ref name=rich>{{cite news|last=Rich|first=Frank|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/05/arts/theater-after-the-fall-is-revived.html |title=Theater: 'After the Fall' is Revived|work=The New York Times|date=October 5, 1984|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712004921/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/05/arts/theater-after-the-fall-is-revived.html|archive-date=July 12, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Adaptations==
===Unproduced film adaptation===
In June 1964, Miller sold the screen rights to the play to [[Carlo Ponti]] and Ira Steiner, for an estimated $500,000. [[Paul Newman]] and Ponti's wife [[Sophia Loren]] were in line to portray Quentin and Maggie. [[Fred Zinnemann]] was in discussions to direct the film.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/27/archives/after-the-fall-bought-for-film-miller-sells-screen-rights-for.html |title='After the Fall' Bought for Film |work=The New York Times |date=June 27, 1964 |access-date=July 11, 2024}}</ref>

===Television film===
A [[After the Fall (1974 film)|television production of the play]] was shown in December 1974 on NBC. It starred [[Faye Dunaway]], [[Christopher Plummer]], [[Bibi Andersson]], and a young [[Brooke Shields]], and was directed by [[Gilbert Cates]]. Arthur Miller wrote the teleplay based upon his original stage play.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}<ref>{{cite news| author=Abbotson, Susan C. W.. |title=''After the Fall''|work=Critical Companion to Arthur Miller: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work|publisher=Infobase Publishing|date= 2007|isbn=978-1438108384|page= 38}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=O'Connor, John J. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/12/10/archives/tv-millers-after-the-fall-on-nbc-plummer-is-lawyer-in.html |title=TV: Miller's 'After the Fall' on NBC|work=The New York Times|date=December 10, 1974|access-date= December 18, 2016}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

{{The Works of Arthur Miller}}

[[Category:1964 plays]]
[[Category:Plays by Arthur Miller]]