Stage Kiss
by Sarah Ruhl

Name: Stage Kiss
Brand: Sarah Ruhl
SKU: 9780573702822
Rating: 3.72 (501 reviews)

Stage Kiss Book Cover — Stage Kiss Cover

Highlights

Medium Cast

Female

Male

120 mins Present Day Strong Role for Leading Man (Star Vehicle) Interior Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes American Historical Comedy

Synopsis

Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art.

When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage.

Stage Kiss captures Sarah Ruhl's singular voice.

It is a charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kiss-or when actors share a real one.

"CRITIC'S PICK.

Suffused with warmth and humor.

Sarah Ruhl frothily whips together romantic comedy and backstage farc

Press Reviews

"Critic’s Pick! “Suffused with warmth and humor. Sarah Ruhl frothily whips together romantic comedy and backstage farce in this lively comedy about a pair of actors... who find life and art mixing together when they rekindle an old romance during rehearsals for a play."
— The New York Times

"★★★★. Sarah Ruhl delivers a brilliant comedy that aims for big laughs and hits its target. Funny: There’s nothing like it."
— New York Post

"At once a knowing sendup of the hazy half-truths of stage naturalism and a goofy meditation on the nature of desire and sexual fantasy, [Stage Kiss] manages to be both wholly original and instantly recognizable to the audience. As a satire of theatre and theatricals, it’s right up there with Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys."
— The New Yorker

"There’s not one but two plays-within-a-play in Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss, a highly meta-theatrical, fundamentally enjoyable, slightly slight, not-so-romantic comedy pondering the complexity of onstage osculation."
— Variety

"The gorgeously articulate author of The Clean House and Eurydice is in top form with this delightful piece."
— Theatremania

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
He A man in his mid-forties. Plays the role of Johnny Lowell.	male	—	A man in his mid-forties. Plays the role of Johnny Lowell.
Adrian Schwalbach A director.	—	—	A director.
Kevin The reader, also plays the understudy and the doctor and the butler.	—	—	The reader, also plays the understudy and the doctor and the butler.
The Husband	—	—	—
Angela An actress in her early twenties who can believably play a teenager. Plays The Maid in Act 1 and Angela in Act 2.	female	—	An actress in her early twenties who can believably play a teenager. Plays The Maid in Act 1 and Angela in Act 2.
An Actress In her late twenties or early thirties. Plays Millicent in Act 1 and Laurie in Act 2.	female	—	In her late twenties or early thirties. Plays Millicent in Act 1 and Laurie in Act 2.
She A woman in her mid-forties. Plays the role of Ada Wilcox.	female	—	A woman in her mid-forties. Plays the role of Ada Wilcox.