explaining why God allows wars: "God looks down from heaven and he sees a poor country with too many people and he says to himself, 'Oh dear, think how much poverty and degradation these people are going to face because there are so many of them,' and then he whispers into the President's ear at night, and then in the morning there is a war." The priest also explains, to the family's discomfort, that homosexuality is another of God's ways of keeping the population in check. Productions The play was first performed on January 28, 1977, at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut. This production was directed by Walt Jones, and featured Kate McGregor-Stewart as Ozzie Ann, Charles Levin as Harry/Larry, Richard Bey as David, and Ben Halley, Jr. as Hazel, with Stephen Rowe, Anne Louise Hoffmann and Jeremy Geidt. Vietnamization made its off-Broadway premiere in New York City on January 2007, at the Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan. This production was directed by Robert Saxner, and featured Blanche Baker as Ozzie Ann, Frank Deal as Harry/Larry, and Corey Sullivan as David, with Nick Westrate, James Duane Polk, Susan Gross and Michael Cyril Creighton. Vietnamization has also been performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh and, according to Durang, Russia, which he speculates is due to the play's title. Reception In reviewing a 2006 performance of the play, Chicago Reader reviewer Albert Williams described it as a "dark farce" with themes that "ring loud and clear today" as parallels to America's involvement in Iraq, including "American jingoism [and] racial injustice". Williams commended Durang's "take-no-prisoners approach [which] gives the play a brash, youthful quality reminiscent of Fox's American Dad!, which simultaneously promulgates and parodies anti-CIA politics." Williams cites the David Rabe plays The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel (1972) and Streamers (1976) as other sources of inspiration for Vietnamization. Variety also noted the parallels to the Iraq War in its review of the 2007 Alchemy revival. Nonetheless, reviewer Marilyn Stasio found the play to be dated, writing that the play was not well-suited to being revisited outside its 1970s context. Stasio credits the Thornton Wilder plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth as inspirations with the militant Hazel being based more closely on Skin of Our Teeth Sabina than her 1960s TV namesake, and the play itself being more closely inspired by Saturday Night Live-style 1970s sketch comedy than