in their crevices, has missed out completely this time. The crags of 'Bosoms and Neglect' show the geological markings of nothing much besides lead." Despite its failure on Broadway, the play soon received other productions, which met with more positive results and, over time, led to a re-evaluation of the play's position among Guare's works. Mel Gussow of The New York Times wrote that the Yale Repertory Theater's "minimally revised" October 1979 production was "far better than the Broadway production"; although he still thought the play had "basic dramatic flaws", the new production humanized the characters (especially Henny) and offered "a clearer picture of the play's possibilities and the playwright's intentions." Gussow also reviewed a 1986 Off-Broadway production at the Perry Street Theatre and found that "the play has kept its assets and its flaws intact"; he thought that the play's structure "still seems like two disparate one-act dialogues sewn together to make up a full-length play" but that "it is more interesting than many other current plays" and that Anne Meara's performance as Henny "reaches to the heart of the mother, offering a portrait of a woman flailing for life support." The 1998 Signature Theatre Company production (which revised the structure to integrate the prologue into the first act) also met with critical approval. The New York Post'''s Donald Lyons called it a "triumph", while Vincent Canby in the Times thought "Mary Louise Wilson's performance as the old lady" was "viciously articulate", and he characterized the play as "a way station between the playwright's first major work, The House of Blue Leaves (1971), and his last hit, Six Degrees of Separation (1990)." Later writers about Guare have called Bosoms and Neglect a "finely balanced work which moves from wild comedy . . . to a beautifully modulated second act" and "one of Guare's best plays". Playwright Paula Vogel called Bosoms "one of the more influential and devastating experiences in her years of going to the theatre" (In a 1997 interview with Playbill On Line). References Further reading Guare, John, Bosoms and Neglect''. New York: Dramatists Play Service 1980. External links Off-Broadway plays Broadway plays Plays by John Guare 1979 plays Fiction set in 1979 Comedy plays