- Hogan's Goat
"Hogan's Goat" is a play by William Alfred.
The
blank-verse drama concerns amayor al contest betweenIrish American s inBrooklyn, New York in 1890. The play's focus is on the personal life of Matthew Stanton, the dynamic leader of the Sixth Ward, who hopes to unseat corruptincumbent Ned Quinn. Stanton's wife Kathleen fears campaign publicity will reveal that they never were married in theCatholic Church , a fact uncovered by Quinn, who also discovers Stanton was once the "kept man" (known as a "goat" in thelexicon of the time) of Agnes Hogan, Quinn's ex-girlfriend who is now on her deathbed. Blinded by ruthless ambition, Stanton ignores Quinn's threats to reveal his past and forges ahead with the race, ultimately destroying not only his political career, but his marriage as well.Directed by Frederick Rolf, the
off-Broadway production opened onNovember 11 1965 at the Theater at St. Clement's Church, where it ran for 607 performances. The original cast includedRalph Waite as Stanton,Faye Dunaway as Kathleen, and Tom Ahearne as Quinn, withCliff Gorman andConrad Bain in supporting roles. Replacements later in the run includedBarnard Hughes andRichard Mulligan .Alfred won the
Drama Desk Award for Best Playwright and Dunaway and Mulligan earned theTheatre World Award for their performances [http://www.ibdb.com/advancesearchaward.asp?AwdAliasNo=5697&AwdCatNo=&AwdSxDate=1966&cmd=Award+Search] .In 1970, Alfred wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for a musical adaptation entitled "
Cry for Us All ", which proved to be a critical and commercial failure. The following year he wrote the teleplay for atelevision movie directed by Glenn Jordan. ThePBS broadcast starredRobert Foxworth as Stanton, Dunaway as Kathleen, and George Rose as Quinn, withPhilip Bosco , Kevin Conway, andRue McClanahan in supporting roles. It is available inVHS andDVD formats.External links
* [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&title=Hogan%27s%20Goat Lortel Archives listing]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067207/ Internet Movie Database listing]
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