The Value of Names, Jeffrey Sweet
The Value of Names, Jeffrey Sweet
List: $6.95 | Sale: $4.87
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The Value of Names

Author: Jeffrey Sweet

Narrator: Hector Elizondo, Full Cast

Unabridged: 1 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2010


Synopsis

Benny Silverman, a retired, successful actor, seems to have surmounted the bitter time in his life when Leo Greshen, a good friend and colleague “named” him in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Benny’s flourishing career was nearly destroyed, and his comeback was slow and painful. The two men haven’t spoken since. But they are forced to deal with each other 30 years after the fact, when Benny’s daughter wins a career-making role in a hot new play Leo is directing.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Hector Elizondo,Garry Marshall and Sally Murphy.

About Jeffrey Sweet

Jeffrey Sweet is a founding resident writer of Chicago's Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater, where many of his plays (including The Value of Names, Porch, Flyovers, The Action Against Sol Schumann, and Court-Martial at Fort Devens) have premiered before playing on stages around the world. His book, The Dramatist's Toolkit, is a widely used text on playwriting, and The O'Neill is a history of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. Among the actors who have starred in his scripts are Ellen Burstyn, Alan Bates, Richard Kind, Nathan Lane, Jon Cryer, William Petersen, Amy Morton, Gary Cole, Jack Klugman, and Megan Mullaly.


Reviews

Goodreads review by LG on April 18, 2021

I'm teaching the Crucible by Arthur Miller for the first time, with the hope of finding a good text to pair with the Crucible. So far, I haven't found another text that helps show scapegoating quite in the way that I think will be meaningful. Benny's decision to hold onto his anger towards Leo works......more

Goodreads review by Vladimiro on May 22, 2023

"The Value of Names" is a powerful and poignant play that explores themes of forgiveness, family, and identity. The play tells the story of Benny, a successful Hollywood director who is forced to confront his past when his estranged father, a former vaudeville comedian, comes back into his life. One......more