It's Only a Play

It's the opening night of The Golden Egg on Broadway, and the wealthy producer is throwing a lavish party in her equally lavish Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but the real action is upstairs in the bedroom, where a group of insiders have staked themselves out to await the reviews. The group includes the excitable playwright; the possibly unstable wunderkind director; the pill-popping leading lady who is treading the boards after becoming infamous in Hollywood, and the playwright's best friend, for whom the play was written but who passed up this production for a television series. Add to this a drama critic who's panned the playwright in the past and a new-in-town aspiring singer, and you have a prime recipe for the narcissism, ambition, childishness, and just plain irrationality that infuse the theatre. But don't worry: this play is sure to be the hit they have all been hoping for.