Gore Vidal's satire on 1950s militarism and presumptive American superiority is pretty dated. It still has things to say that are worth attention, but it's hard to imagine a modern-day staging of this play that wouldn't require some serious reframing. The story of an ...alien from space named Kreton who seems to be less a cretin than the earthlings he visits, the play has little of the spectacular verve of language associated with its writer, one of the great wordsmiths of his time. As a play it's somewhat more serious than the film version, which was restructured as a Jerry Lewis vehicle. But not by much. After years of things like 3rd Rock from the Sun, it's hard to imagine a modern audience finding the wide-eyed gullible alien here much of a comedic revelation. I wonder what Vidal thinks of it now, fifty years after he wrote it. Not much, I bet. ( )

I was once hired to write freelance essays on this awful play and had to fake my enthusiasm with every syllable. Utterly awful. ( )

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