←Recommendations of Lavender Blue

A love story set in forbidding circumstance, LAVENDER BLUE left me with a bittersweet feeling. Weibezahl's script produces hope that true love can be maintained despite the overarching social taboos of the times. It's an interesting and disturbing glimpse behind the scenes of the "golden era" of Hollywood. Distinct characters and natural dialogue make this an easy read. I particularly like the use of a Hollywood reporter as narration. Would love to see this produced.

I have had the greatest pleasure of watching this beautiful play workshopped in my writers group, and then participating in a reading of it. Playwright Robert Weibezahl has crafted a literate, empathetic look at closeted movie stars when studios ruled with an iron hand and gossip mavens could make or break careers with with a pointed comment. I love every minute of this gorgeous play and the world it evokes, while still being incredibly character-based. Read it, produce it so I can see it!

As one of the men in this story reminds us, Hollywood is the dream factory. Not only do they bring fantasies to the screen, they create a world where the truth is colorized to match what they sell: fantasy heterosexual loves and lives. Gilbert/Burt and Ned and their love for each other is doomed from the first moment, but the way Robert Weibezahl shows us, they are doing their heart's best in a world where they can't be themselves. A heart-breaking story beautifully told.

Had the pleasure of hearing this play in a reading. Weibezahl brings us intrinsically into a world of love, heart break and devastation. It’s the kind of theatre one learns from and it will stick with you when you walk away, I can’t wait to see this in a production.

An achingly beautiful portrait, cinematic and theatrical alike, of gay male love in an era and industry that did its best to obscure and suffocate true intimacy in favor of the sanitized (heterosexual) image of the movie star. LAVENDER BLUE is an achievement in period playwriting that hardly wastes a scene, let alone a word. Robert Weibezahl crafts organic and authentic characters and makes you root for them, care about them, cry for them. Exemplary work, destined for an audience.

Lavender Blue offers a poignant and powerful depiction of two men whose love is overwhelmed by ambition and the mores of their time. It is ironic that the restrictive rules of the bar in which they meet turn out to be the unspoken code of the Hollywood in which they work. Hearing their backstories in ravishing monologues gives additional heft to their seemingly mutually exclusive quests for both love and professional recognition. The narrative builds to a final image that is heartbreaking.

This is such a heart wrenching love story. One that takes us on a journey through Hollywood and Hays Code fallout affecting personal lives behind closed doors. This would be a gorgeous story to see in performance and design.

What an absolutely gorgeous piece of writing. Full of the perfect doses of joy, sorrow, love, and heartbreak, "Lavender Blue" manages to leave you feeling both full of warmth and ice cold. Layered with romance, history, commentary, and heart, it's one of those rare plays that the audience just cannot get enough of. Weibezahl has penned something truly great here, and I'll be clinging on see where it goes.