Three Tall Womencommences as if it were a realis-
tic play. There are three female characters: an el-
derly woman, her middle-aged attendant, and a
young lawyer who is writing the elderly lady’s will.
The first act is taken up with the elderly woman’s
rambling reminiscences. As the act ends, she has a
seizure, and the second act opens in a hospital room
with her dying in bed. However, it is a dummy dying,
for suddenly the old woman appears, followed by the
other two women, and it is soon apparent that all
three are aspects of the same woman at different
ages in her life. The remainder of the play is taken
up with their highly divergent remembrances of,
and arguments about, the same incidents. Just be-
fore the play ends, the woman’s son comes in to sit si-
lently by her bedside. This is perhaps an autobio-
graphical moment, for Albee had become distanced
from his own mother years earlier. After two less
than successful plays,The Lorca Play(pr. 1992) and
Fragments(pr. 1993), Albee’s surrealistic work,The
Play About the Baby(pr. 1998), successfully completed
the decade.
Impact Throughout the 1990’s, in addition to the
Pulitzer Prize, Edward Albee would receive four ad-
ditional honors: the Kennedy Center Honors, the
National Medal of Arts, the Obie Award for Sus-
tained Achievement, and the Inge Award for Life-
time Achievement. He would also hold a distin-
guished professorship at the University of Houston.
Albee could certainly claim the title of America’s
outstanding living dramatist of the 1990’s.
Further Reading
Gussow, Mel.Edward Albee: A Singular Journey. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
Staub, August. “Public and Private Thought: The
Enthymeme of Death inThree Tall Women.”Journal
of Dramatic Theor y and Criticism12, no. 1 (Fall,
1997): 149-158.
Wilmeth, Don B., and Christopher Bigsby, eds.Post-
World War II to the 1990’s.Vol.3inThe Cambridge
Histor y of American Theatre. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2000.
August W. Staub
See also Angels in America; Art movements; Broad-
way musicals; Homosexuality and gay rights;Rent;
McNally, Terrence; Theater in the United States.
Albert, Marv
Identification Radio and television sportscaster
Born June 12, 1940; Brooklyn, New York
After reaching the peak of his popularity during the mid-
1990’s, Albert spent the waning years of the decade attempt-
ing to salvage a career marred by scandal.
For the bulk of the 1990’s, Marv Albert was one of
the most successful sportscasters in the United
States, enjoying immense popularity among sports
audiences and widespread demand for his services
from a variety of media outlets. A radio and televi-
sion announcer for the New York Knicks basketball
team and radio announcer for the New York
Rangers hockey team since the 1960’s, Albert also
worked for NBC Sports in a variety of capacities,
most notably as a play-by-play announcer for Na-
tional Football League (NFL) games. His frequent
guest appearances on NBC’sThe David Letterman
Showduring the 1990’s solidified his popularity, es-
pecially with younger audiences. By mid-decade, his
name was widely recognized among sports audi-24 Albert, Marv The Nineties in America
Marv Albert after being booked on assault and forcible sodomy
charges on May 27, 1997. (AP/Wide World Photos)