SOURCE: Hornby, Richard. “The Decline of the American Musical Comedy.” Hudson Review 41, no. 1 (spring 1988): 182-88.

In the following excerpt, Hornby discusses Burn This and compares Wilson with other contemporary playwrights.

Lanford Wilson's Burn This concerns three young people—two dancers and a copywriter—who share a Soho loft. The male dancer, a homosexual, has just died in a boating accident, and it becomes clear, in their grief, that the two remaining roommates were in love with him. The female dancer has a boyfriend, a successful screenwriter, whom she likes but does not really love; when the dead roommate's brother arrives, a bizarre, drunk, long-haired, foul-mouthed individual, she falls into a passionate affair with him, despite their obvious differences in temperament and basic dislike for each other. In the end, the woman's remaining roommate (the advertising writer) has moved out, leaving a scornful note ending with the words, “Burn...