While Jules Feiffer has enjoyed various theatrical honors in the years 1960-1980, he is better known for his work in another genre, the comic strip. Since the late 1950s, the self-titled cartoon "Feiffer" has been widely read, propelling its author to celebrity status. This initial success in cartoons has proven detrimental to Feiffer's career as dramatist. While the production of his earliest plays was probably facilitated by his fame, he has had increasing difficulty promoting his more recent works. Elitists are fond of dismissing Feiffer's plays as staged cartoons, just as his first novel was dismissed by some as an unillustrated cartoon.

As with any author who works in several forms, there are necessarily similarities among Feiffer's plays, cartoons, novels, and essays; all are vehicles for his progressive philosophy, and all exhibit similar style. Excepting those stage revues which are adaptations of his cartoons, Feiffer's plays show considerable...