A Moon for the Misbegotten

He began drafting the play late in 1941, set it aside after a few months and returned to it a year later, completing the text in 1943 – his final work, as his failing health made it physically impossible for him to write.

Tyrone tells Josie the story of how, after his mother died, he traveled back East on the train, and hired a blonde prostitute for $50 a night to overcome his grief.

The four-act play ends with James Tyrone leaving for New York to handle his mother's estate, apparently to die soon of complications from alcoholism.

[6] Its June 20-July 8, 1973 revival production at the Academy Playhouse in Lake Forest, Illinois went on to four previews with the first Broadway staging also directed by José Quintero opening on December 29, 1973, at the Morosco Theatre, where it ran for 313 performances.

Between October 13 and November 15, 2013, A Moon for the Misbegotten was produced for the first time in Low German under the title Lengen na Leev (Longing for Love) at the Ohnsorg Theater in Hamburg.

"[13] The CurtainUp reviewer of the 2000 revival compared the 1973 production: "Dewhurst and Robards rescued O'Neill's failed play from neglect by digging beneath the facades these desperate people presented to the world -- he as a cynical carouser, she as the town tramp....The revival at the Morosco...proved O'Neill scholar Travis Bogard right when he declared Moon 'doomed to failure without superb acting' since no subsequent production ever recreated the magic of those 314 performances.

[14] In his review of the 2007 production, Ben Brantley, writing in The New York Times mentioned the prior two revivals, noting "Both those versions emphasized the pathos of Moon, written in 1943 and first produced on Broadway in 1957.

Inspired by the unhappy final chapters in the life of O’Neill’s ne’er-do-well older brother, James, the play is singular within its author’s body of work for its forgiving spirit.