Directed by Terry Kinney the cast featured George Grizzard, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, and Penny Fuller.
"[2] This tone of acid comedy is replaced, however, by deep anguish, when their adult son, Isaac, announces that he has fallen in love with a child.
Most reviewers were struck by its similarity to Edward Albee's recent international success, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, and indeed, The Goat and Beautiful Child are similar in their explorations of sexual transgression in affluent domestic settings, as well as their edgy amalgams of comedy and horror.
Reviewer Dan Bacalzo observed, "Grizzard has the uncanny ability to convey volumes with a murmured word or dismissive gesture.
"[5] Ben Brantley in his New York Times review called the play a "grim comic drama", and wrote: "Swerving from the brittle, accusatory dialogue of a bitterly married couple to a scene of ritualistic sacrifice à la Sophocles, Mr. Silver has composed an ambitious but ungainly answer to Edward Albee's plays of domestic existentialism, works like 'A Delicate Balance' and 'All Over.'