Lemon Sky was developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 1968, with Michael Douglas in the cast.
Directed by Warren Enters, the off-Broadway cast featured Charles Durning as Douglas, Christopher Walken as Alan, and Bonnie Bartlett as Ronnie.
Clive Barnes, in his The New York Times review of the 1970 production, wrote: "On many levels Lemon Sky is a play very well worth seeing.
"[3] A revival was produced off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in December 1985, starring Jeff Daniels as Alan, Wayne Tippit as the father, Cynthia Nixon as Carol, and Jill Eikenberry, and directed by Mary B.
Kyra Sedgwick, who met future husband Bacon during rehearsals, played Carol, a teenaged boarder: "pill-popping, promiscuous... who seems to spend most of her time with the US Navy.