The Secret Affairs of Mildred Wild

by Paul Zindel

Marking an imaginative new departure for its Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this madcap, bizarre comedy (which starred Maureen Stapleton in its Broadway presentation) blends poignance, fantasy and offbeat hilarity in detailing the exploits of its wonderfully wacky heroine.

In the tiny living quarters behind the Greenwich Village candy store which she operates with her husband, crowded with her forty-year collection of movie magazines, Mildred Wild has virtually escaped from reality into the dream world conjured up by the 3,000 movies she has eagerly devoured. And when the outside world does intrude—via her husband; his meddling sister; their hard-boiled landlady; the mincing butcher from next door; or the foreman of the wrecking crew sent to tear down the building—Mildred meets each crisis with a hilarious fantasy-scene drawn from her precious lode of old movies. As the action moves swiftly ahead to its delightfully unpredictable climax, Mildred's life is further complicated by such unlikely visitors as a bulldozer, a nun, King Kong, and a super efficient TV camera crew, all adding to the merriment and, ultimately, to the poignancy which infuses the play and the touching, funny escapades of its kooky, lovable and totally enchanting heroine.

Comedy
Full Length
4 men, 5 women: 9 total
Interior

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Paul Zindel was an American author, playwright and educator.

In 1964, he wrote The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, his first and most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970, and on Broadway in 1971. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was also made into a 1972 movie by 20th Century Fox. Charlotte Zolotow, then a vice-president at Harper & Row (now Harper-Collins) contacted him to writing for her book label. Zindel wrote 39 books, all of them aimed at children or young adults. Many of these were set in his home town of Staten Island, New York. They tended to be semi-autobiographical, focusing on teenage misfits with abusive or neglectful parents. Despite the often dark subject matter of his books, which deal with loneliness, loss, and the effects of abuse, they are also filled with humor. Many of his novels have wacky titles, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, or Confessions of A Teenage Baboon.

The Pigman, first published in 1968, is widely taught in American schools, and also made it on to the list of most frequently banned books in America in the 1990s, because of what some deem offensive language.

Reviews

[David Sheward · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Borrowed from the Lincoln Center library) I was curious about this Broadway flop which starred Maureen Stapleton, Elizabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley and Doris Roberts. Following his Pulitzer Prize for Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds which had a long run Off-Broadway and on the summer stock circuit (I saw Shelley Winters do it in at the Philadelphia Playhouse in the Park), Paul Zindel was a hot item. But his three Broadway shows flopped (And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, The Secret Affairs of Margaret Wild and Ladies at the Alamo). I can see why Stapleton was attracted to this sitcom-y play about a woman obsessed with movies who wins a contest just as her marriage and business are falling apart. She indulges in cinema-themed fantasies which would have been elaborate and fun, but the play is shallow, solving her problems too neatly like her Hollywood-inspired daydreams.

[Tiffany Day · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for more from Zindel, but I didn't find any of the characters likable and it wasn't very funny. As a movie lover, I liked the idea of the film tie-in and the fantasy sequences, but the story went nowhere. 1 star

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild and crazy fun!